Ogbe Yono

In the second dwelling of the earth, God had created 460 divinities. The earth had practically become Eshú's kingdom, and the divinities went for divination in order to rescue it. They were told to give a goat to Eshú and to pray all their heads together with a ram, so they would not end up contradicting each other and fighting.

They were glad to pray their heads, but they refused to give the goat to Eshú, who was the very enemy they were coming to fight. Before they had even finished taking their names to go out into the world, Eshú had already worked on the minds of some of them.

A fight broke out, and in the end half of them refused to go with the others; half stayed in heaven and the other half came into the world, already under Eshú's sway before they set out. That is how Ogbe Ogunda earned the name Ogbe Oligun. Because of this Ifá, one serves outside the house and gives a ram to Ifá and a goat to Eshú, so as not to catch an infectious disease.

The sons of Oggún, of Osain and of Orunmila were coming into the world. Everyone who comes must go to Ájala, the molder of heads, to buy one; whoever sacrifices chooses the lucky one, and whoever does not, the unlucky one. None of them wanted to sacrifice, and they chose heads of poverty, of foolishness and of suffering; they died early and came back to choose again.

The sons of Oggún and of Osain trusted in their fathers' strength and witchcraft and refused again. Orunmila's son, on his father's advice, would not choose a head without sacrificing: he served Eshú with a goat and got the materials for the divinity of the Obstacle (Elenini).

When he reached the workshop, Ájala was being held by Elenini over a debt of three bags of money. Orunmila's son, who had exactly that amount from the sacrifice, paid the debt and gave him the salt he was short of. Grateful, Ájala chose him a strong, patient and prosperous head. The others chose beautiful heads that broke apart in the rain. That is why the debt must be paid in heaven in order to prosper.

The she-goat, Orunmila's wife, boasted of having admirers better looking than he was, and challenged him either to let her flirt or to leave her. Orunmila set her free to invite her lover to the house; the man, out of fear of Orunmila, did not dare touch her, and she, humiliated, went off to live with the lover, who turned out to be Sakpana, the deity of epidemic.

She spent three years with him. The deities mocked Orunmila for his lack of nerve, but he, patiently, let others act: Oggún struck her on the head, Shangó roared on the roof, and each time the lover had to send a rooster to Orunmila to have her healed, but she did not come back.

In the end, Orunmila sent Eshú, who tied her hands and feet and left her between life and death. Her mother brought her to Orunmila, who healed her with a goat to Eshú, and then, pointing his iruke at her, he changed her: you will tread the ground with your hands as well as your feet, and your hairstyle will turn into horns. That is how the goat (Ewuré) was born, and her weeping is the bleating of the goat today. The wife of a priest of Ifá must not flirt with another man, or she will die.