Ojuani Yeku

Olofin wanted to harm Orunmila. He took corn from his storehouse, toasted it and ordered it planted. Then he called Orunmila to consult osode and asked him what would become of that planting. Orunmila assured him that every grain would sprout, and Olofin told him: “If any grain fails to sprout, we will settle accounts.”

On his way home, Orunmila met Eshu, who wanted to know where he was returning from. On hearing the account, Eshu uncovered the trap: Olofin had toasted all the corn before planting it. He ordered Orunmila to prepare an ebbó with a rooster and give it to him.

Elegba invited Shangó to work and to eat. They set out for Olodumare's house and on the way Ogún stepped in front of them and asked what they were after; Eshu answered that he was carrying an ebbó, and Ogún let them continue. There Elegba handed over the ebbó, asked for corn for Orunmila, and they filled a sack for him.

At nightfall they went to the farm. Shangó began clearing the ground with the hoe while Elegba removed the toasted grains that Olofin had buried and replaced them with sound grains. When the work was done, a great storm of rain and thunder broke out, so that nobody would know they had been there.

After three days, Olofin's planting began to sprout. When he heard, Orunmila went to Olofin to claim payment for his work. Olofin, astonished, made an ebbó of a goat, a rooster and a hen, and afterward a cleansing.

There was a merchant whom nobody knew, because his shop was far away from all the others.

One day a boy came in, and the owner treated him with great attention. The more he looked after the visitor, the better the business did. With so much wealth, the man came to feel like an important person and began to treat the boy badly.

The boy then went to the nearest shop. Its owner, who recognized the visitor, gave him a good welcome. After that the boy went and stood at the corner of the first merchant's shop and turned away to other places everyone who was heading to his door.

Result: the owner of the neighboring shop, who had been in ruin, got ahead, and the first merchant sank. That boy was Elegba disguised as a beggar. Whoever does not yet have him should receive him without delay and look after him.

In the land of Bari Bawa resided the Awó Iboshe with his daughter, Ibori Abariyeku. The young woman was rude to people, and her father, fed up, cursed her; she went away from his house. She ended up with a son of Shangó, and there she had a daughter, whom she named Oboni Yeku. Oboni Yeku grew up very beautiful. Later she married an omo Osain, and he taught her secrets of great value. With them she did very well and ended up ruling over her husband.

Every day she visited the gourd to fill herself with power. She summoned it, made it her offering and sang a song that named Ikú and Osain, the one that appears among the songs of this path. Then the gourd would move. She treated it with her ashé, brought it into the house and talked with it. She also consecrated a stick of arique to call it, with some words in the sacred language that appear among the prayers of this path.

The first time she did it, that became an immense power. When the son of Osain appeared, everything turned into blood. The man cursed her and drove her out, declaring that she would never come near him again, but he left her the land where she lived.

Her strength was so great that something capable of removing her from there was needed, since the gourd attended only to what she commanded. Obogun had consecrated his son Onikuele, and Onikuele kept asking him to go with his saint to another land and prosper there as he had. In the end the father gave in and left.

Onikuele settled in the land of Oboni Yeku and was captivated by her; the place began to prosper. With her power, she wanted him to guide her to his secret. Onikuele greeted the secret with respect and began to believe that his own power already surpassed hers and that of the people.

One day, beside the secret, she raised her song and he answered with another. He asked her to lower her voice, and she, without noticing, called the secret. Onikuele grew glad and kept singing, while she weakened and lost strength. Then he appeared and turned her into blood. She went to Onikuele’s secret, which marked her; and when he struck with the sticks of the ebbó, she no longer kept any power at all.

This path teaches that, if the sons of Ogún do not know what they must do, death reaches them before their wives.