Ojuani Pokón

Ikú had a man under sentence, and before going for him he wanted to get a reading with Orunmila. Orunmila made him osode, saw this Ifá for him and warned him: "You have to make ebbó, because if you do not, the blow will land on nothing." Pride got the better of Ikú and he said inside himself: "Me, make ebbó?" He left without doing anything.

Once in front of his victim, he swung the blow and found nothing to hit: that man's luck was great, and he was saved from death.

Make ebbó, so that what is yours does not land on nothing: whoever does not do it sees no fruit in anything they take on — if it happened to death itself, it can happen to you.

There was an Awó in a wretched state who made osode with Orunmila: an ebbó with a horned goat, a rooster and a bell, with the goat's head inside, and he was to carry it out of the town himself. Once the ebbó was made, being fond of parties and there being a feast in the town, he sent his son to carry it. It was the eve of the arrival of a circus with many wild animals, which were being paraded through the city; the boy stopped to look at the animals, decided one place was as good as another, and left the ebbó on the roof of one of the cages — and there were onlookers who saw him.

The next day the animals were restless from the smell. The king's son was walking there when a vulture, trying to take the ebbó, knocked it down: it fell on him, and the goat's horns lodged in him, leaving him gravely hurt. The king looked into it, the onlookers gave the boy away, and the king had him arrested, warning the Awó: «If my son dies, I will have you killed». The Awó went back to consult, and Orunmila told him the accident was his own fault, through his carelessness: that he should make the ebbó again and carry it himself to the foot of a tree. So he did, and the injured boy improved remarkably. «How did you manage it?», asked the king. «With the ebbó». And since the king had another son who was ill, he offered a great fortune: Orunmila confirmed the ebbó, the other son recovered, and from then on the Awó was happy.

Ikú Makuao, who is called Ojuani Pokón Ikú Makuao, was the mother of Ikú, and there was no shadow in the world greater than hers. Her land was Lerei Yeye, and all the osobos went there to look for her — Arun, Ofo, Eyo, Iña, the evils that enemies send —, and afterward they went with her from land to land, making more noise every time. A few children managed to hide; most had no time. She went along singing "Pokón lele Ikú, Ikú moyegua" and the osobos danced around her. Obatalá put the matter to Olofin: she had to be stopped before she got stronger. But there was no talk of his that some osobo did not hear, and with the warning Ikú Makuao changed her tactics and sent a different osobo to that land.

In one of those lands lived Awó Abebe Orun. Seeing that almost nothing was left standing, he went, frightened, to look for Obatalá, and Obatalá opened his heart to him: "We have done everything we can, and every day Ikú Makuao is stronger: if she goes on like this, she will leave nothing." Tears came to the Awó's eyes. Then Obatalá decided: "Let us go to Orunmila — the only one who can save us —, but to get there without trouble we have to cover our head and body with black cloth and our face with white cloth." Along the way they gathered three pashanes; Obatalá struck the ground with them, hard, while Abebe Orun sang. Every place they left behind cleared up.

Orunmila was frightened too. He took the ókpele, Ojuani Pokón came out, and he ruled: "Adifafún Ikú Makuao. I have to do a great work: you two must stay here seven days without going out, not even to the door." He set to work on the ceremony with a black hen, a black young rooster and the cloths that both of them had brought; since they could not see anything, they came to think that nothing was being done there. Meanwhile Ikú Makuao was coming down the road, dancing and ringing her bell. Exactly seven days later, Abebe Orun ran out into the street: she caught him and was already putting him into the kutún. Orunmila came at once and threw over her the hen with plenty of corojo, the young rooster with aguardiente, the black and white cloths, the three pashanes, cocoa butter and cascarilla. Then he ordered Ikú Makuao and the osobos to put their hands on the ground and cover the kutún, and he spoke to them like this: "From this moment we are going to make a pact. Eat this that I give you, it is very tasty; and when I do this operation for the children of the earth, you step aside and let the earth prosper." They ate happily, kissed the ground and closed the kutún singing "Iba koleye". With that, the terror Ikú Makuao had set up came to an end: the lands cleared, and her children prospered and gained more life.