Otura Airá

A hunter supported his whole family with his trade. A bad streak came to him: several days in a row he came back from the bush empty-handed and nothing came into his house.

One morning he went out again and managed to bring down an elephant. With the animal taken, he leaned on a tree to rest and myrrh dripped into his mouth. He worked out the fortune that catch was worth and the joy overflowed, so he shouted: "Not even the King is more than me!" Right at that moment the King's soldiers were coming by, and they heard the shout, gave him honors and rewarded him with a large sum of money.

IFA FORE AYE... Turtle and parrot feather.

In the land of Orundo, Eshu led a brotherhood: the Iguaté Eni, that is, the fox men, people who only enjoyed making mischief. The place of their meetings was the hills of Odé.

One day, Odé found two foxes in the bush leaning against a tree. They were talking to each other and spreading strange signs of the secret religion they practiced. One of them had a paper in his hand.

Odé fired a shot at the fox with the paper, left him wounded and took the sheet, which held the secret from beyond the grave. On his way back, he stopped at a tavern for liquor and there he told the adventure in front of everybody. Among those listening there was a strange and injured character, who asked him about the paper. Odé was going to show it to him when the tavern keeper noticed a tail on him and shouted: "He is an Iguató!" The other one took the shape of a fox and escaped.

Odé then looked for the Awó of the town, who made osode for him and brought out this Odù, Otura Airá. The ebbó he marked included feeding Eshu, to calm him down, because Odé was going after secrets that did not belong to him.

Odé did the ebbó, but he did not give Eshu what Ifá had marked, and he took the road home. Halfway down the path he ran into his whole family, on their way to another town. They told him that he himself had ordered that trip for his mother, and they showed him the letter asking them to sell his whole estate and go to another town, where he would meet them.

Odé looked at the letter: it was a blank paper. He had been left with no roof and, even so, he decided to go back. The next day a younger brother showed up, one everyone thought was dead, and he wanted to know what misfortunes had happened. Odé told him everything.

The story had got to the adventures with the Iguatós when the brother cut him off: "Ah, there is the whole root of the trouble: you have wanted to control and run secrets that do not belong to you and you have cheated Eshu!"

Then Odé showed him the paper with the secrets. The brother snatched it from him, hid it fast and said: "EBORU, EBOYA, EBOSHISHE, at last I have got back what I was looking for." Right away he turned into an Iguató and left: he was Eshu.

That is how Odé was left with no secret and no direction.

In the land of Onibari there lived an Awó, a son of Ogún, named Omó Otura Airá. His whole life turned around the trade of selling and doing business; even so, the law was after him, nothing prospered for him and he lived in poverty. He never went near where Orunmila was, and not near his father either, whom he had not seen since he was born.

One day Eshu and Shangó passed by there together and found Awó Otura Airá crying, sitting on a corner. Eshu pointed him out to his companion: "Look at that one sitting there crying!" Shangó answered: "That one does not take care of Orunmila or of anything."

Some time later Eshu passed the same corner again and found him just the same, so he came up to him: "What is wrong with you?" The Awó told him his troubles. Eshu passed his hand over his head and prayed over him: LERI ARALA OMO NIYE ARALA OGUN KAPOSI ONIRE EWA NILODE OTA NI OSINI IFA ORUNMILA KOBEO.

Then he put bee honey on his head and sent him off: "Go home, and later I am going to come get you to take you to Orunmila's house." The Awó obeyed. Later Eshu took a cowbell, went for him and put it in his hands: "Go along ringing it, and I will sing": YALEREO LEDEO IFA MUYORDE YALERE LADEO IFA GUALODE OMO OTURA AIRA NI SHANGO GOGONI IFA LADEO IFA MORALA.

Suddenly Shangó appeared and Eshu filled him in: "We have to save him! We have to take him to the foot of Orunmila and see what can be done." Shangó was coming with two black hens and handed them over, so the Awó would put them in Ifá's hands when they got to Orunmila's house.

So the three of them —Eshu, Shangó and Awó Otura Airá— came before Orunmila; they gave him foribale and knelt down. The Awó passed him the two black hens, for him to give them to Ifá. Orunmila cleaned him with them while he sang: IFA YA NIFA, IFA LODE MOYABA.

Eshu and Shangó tore his clothes off, bathed him with Ifá herbs, gave him a clean change of clothes and gave the hens to Ifá. With a piece of tiger skin they made a rogación for him and sent him off: "Go to the bush, because right now you are going to find your luck." Nobody went into that bush except Orunmila, because great secrets were kept there.

In that bush was Ogún, the father of Otura Airá. When he saw him arrive, Ogún raised his machete and faced him: "What do you come looking for here?" He showed him the piece of tiger skin, and Ogún wanted to know more: "Who sends you?" The answer was: "Orunmila, because you are my father and I am going through a lot of hardship for no reason." Then Ogún gave in: "I am going to forgive you, because Orunmila sent you, but you can never come again. Take these airá pods and, when you leave here, you give one to Eshu, so he breaks it for you; another to Shangó and the other one to Orunmila. You have to take them to them, and they will know what has to be done with them. With that your luck will change and the law will not be after you."

Ogún sat him on a stone and asked him to be calm: "Wait." He took a piece of tiger skin, made an Inshé with it and put it in his hand.

Once out of the bush, Otura Airá followed to the letter what his father Ogún had told him. Eshu got his pod, Shangó got his and Orunmila the other one. From then on prosperity came to Otura Airá.

Note: the Awó who gets this Odù has to be sworn into Osanyin and strengthen Ogún; Ogún is given beef.