Otrupon Kana

A woman lived bored and harassed by her arayes, and she came to Orunmila’s house. In the consultation this Ifá came out, and Orunmila told her: “Although you live in comfort, you are bored and the arayes persecute you. You are a princess and everything will turn out well for you.” Before telling her this, Orunmila had done a work with a gourd in her house.

As he said goodbye, Orunmila warned her that she would forget him.

A short time later the princess was prospering. One day Orunmila knocked at her door. She sent the maid to find out who it was, and he asked her to tell the princess that Orunmila was there. The maid reported it, and the princess ordered the reply that she did not know who that gentleman was. Orunmila, on receiving the answer from his goddaughter, left.

Just then the princess remembered who he was and sent for him with many pleas. So that Orunmila could climb the palace stairs, they had to wash them with the blood of a rooster.

Ogún held a grudge against Orunmila. He learned that Orunmila kept a rooster tied in the yard of his house, and he called his sons to order them: “Tear down any house where you find a rooster tied in the yard.”

Ogún's sons were clumsy and talked without measure, so Orunmila learned of the plan. He consulted with osode and this Ifá came out. He carried out the ebbó with that rooster and untied it in his own yard. The bird, now free, flew up to the roof and fell into Ogún's yard.

Meanwhile, Ogún's sons went around the town looking at yards, but none had a rooster tied up. They went back home without success, and there they found the rooster. Because of their clumsiness, they turned on one another in a fight that finished them all.

In this path Agayú ruled as oba the land of Oddo Shaga, and Shangó was the chief directly above him. Several towns lived subjected by force and, as a tribute of war, each season they had to dispatch a ship full of food.

Shangó coveted Agayú’s place. He recruited several men from the town, among them Ogún, the favorite guardian that Oddun had given to Agayú and whom Agayú had put in charge of his keys. Shangó put him in command of the band and charged him with stealing the food the ships carried to Agayú’s great kingdom.

Osain made an inshé to bewitch Elegba, and in that way the men stole for their own benefit and for Shangó’s women.

Agayú’s people began to go hungry. Noticing there was no food, Agayú summoned Shangó to ask for explanations, and Shangó answered that the ships no longer came.

Agayú ordered his warriors to get ready to go and claim the tributes, but first he stopped at Orunmila’s house. Orunmila read the Ifá and revealed to him that Elegba was enslaved and that the thefts were the work of his own friends. Agayú brought Elegba before Orunmila, who performed a work with the guinea fowl and broke the spell.

When the ship finally arrived, the thieves, convinced that Elegba was still bewitched, advanced hidden through the bush toward the unloading place, led by Ogún. Shangó, as was his habit, stayed hidden. Elegba and his warriors cast the rope over them, tied them up and broke their legs with clubs.

On discovering that the chief of the thieves was Ogún, they brought him before Agayú. Elegba walked behind them singing a song that called for sticks against the thief and wrongdoer who ate another’s food. Farther back, while guinea fowl was being offered to Elegba, Orunmila sang as well.

At Agayú’s court Obatalá was visiting. When he saw his brother Ogún in such a bad state, he begged Agayú to forgive him. Agayú agreed and told him to take him away. Ogún, terrified, hid behind his brother Obatalá, and he has lived there ever since.