Ogbe Ka

Ogbe Ika held a consultation for four birds of heaven: Ugun, Akala, Asa and Awodi.

The offices of Oloori and Jogboloro were open in heaven, and only birds already mature could seek them. For that of Oloori, Ugun, the vulture, and Asa, the hawk, competed; for that of Jogboloro, Akala and Awodi.

All four went to Orunmila. He told them to offer a hen, but demanded that it be bought and by no means stolen.

The next morning, the hawk, perched on a high branch, noticed a bird roaming around his home. The temptation was too strong, because it was exactly what he liked to eat most. He swooped down, grabbed it and planned to eat it for breakfast. He had not yet gone to find the other hen when a hunter spotted him, took aim and killed him with a shot. That was the end of the hawk's attempt to win the office of Oloori.

Ugun, the vulture, gathered all the money he had and bought his hen, since he did not plan to steal. Then he received the office of Oloori.

Akala met the same fate as the hawk: he died at the hands of the hunter while trying to steal a hen. Awodi, on the other hand, paid for his own for the sacrifice and obtained the office of Jogboloro.

Udi is a large carnivorous bird that eats all kinds of animals of the forest, and hunting was his trade. Once he consulted Orunmila, who recommended that he offer Eshu a he goat, so that his luck would not be left unfulfilled.

Udi laughed at Orunmila. He declared that the goat was worth no more than any ordinary prey of the forest, and he boasted that no small or medium creature had withstood his skill. He refused the sacrifice and went out hunting as if nothing had happened.

At dawn, Eshu, who was beside Orita Ijaloko, wanted to know who had refused to make the sacrifice that was prescribed. Igho, a very close friend of Eshu, shone his searchlight in Udi's direction. Eshu resolved to punish him, because that day he had been left without his food.

He slipped into the brush and took the form of an enormous tortoise called Aragba, the kind that can carry a person on its shell. It lay on its back and waved its legs in the air, as if it could not turn over. Udi saw it, took it for easy prey and came closer to grab it. Then Aragba opened its anus, Udi pushed his beak inside and the tortoise snapped it shut. The beak was held fast, and the tortoise would not let go.

Udi complained and groaned all day long, suffering. When night fell, the tortoise released him, and he returned home staggering, hungry and very dejected, because in the whole day he had not hunted anything to eat.

The next day he went to beg Orunmila to perform the sacrifice on his behalf. According to custom, it had now doubled. He gathered two kola nuts and two goats, and the ebbó was made. From then on his hunts went well again.

When Ogún was getting ready to leave heaven for Earth, Ogbe Ika, whom they called Ookale, Ookano, Ookara lule, and Ookara lono there, divined for him. He recommended an ebbó against the risk of capturing on Earth a thief who surpassed him in power. He was to honor his Guardian Angel with a dog, a rooster, a tortoise or a snail, a vessel of palm juice, and roasted yam, and to give a goat to Eshu. He was also to celebrate his Guardian Angel for fourteen days before leaving.

As at other times, Ogún trusted in his bodily strength and refused. He came into the world along with the other divinities.

On Earth, Orishanla became the head of the divinities, placed there by God as his representative. The council of the earthly deities met at Orishanla's house every five days. Ogún consulted again and was told to hold a fourteen day festival for his Guardian Angel. He refused again, claiming he had no time for offerings. Meanwhile, his kola tree ripened its fruit, and it was the only one that bore any. Ogún put a fence around it and set traps.

Before the next council meeting, Orishanla could not find kola to open the debates. He had no choice but to go secretly, at night, to Ogún's tree to cut a fruit. While trying to move aside one of the traps, he hurt his hand. He bled all along the way, from the base of the tree to his house, and there he wrapped the wound in a cloth.

Ogún went to look at his tree and noticed that a fruit was missing. He saw drops of blood on the ground and followed them to Orishanla's house, where he found him with his hand bandaged. He shouted that he had captured the thief. When they asked who it was, he named Orishanla. They asked for something to prove it, and he pointed to the trail of blood and the bandage. In this way the warning from heaven came true: he had seized someone more powerful than himself.

Meanwhile, the other divinities met with Orishanla to see how to end the uproar Ogún was causing. As if wanting to contradict him, all of them raised their hands and declared that, if a wound on the hand was the only proof, then all of them were equally thieves. Ogún could no longer rely on the blood on the ground, because Eshu had sent a downpour that washed it away. Ogún stood with his eyes and mouth open, speechless.

After discussing it, the council ruled that Ogún deserved death for having stained the name of his leader. When they were about to seize him, Orishanla stepped between them and asked for mercy, and it was granted. Even so, he ordered Ogún to come near, sank his hand into Ogún's two shoulder blades, and drew out two long objects. With that operation he broke the firmness of Ogún's bodily strength and made him less dangerous. Then he ruled that from that moment Ogún would be the slave of all the other deities, forever.

For that reason Ogún is now at the service of everyone, whether mortals or deities, whether as a machete, hoe, shovel, plow, machines for leveling the ground, bicycle, automobiles, ships, building materials, and others, and receives neither praise nor gratitude. That was what he paid for rejecting the ebbó, both in heaven and on Earth.