Ogbe Sanwo was born in the house of a priest of Olokun, the divinity of the water, where many brothers and sisters had already been born. The older ones soon saw his good star and from the start created all kinds of problems for him. He fell chronically ill in the stomach, and no treatment helped him. The harassment became so strong that he went to consult. He was told to make an ebbó by gathering all the edible foods, with maize, a chicken, a dove and a male goat, to throw them into the river. After that he had to buy a female goat with both horns pointing forward, to serve his Ifá.
After the ebbó, the awós took the heart, the entrails and the duodenum of the goat, added the leaves of Ifá and cooked it all for him to eat. Those were the only parts of the goat he was allowed to eat. That night he vomited everything in his stomach, and his illness calmed down. The brothers who had caused it died one after another. With his health restored, he prospered more in his practice of Ifá than in his trade.
Although he had left Olokun's palace in heaven, he forgot to serve Olokun on earth, and things became tangled again. He invited seven awós to do a divination. They revealed to him that he had failed Olokun, the divinity of the water who had guided him into the world, and told him to look for a special axe. He immediately asked a blacksmith to prepare it. The priests made the medicine on the axe and told him to cut a bunch of palm fruit with it. The command was that he had to cut it without losing a single fruit and without letting it touch the ground. The second task was to catch a live parrot and bring it to them. He had to do these things while they waited for him at his house.
For the trip he had to take a tool for climbing palm trees and put into his bag a gourd of water and all the foods: maize, mashed yam, a chicken, a dove and a male goat, to offer them to the river. But they did not tell him how to use them. When he reached the river he threw everything into the water, and everything sank at once. This was how the awós expected him to serve the Eshu of the water.
He searched the whole forest for ripe palm fruit and for a parrot, and found nothing. On his way back, at dusk, he heard the voices of parrots. He raised his head to see where they came from and saw a palm tree with ripe fruit, where the parrots were feeding. With the tool he reached the trunk, and as soon as he reached it, all the parrots flew away. Even so, he calmly cut a ripe bunch and kept putting the falling fruit into his bag. When he turned to get into position to cut the cluster, the special axe fell into the river.
Completely frustrated, he decided to end his life by throwing himself into the water. At that moment a voice told him to go down slowly. He could not see who was speaking to him. He went down without hurry, discouraged and distrustful, threw the tool and the bag into the river, and dived in search of his axe. When he hit the water, a flock of birds came out of nowhere and began to peck at him.
At once Eshu noticed the maize with which he had made the ebbó, so that the birds would eat it. When the birds had eaten their fill, they let him go. Then they asked him what he was looking for, and he answered that it was his axe. They confirmed that they had seen it pass shortly before he arrived, wished him success and opened the way for him. Then he saw some male goats with their horns forward, charging to attack him. At the same time, Eshu noticed the yams and plantains with which he had made the ebbó for them to eat. The same conversation took place, and they too had seen his axe a moment earlier.
After that he met the tiger, which was sharpening its claws and roaring to attack him. Eshu saw the goat of the ebbó and threw it to him. When the tiger had eaten, it told him he was on the right road to the destiny of his axe and wished him success. Then he saw a great ball of fire burning fiercely, and Eshu threw it the gourd of water and the mashed yam from the ebbó, and the fire went out at once. Further on he met the python, to which Eshu threw the rat. Finally he saw a whale that tried to swallow him. He threw it the dove, the whale closed its mouth and let him go on. The whale told him that the axe had entered Olokun's palace.
He entered Olokun's palace. At that moment she was with her fourteen awós, whom she had invited to do a divination for her about what to do to have a child. They advised her to offer a male goat to Eshu and to get an axe prepared by a blacksmith, in order to make a special sacrifice that would make her able to have a child. The ebbó to Eshu had been made the night before. As payment for the goat that Eshu ate, he thought of stealing Ogbe Sanwo's axe to bring it to Olokun. At the same time, because of the many dishes that Ogbe Sanwo had offered him, Eshu decided to guide him, through much and little, to prosperity in Olokun's palace.
The axe fell inside the palace and was caught by the awó who was waiting, who locked it in a guard room. Almost at once Ogbe Sanwo arrived, and the awó asked him whether he had come to put them to the test. He answered that he had not come to confront them, that he was following the trail of his axe, which had fallen from his hands in a mysterious way. The awó asked him whether he would recognize it if it were shown to him, and he said yes. They took him to a room with several axes of gold, silver, brass, lead and cowries. He said his was made of iron and was not there. They took him to another room, of axes no longer used. There he looked, saw his own and took it. With the axe in his hand he was brought before Olokun.
He explained to her what the axe meant to him and said he would rather die than part with it, because his life depended on it. Olokun offered to buy it from him, and he refused. Not knowing what to do, Olokun asked him: “Would you be willing to part with it if you became a prosperous man?” After thinking it over, he answered: “The axe was created to make me prosperous, so I do not mind handing it over on that condition.”
Olokun ordered the head of her servants to mold Ogbe Sanwo with all the goods and attributes of lasting wealth and prosperity. When he was molded, he was brought before Olokun to see whether his prosperity had reached its peak. She said that if she threw him into the air and all the animals cheered him, his prosperity would be complete. If the animals of the air applauded and those of the earth did not, it would not yet be right. She threw him, and the animals of the air applauded, but those of the earth stayed silent.
Then Eshu whispered to Olokun that, since she was the queen of the waters, she could name that man king of prosperity on earth, and she did so. When she threw him a second time, all the animals cheered him, and that meant his prosperity was complete. He then asked for the instruments with which he had been molded, so as not to arrive home empty handed. Olokun molded the instruments of prosperity into a bag of chalk and decorated it with a scimitar and a miter on top. She shut it in a chest of lead and brass, added axes of cowries, lead and bronze, and gave him everything. After thanking her on his knees, he asked how to get home without difficulties. She told him to leave through an inner chamber of her palace, which was dark.
When he stood at the door, he at once found himself at the door of his own house, where the seven awós were waiting for him. They asked him about the parrot and the bunch of palm fruit, and he answered: “Mission accomplished, but I lost the magic axe that you prepared for me.” He told them what had happened and showed them the chest. The awós told him that Orunmila had placed him on that impossible mission so that he would seek prosperity, and that the hard encounters were the darkness that comes before dawn. They told him he had put his feet on the ladder of his destiny and that from that moment prosperity would be within his reach.
He thanked them and gave them the small amount of money he had left, and they went their ways. Then he placed the molded chest on the altar of his Ifá. Not much time passed before money began to arrive from every part of the house. In everything he put his hands to, he had great success. He became so prosperous and well known that he was crowned king. Once crowned, he invited the awós and other priests, and also the common people, and gave them food. Then he sang in praise of his awós.