Otrupon Ka

In the first times, the trees did not yet know what awaited them. The ceiba went to consult Orunmila, reluctantly, and this Ifá came out. Orunmila then warned all the trees: a traveler would come by to ask for favors, and the door must not be opened to him. For the ceiba he marked an ebbó with parrot feathers, an axe, jutía, fish, palm oil and the fee; and he ordered it to place the axe for Ogún afterward. The ceiba complied.

The traveler was not long in coming. He asked the ceiba for a roof to shelter under, and it, following what Orunmila had indicated, answered that it was not in its power to help him. He then went to the majagua and got nothing there either. He visited the other trees, one after another, and came back with nothing.

However, the man was obstinate and begged the majagua again. It ended up giving more credit to his words than to Orunmila's warning, and handed over the branches he demanded. The traveler took them to a blacksmith and ordered four axes.

With them he began to bring down the forest, and the first tree to fall was the majagua, which had given them to him. The ceiba was the only one that survived, since it had made its ebbó and obeyed the order.

Since then the axe dominates the trees and fells them. Hence the ceiba's warning: the door is not opened to an axe, because where it enters no living tree remains.

Another tale of this Ifá takes place when the Awó lived in Guinea. Ogún appeared before the ceiba to ask it for a rooster. The ceiba refused, drove him out and alerted the rest of the Awó to protect themselves from him. Ogún told it not to worry, because someday he would collect.

Then he visited the other Awó and none of them gave him anything. When he came before the majagua, it took pity and gave him a rooster, although Ogún ended up leaving with two.

Until then the ceiba was the one who reigned. But from its refusal to Ogún onward, everything began to go wrong for it. Here, denying food to Ogún costs the throne.

Obatalá's sons lived without a roof. Obatalá wanted to find Orunmila to think with him about how to give them a house, and in his search he ran into Elegba. He asked him about Orunmila's home, but Elegba answered that he did not know. It happened that way every time Obatalá tried again.

Obatalá reasoned that, if he deprived Elegba of food for a while, Elegba would end by confessing. So he did. After seven days he went to see him with a chicken in his hands and repeated his question. Elegba promised to tell him, as long as he first allowed him to go to the mountain; that way Obatalá would not have to make the trip to Orunmila.

They agreed on that and Elegba went up the mountain. There he sang for Olofin and for Afefe Orun. The latter heard him and sent a great storm, whose wind tore off the leaves of the palms and broke branches of the trees. Obatalá's sons saw the remains lying around, gathered them and built their dwellings with them.

Seven days later Elegba came down and said to Obatalá: “I went to see Orunmila, and your sons already have a house.” Obatalá checked that it was true, but he was not content: the houses were very poor.

Another day, Elegba was keeping watch near the path to Obatalá's house and saw Ogún with an axe that lacked a handle. He ran to tell Orunmila, who was astonished and cast osode: Otrupon Ka came out. He ordered Elegba: “Go quickly and tell the trees not to give Ogún even one branch; if they do, they will end up destroyed.” Elegba obeyed in great haste.

When Ogún reached Obatalá's house, Afefe Lerun launched another storm. Ogún, afraid, told what he had come for, while he heard the wind knocking down the houses of Babá's sons. Obatalá fed him two guinea fowl so that he would gain strength and promised him: “Ogún, you will have a handle for your axe.”

When the storm had calmed, Ogún set out for the mountain. Elegba saw him pass, stopped at a corner and said: “Let us see what this one is capable of.”

Ogún asked the first tree he found for a branch, the ceiba (aragba), which refused. He tried the jiquí, the yaya, the guayacán and the jocuma, and all of them rejected him. In the end the majagua, which thought itself stronger and more powerful, gave him the branch.

With the handle now fitted, Ogún spoke to the majagua: “With you I will try out my axe.” While he repeated three times the name of the odu, Otrupon Ka, he rained blows until he brought it down. Then he continued with the other trees, one after another, until he reached the ceiba, to which he said: “You I will not cut, because you are obedient. As long as the world exists, all the religions will respect you.”

In that time, Elegba was already bearing Obatalá's curse: when Ogún left the house, Elegba went in, and Obatalá declared to him: “Elegba, you will never have a house as long as you live.”

That is why Elegba, even though he has a house, lives outside.