Oggunda Tetura

On this road, Iño, who was the coral, was a son of Obatalá, and Obatalá gave him as his fortune all the riches, money and a house. One day Iño went to Orunmila's house, who made osode for him and saw Oggunda Tetura, where Orunmila told him to make ebbó with 16 pigeons: to give eight to Obatalá, and with the other eight to ask who they should be given to, so he could enjoy what Obatalá had given him.

Iño, once he had it all, would not make ebbó. Then Obatalá, learning what Iño had done, and seeing the disobedience, cursed him and turned him to stone, and told him: «You will be the foundation of the earth». Iño asked why he had turned him to stone and why he had lost everything. Obatalá answered: «I have taken it all from you, because you let people down badly, since you did not do what Orunmila told you; and for that, everything I gave you I take away, and I leave you with nothing». That is why it is known that in Africa stones are turned into coral, in memory of Iño's disobedience toward his father, who had given him everything.

Ogún and Shangó went about together, and there was a great friendship between them, so much so that where one was the other was; Ogún always had a ram beside him, and Shangó went everywhere with a dog. One day Shangó and Ogún went to a feast, where they were both enjoying themselves, and Ogún, in high spirits, asked Shangó to look after his ram for a moment, and Shangó agreed to look after it while Ogún was busy. But it happened that, at the height of the feast, Shangó and his companions got hungry, and Shangó, seeing the ram he was minding for Ogún, said to his companions: does it not seem to you that we are hungry by now? Why do we not eat this ram?; and his friends ate splendidly. When the feast was over, Ogún looked for Shangó, as he always did, and asked after his ram, and Shangó told him what he and his friends had done; Ogún flew into a rage with his friend Shangó, so much so that he was going to fight him, but just then he noticed the dog that always went with Shangó, and to get his own back he seized the animal and sank his teeth into its neck, and began drinking the blood. But as he drank the dog's blood, he began to like it, so much so that his violent nature began changing into a calmer, more satisfied one as he tasted the blood, so that from that moment on, whenever Ogún gets the chance, he eats dog, and that is how the quarrel with Shangó ended. Anger looking to get its own back sometimes finds a taste that settles it: over eating someone else's ram a friendship went cold, but Ogún found in the dog the taste that calmed his rage.

Orunmila read Ifá for the whole forest, and only the curujey made ebbó. All the great trees lived proud of their size, each saying it was chief over the others, and in the middle of the argument they went to see Olofin to settle which of them would be king of the forest; Olofin said they should meet at a certain place in seven days to hear his verdict. Esu gave the curujey a fit of anger so it could not go, and all the giant trees came looking for the curujey, but it refused to go because of how it felt; but the ceiba felt for it and decided to carry it on her head. Olofin went off to think it over, and seeing that everyone had come on their own feet and that the curujey had come on a head, the curujey was named king of the forest, and ever since it lives on the head or the shoulders of the giants. The humble one who sacrifices, even when he cannot go on his own feet, is carried on the head by the one who feels for him and ends up crowned king above the proud.