Ojuani Obara

In the land of Boso, Awó Agbombo had his house. His three sons were Awoses and Osainistas like him, and the three of them children of Ojuani Obara. Feeling death close, he called them and left them this word: "The ashé of this Odù is in the goat. When I die, do not split up: live more united than before, so your inheritance and ashé will be greater. And watch out: among you there is one who is a bastard — but do not divide my inheritance over that." He died, and his sons did exactly the opposite: they got tangled in fights, throwing the bastardy at one another. Akueti, who was the eldest, put an end to the argument: "We are Awoses and this is a discredit to Ifá: let the Obá be the judge." They loaded their Ifases on their backs and took the great stone road, each one on his own side and without speaking to each other.

On the road an old man in white clothes with a walking stick showed up to them, one by one, looking for his goat. From the first one he learned that a one-eyed goat had passed, because the grass looked eaten on one side only; from the second, that it had a hurt back, because there were drops of blood on the brushed grass; from the third, that it was carrying a big sack, because the footprints sank evenly on both sides. The old man drew his conclusion: "The three of you have given me its marks and none of you knows where it is: you have stolen it." And off they all went before the Obá. He listened to them, made osode, saw this Ifá and ruled that there was no theft: the old man would have to look for the goat along the road and split the money from the sack among the three, in equal parts. That night the Obá gave them lodging and sent a servant with the food, with the order to listen to them in secret. The first one spoke: "The rice is done right, but it is dirty." The second went on: "The meat smells of dog." The third closed: "It can all be eaten, but the Obá is a bastard." The Obá set out to find out: the maid had been with her husband and did not wash her hands; the little lamb came from a ewe that a dog killed before she gave birth; and his own mother, in tears, confessed to him that he was the son of a slave, since her husband had been given up for dead in the war — she had kept quiet about that for fifty years. The next day the Obá spoke to the brothers: "Your father was a wise Awó: what he said about the goat and the ashé you have already seen with the goat of Oshalufón; and do not fight — I am the bastard, and I rule this town. Live united, so you will be great, as your father wanted." Eboru, eboya, eboshishe.

Awó Ifa Ague had his little house of palm bark by the river bank. The only thing planted there was a gourd tree, which he adored because his Ifá lived in it. He was poor and adrift, since the other Awoses gave him no consideration at all; to clear and cool his mind he bathed all the time with hierba maravilla and peonía. One dawn, at four o'clock, he looked at himself and his own sign came out: rogación de cabeza and giving his dead the blood of three doves, smoked jutía and fish, aguardiente, honey, candles and coconut. At nightfall he did it, and that night his dead spoke to him in dreams: he had to go to the land of Omologun singing the súyere they taught him.

He took to the road with no food, and along the way hunger and discouragement caught up with him. At the foot of a ceiba he came upon an old man who was eating a rooster: it was Obatalá, who gave him food and water, cleaned him with a white cloth and spoke to him: "My son, you are going to succeed. Further ahead you will meet a pesky, mischievous fellow named Elegba: give him this little chicken and go with him to eat." He did it to the letter: Elegba shared his own food with him — jutía, smoked fish, corojo and toasted corn — and went with him to near the house of the Omologun, telling him: "He will tell you what you have to do so that everybody respects you and you are great like the other Awoses." When he saw him, the Omologun burst out laughing, went on telling him everything that was happening to him and handed him a great secret to do at the foot of the gourd tree, with a fresh fish put inside at the end. Back at his house he did it all: a branch of the gourd tree fell into the river with a gourd on it, the fish started going around it and the Awó caught a fish and put it inside. From then on the Awoses of the town started to visit him, and aleyos came from every land to get readings. One day the Omologun showed up: "I am coming to live with you too, at the foot of the gourd tree, to help you keep prospering."

By the river bank lived Oshún, who raised hens, roosters and doves. Around there was an Awó named Oluwo Abere, so far down on his luck that other people had taken him into their house. One morning he got up, made osode, saw this Odù and did the ebbó: a goat; two yellow hens for Oshún, whose bodies would go to the river with plenty of honey; a young rooster for Eshu; and the goat, loose, with whatever money he could manage tied on top — he put $17 on it.

When the people in that house found out what he was doing, they came at him with complaints and ended up running him off. Awó Oluwo Abere gathered his Santos and left late; with night on him he sat down by the river and slept there. At dawn Eshu happened to pass by, remembered that Awó's ebbó and ran with the story to Oshún. She said: "Stay here." Eshu helped him build, and Awó Oluwo Abere lived there very happy. The ones who had run him off had no choice but to go looking for him, because Eshu had wrecked their whole house — and nothing was left of that family.