Otrupon Birete

On one occasion, Otrupon Irete had a plot planted with okra, and Orunmila told him he had to give a goat to Elegba so everything would go well for him. But he let it slide, because he was slow to do works for the santos.

He had his house, which was shaped like an umbrella, with a single post in the middle; and to keep it from falling, the post had to be held up.

And since he had not given the goat to Elegba, and Elegba was hungry, he turned up asking him for food. He told him he had nothing to give him, and Elegba insisted, and he offered him okra. Elegba accepted the okra and told him to hold up the post so his house would not fall on him.

Elegba stayed holding up the post, and Otrupon Irete went out for the okra. The okra by the edge of the house was the best, but it pained him to give the best of it, and he went around the edge, away from the house, to take the smallest pods.

But from the delay, Elegba got annoyed and let go of the post, and the house came down.

Note: you cannot pick the okra for the ebbó; you use the okra you are given.

Orunmila divined for the man who every morning asked Olofin for a flower and a butterfly; Orunmila explained that he should do all the good he could to make up for bad actions, and be patient enough to treat every being with love, and that in time he would get his wish. Olofin, to test the man's faith, gave him a cactus and a caterpillar; at first he was disheartened, but he began watering the cactus and feeding the caterpillar, until one day the cactus gave a beautiful flower and the caterpillar turned into a butterfly. What you ask for does not always reach you in the shape you expect: Olofin gives you the cactus and the caterpillar, and only patience and the good you do turn them, in their own time, into the flower and the butterfly you dreamed of.

Orunmila divined for a young man about to receive an inheritance and advised him to be measured so he would not end up in poverty; he listened and sacrificed. After some time, his father advised him: my son, I am old now, and when I am gone you will take charge of everything that is mine, but unfortunately I know what your future will be: you are going to leave the estate in the hands of the workers and you are going to spend all the money with your friends, you will sell off all the property to spend it, and when you have nothing left, your friends will drop you, and only then will you be bitterly sorry for not having listened to me; that is why I built this gallows — it is for you! I only want you to promise me that, if what I said happens, you will hang yourself on it. Everything happened as his father foretold, and the young man said: I never followed my father's words, I could not gladden him while he was alive, but at least this time I am going to keep the promise I made him, since I have nothing left to lose but my life; then he climbed the steps, put the rope around his neck and dropped from the top, until he felt the rope tighten on his throat. However, the arm of the gallows was hollow and broke easily, and the boy fell to the floor, and down on him came banknotes, emeralds, pearls, rubies, sapphires and many diamonds, since the gallows was hollow and full of precious stones; among all that treasure the young heir found a note that said: this is your second chance, I love you very much! With love, your old father. A father who loves warns his son and guards him even from his own ruin: whoever does not listen to advice while there is time reaches the bottom, but finds, in the very gallows of his despair, the hidden fortune and the second chance that love had ready for him.