Osa Juani

When he created the Earth, Olofin left it entirely covered with water. He then charged his children with the task of making it disappear by gathering it in a single place, so that the world could be inhabited. The orishas set about opening channels through which the water would flow down to the deepest places; today those channels are the rivers.

Danda Juero, a snake who was a friend of Orunmila, visited him to complain: Olofin’s task was extremely hard and he, with no hands or feet, could not do his part. Orunmila consulted the osode, found this odu and marked an ebbó. He also made an inshé Osain for the snake, whose contents are not detailed here. He fed the inshé with the animals of the ebbó. Then he hung the gourd around the snake’s neck and sent him on a full circuit of the planet, held up by the gourd, with a single condition: not to look back.

Danda Juero set out when the rooster crowed for the second time. As he was finishing the circuit and beginning the descent, he heard a very strange sound, something like “blu blu blu,” and he wondered what was following him and whether it might be his own inshé. He did not turn his head and continued. He came down when the inshé Osain had already brought the dry land into being.

After exactly 16 days, the orishas who had opened the rivers went before Olofin to report on their work, and each one claimed to have created rivers. When Danda Juero was asked, he answered that he, with only the help of Ifá, had created the ocean that surrounds the whole Earth. Olofin rewarded the other orishas with riches: women, gold and jewels. But to Danda Juero, creator of the ocean and of the habitable lands, there fell only a woman of deformed appearance, with reddish hair and copper colored skin. Everyone laughed at him, not knowing that she was Olofin’s daughter.

Annoyed, Danda Juero went to Orunmila again and spoke to him about the woman, and even said that if Orunmila saw her he would feel nauseous. Orunmila answered that Olofin had given him his own daughter as a reward and that he must not reject her. Danda Juero then repeated the same ebbó and added other elements to the inshé Osain, so that she could enter his house.

One day he asked his wife what she saw in him. She answered with other questions: what had Orunmila told him about her, and why was he asking? Danda Juero changed the subject and explained that, because of the inshé Osain that Orunmila had marked for him, he had been left without money. She assured him that this did not matter, because he would have a fortune, and asked him to turn around for a moment.

When he obeyed, the woman began to whistle loudly. At once enormous winds arrived from the four cardinal points, and all over the world millions of living beings appeared: people, animals and plants. She became very beautiful.

Danda Juero then understood the value of Olofin’s reward, and he also became handsome. His wife was called Aida Juero, and the two of them turned into rainbows, which since then have been seen together in the sky. The other orishas, full of envy, tried to ruin them by any means. Oshosi wanted to put an end to them, but Danda Juero blinded him with his light, and the orishas concluded that Danda Juero was equal to Olofin himself. From then on he followed his course through the heavens.

In this path the ocean and the rivers were formed. Space flight also had its origin here, since nobody before had flown around the planet. Finally, it indicates that the luck someone enjoys in life is provided by a woman, because she is Olofin’s daughter.

There was a couple of charcoal makers who suffered great need. One day the husband went to Orunmila to consult, and the odu that came out brought this message from Ifá: soon he would come across an abandoned girl. He must take her in and raise her as his own daughter, because his prosperity would grow along with the girl. Ifá added that she would receive a secret name, and that he must never pronounce it in front of other people if he did not want to lose his luck. Orunmila prepared an ebbó for him with a rooster, a doll, charcoal, a trap and a lot of money; also colored cloths, earth from his house and other ingredients.

A few days later the charcoal maker was walking by a place where he had built one of his kilns and saw a girl there, alone. He remembered Ifá's announcement, picked her up and took her home. There he gave her the secret name and made it clear that it could not be used in front of anyone.

As the girl grew older, the couple's situation kept improving, and in a short time they lacked nothing of what a person can want in life.

One day an old woman appeared asking for lodging, and they received her. Seeing their good life, she felt envy. The girl distrusted the woman's intentions, and the woman then wanted to win her affection. One afternoon, with the old woman present, the couple pronounced the girl's secret name. When night fell, the girl left the house together with the guest.

From then on everything began to go wrong for them and their luck abandoned them. When they were already in a very bad situation, the charcoal maker went back to see Orunmila. Orunmila made a new consultation and this odu appeared again. Ifá told him that his disobedience had cost him his welfare: in front of strangers they had pronounced the name of the one who brought them fortune, and for that reason she had gone. To recover even a little luck he had to make an ebbó with a rooster, charcoal, sweaty clothes, his measure and earth from his footsteps. The ashé that Olofin had given them was lost, and they would no longer live as before.

According to this odu, the details of one's spiritual protections should not be told to anyone, because they could be stolen and the luck would go away with them. Perhaps that entity came into the person's life through an affinity with them. The odu also indicates that certain intimate secrets are told to nobody: whoever reveals them harms himself.

Elegba and Eshu Dike were traveling the world to complete the ebbó that Orunmila had indicated to them. They needed a basket, two coconuts and the heads of a rat and a fish. They found the rat and the coconuts, but did not know where to get material to weave the basket.

Worn out, they stopped before the tree of Obi Agbo (the lerú coconut) and asked for its leaves. Obi Agbo refused to give them. Eshu cursed it for its arrogance: “Your children will not always be with you.” At once two coconuts fell from the tree, and Eshu Dike kept them in his sack to offer them to Obatalá.

Farther on they found Obi Agbon Oludo (the Brazil coconut) and asked it for leaves as well. It answered that they could take them gladly, though they would be useless, since they were fragile and broke easily. Eshu Dike gathered a few, covered his head with them against the pressing sun, and wished it: “Fragile or not, your leaves will keep you always odara.”

Finally they came to Ope, the royal palm, with the same plea. She gave her leaves without demanding anything, and with them Elegba and Eshu Dike managed to finish the basket. The ebbó freed them from their enemies, and in gratitude they blessed the palm.