The King humiliated the three Babalawos who warned him of the plot; Elegbá stirred up the revolt, the King fled with his trousers torn and traded the diamond of his crown for a yam with Elegbá himself, who gave him away in the town: on returning to the palace, everything was as before, and he remembered the Babalawos.
They say that in the old days the Babalawos walked the streets in groups of three or four, and went house by house to see whether anyone wanted to be read. One day the King saw the three Babalawos passing and asked them to read him; they told him he had to treat his subjects more kindly, because the way he dealt with them was very rude, that a plot was going to be laid against him and he would lose his position. But since the King believed he had everyone on his side and was very proud, he humiliated them, telling them that he made the rogation for them and that, if they needed four or five pesos, he would give them as a gift.
The Babalawos, humiliated, left without taking the money and sat down on a bridge. They had not been able to eat, and just then Elegbá passed and asked them whether they had fish and jutía; they told him no and told him about the King. Elegbá said: «So that is what happened! Very well.» He got into the palace and began laying a plot against the King, so that before long his subjects and his cabinet had turned on him. The King, seeing the state of things and believing he had nobody to count on, took fright that they would kill him; at night he threw what he could into a bag and fled to the outskirts of the town.
The Awoses had told him he would find himself badly off, that he would even go hungry and with his trousers torn, but the King believed that could never happen to him. He spent the night in the scrub, and the next day, toward evening, he was very hungry; he opened his bag and saw that in his hurry he had not taken money, but among his things he had thrown in the crown. Just then a yam seller came along the road, who was none other than Elegbá, who knew his state. The King came out to meet him and offered to trade a yam for a precious stone he tore from the crown, a large diamond.
Elegbá, pretending not to know he was the King, answered scornfully, asking how it could be that it cost him so much work to till the land and plant, only to trade stone for yam. The King had no choice but to beg and humble himself before that countryman, saying that stone was of great value. Elegbá, to bring him lower still, told him that the yam was very big and the stone small: that he should find a bigger stone. And when the King went to hide, Elegbá saw that his trousers were torn at the seat.
When Elegbá reached the town, he began showing the stone to everyone, telling out loud how he had got it. The people recognized the biggest diamond of the King's crown, realized that the King was missing from the palace and went to where Elegbá said he was hiding, finding the proud King hungry and in a very bad state. They told him to come back, since the people were calling for him, but he could not go out because his trousers were torn, and he had to wait for dark to go to the palace. What a shock he had to find everything as he had left it, in its usual state; and he remembered what the Babalawos had told him. The King did not believe in San Francisco.
Work: set yam before Elegbá so you do not go hungry and food is never short. Ebbó: a rooster to Elegbá, a crown, torn trousers, yam for Elegbá and the other ingredients.
Note: your own head deceives you.