Oshé Lezo

It happened once that there was an old King who wanted a son to increase his fortune, because all the Kings of that age who had sons increased their fortunes. But he had no luck, because his wife could not have them, being out of order. The King fell in love with one of his servants and she became pregnant. The King was glad, believing his fortune would grow, but it could not be, because the child was not the Queen's; and when he saw he could not increase his fortune, he turned his back on the child.

Forty-five days later the boy's mother fell ill. Then a servant who knew all the King's business took the boy and brought him into the castle with him; all the King's servants made his clothes and gave him food. When he was five, the King died, and shortly after his wife. A worse King took possession, who laid down the law that there could be no children in the castle. Eshu, who was in the castle, decided to leave with the boy for the far end of the city, where the poor lived. There the boy grew up and worked as a slave.

But Eshu was now very old, and the boy, understanding that, worked at all hours. At work he met an enslaved woman who took pity on him and sent him to Orula's house. Orula told him to make ebbó with a fish, and told him that when day broke he would be called Oshé Lezo, but that he should tell nobody until he saw fire taller than himself.

The boy grew proud and there were days when he did not greet his father. Eshu, seeing this, went to Orula's house to have the boy read, and Orula told him that he had already been there, but that all the same he should take omiero of Obatalá and scatter it at the entrance to the town. Eshu did so.

Three days later a war broke out in the rich part of the town, and it was so great that all the houses and castles caught fire and nothing put it out. The fire moved further and further and came near the poor part; the people kept moving further back.

Oshé Lezo, seeing this fire, remembered what Orula had told him and ran to where the fire was, which was already reaching the door of the town where Eshu had poured the omiero. He stopped and shouted, as if he had gone mad: «I am Oshé Lezo!» Every time he walked toward the fire, it drew back. When the fire in the town went out, he was left half unstrung.

Olofin sent for him and told him: «From today you will be the wild fire of this town, of the good and the bad, of the rich and the poor. You will have command as long as you do not turn proud. Refuse nobody anything, and do not go mad.» To Iban Eshu.

In Ará Keké there was a King called Lorile. He believed in his own way and thought that, being King, he needed nothing. One day, one of his chiefs, called Balogun, whom he held to be a faithful friend, was plotting a change of power. One of his closest helpers pointed it out to him: «If you do not believe me, let us go to a wise man's house.» That wise man turned out to be Orunmila. The Obá answered: «You are mad. How can I, with my rank, go to a beggar's house? Get out of my sight.» But when the King lay down, he dreamed that they wanted to dethrone him; and on getting up, thinking that no faithful friend betrays another, he decided to go to the wise man's house.

The wise man examined him and this Ifá came up, advising him that he had to give food to the river, give rogation to his head with fresh fish and give a rooster to Eshu and to Ogún, because before the fifth day of the week he could be dethroned: he was living among his own enemies and did not know it. On going back to his palace he told his helper what had happened, but he refused to do anything for fear that someone from the town would see him; instead he sent his helper with the food, without the fish.

The helper reached the wise man's house and he told him it could not be done that way. The helper, afraid to go back with everything, begged him. The wise man went and said: «Let us go, but the ceremony will be for you and not for your Obá.» He made his ceremony and told him: «Hand the food to Oshún yourself.» The helper came with the food on his head, and the fish, fresh and hungry, saw the shadow when he threw the food into the water: one fish leapt to grab something before the others and landed in his hand. The wise man told him: «Do not let it go! It will serve you to give rogation to your head. Ifá nire nipa iwo ati shefo ni de Obá.»

With the rogation finished, the helper went back to the palace, and before arriving he heard the uproar: Balogun was attacking the King, who had to leave the palace and head for the wise man's house. He told him: «It is too late now. You lost your crown through a hard head. Eshu, Ogún and Oshún have taken your affair in hand.»

At the palace, since Balogun knew nothing about running things, he saw the helper of the man who had been King and, since he had not fled, named him King of the palace, and he accepted.

Note: an inheritance is received. Ebbó: fish, food to the river, a rooster to Ogún and to Eshu.

The story tells that once there was a bird who fell greatly in love with a little hen-bird. So great did his love for her become that one day he broke the cage and carried her off, leaving the cage empty and taking her to live with his family.

On learning of this, seeing the cage broken and empty, the little hen-bird's family went to Orula, who saw this Ifá for them and marked them ebbó so she would come back. And so it happened.