The land of Obara Ni Laye lived in misery but in silence, held down by the praying of Obá Ñara Ñara. Obatalá, dressed in black at midnight, saw it rotting and cursed it. Elegba arrived sent by Orunmila, did the ceremony backwards, woke the living and the dead, and when he let the jutía loose, restlessness was born: madness, bad nerves and ambition. When Obatalá came to complain, Elegba answered: «This land will stay this way, because you cursed it — and I will be here to put things together and take them apart».
The land of Obara Ni Laye was ruled by an Obá Orun — that is, an Egun — named Obá Ñara Ñara. Since his life went by in praying, he had that place completely under control: they lived there in great misery and, even so, with much calm. Obatalá kept turning the matter over: "That land is rotting; nothing there feels like it moves or prospers — it seems that evil rules there". At twelve one night he dressed in black and came down without telling anyone; the Obá Orun got confused and never knew that the one watching everything was Obatalá. With what he saw, Obatalá laid a curse and, in the same act, asked for the total prosperity of that place; at dawn he withdrew, singing. On his way out Elegba came up to him, sent by Orunmila — who knew what was going on there — with his ebbó already made: a mouse, a young rooster, three chicks and the pachones of the ceremony. Only Elegba mixed it all up: he let the mouse go along with the ebbó, gave the chicks to the earth before arriving and kept nothing but the young rooster and the pachones; besides, he had run into a jutía on the way and was carrying it in his hand. Obatalá gave him on top of that a bag with foods, fresh fruit and herbs to scatter. Elegba answered him: "I will do what you tell me, but I will also do what I have in my mind. And remember, father: you have cursed that land".
Neither mouse nor jutía had ever been seen in Obara Ni Laye. Elegba went in singing and the people began to wake up, and the dead with them; when he let the jutía loose a huge confusion broke out among them: some lost their minds and some were left sick with their nerves, and with that came unrest and tragedy. Elegba cleaned the children of that land with the young rooster and the pachones, dealt out blows among the dead, handed them the young rooster, and the dead left: the command stayed in his hands. Then he emptied the sack, and everything in it began to sprout and grow — that is how prosperity started, and behind it ambition. One day Elegba got hungry, ate the jutía and shared its blood among everyone; from then on unrest got into that land and into the others, out of pure ambition. Obatalá went to complain to him with a sack of crazy ants in his hand; Elegba snatched it from him and the ants spilled everywhere. And he told him: "This land is just like that, because you cursed it: it will never have calm, because I will be here to fix and to break". Ashamed, Obatalá prayed his head with two coconuts, and in the osode Orunmila confirmed it to him: in Obara Ni Laye there will always be more bad things than good. Obatalá thought about it and said to himself: "I have to accept it, because I cursed it, and my curse reached it".