Otura Di

The Devil stationed himself in the middle of a crossroads, where he had set a trap: whoever crossed fell to the bottom of the pit and he ate them. The whole town was on edge, because neighbors got lost going from one place to another and nobody heard from them again.

Two twins lived there, still very small. They spent the day with a little drum, and that beat was the sign they used to call each other. One day they told their mother they were going out to seek their fortune, and they took the road. One stayed hidden and the other went on to the crossroads, where the Devil was. Seeing him so small, the Devil sent him back home: he was not going to pass through there. The boy insisted, and the Devil set him a condition: "If you want to pass here, you have to lend me the little drum, so I can play it just the way you played it." The twin agreed and handed him the instrument.

The Devil played a beat, and the boy asked him to do it again, saying he had not heard it. He tried again, and the twin asked him for another beat, this time so it would come out better. He tried once more and could not match it. Then the twin took back his drum and played it to call the brother who was still hidden. Now together, they took turns: the second twin took the big drum that belonged to the Devil and set him dancing. One rested while the other played, and so they kept taking turns until the Devil was worn out and could not stand the dancing any longer. The twins, though, did not stop playing or dancing, until one of them asked what was wrong with him. The Devil offered to grant him whatever he asked, as long as he let the drum go.

The twin did not waste the chance and demanded that he remove the trap at the crossroads, so that anyone could pass. The Devil did it, and from that day the way through the crossroads was clear.

Elegba traveled the world and enjoyed the different lands. He arrived at night and left at dawn; in each one he left a different secret, and that way he had the people under his control without them noticing.

Everywhere they cheered him and set out food for him. Elegba turned invisible and took it away. One day he thought: "There is one land left that I have not gone to, which is the land of Abeyalini Inle." Osain lived there, and he had made Ifá for his son Beyebe Awó; with what he learned from his father, the son ruled that land. Something was still missing, and Osain never stopped reminding him: he had one thing left to learn.

Since in that land neither Elegba nor Ifá got the attention they were due, its people were upset and restless, and Osain no longer ruled over it.

Beyebe Awó went to his father and told him: "I am going to call Elegba at twelve at night, when there is a little quiet, because we no longer have control over this land and we are going to lose everything."

He then took a small goat, 3 young roosters and a jicotea, stood at the entrance of the town and called Elegba with this prayer: "Eshú Beleke Alaroye mowa eni Elegbá Obara Kikeño, Eshú Beleke Elegbá umbo Obara mi alado mobati Elegbá Awó Ifá".

As soon as Elegba appeared, he fed him and broke into song: "Eshú Beleke Ifá Laroye ala Laroye Ifá laye Elegbá".

Elegba ate and was very satisfied, because in no other land had he been offered such a welcome. When the meal was over, at dawn, he went with Beyebe Awó to where Osain was.

Osain was waiting for him with the shell of the jicotea smeared with bee honey and corojo butter, and with that he fed him; Elegba was very happy with the father and the son. That was when they told him what was going on in that land.

Elegba answered Osain: "That happened to you because you have never used a stone (otá). Now that the people do not know we are here, we are going to prepare a stone; we will prepare an afoshé (powder) of different things, together with the shell of the jicotea, cascarilla and cocoa butter." Osain brought his part: "Take amansa-guapo, cambia-voz, paramí, yamao."

Elegba and Osain went out, and each one tasted a little of what they had prepared; with that they took on a power greater than any other. Then they called Beyebe Awó so he would eat too, and the three swore at the foot of the ceiba to share their secrets.

One part of the secret was left buried; the other they spread as powder (afoshé) over the land of Abeyalini. Elegba went into each of the houses and passed that powder over the heads of all the people. That was how Awó Beyebe and Osain triumphed.

In the town of Iyebu there lived a boy named Mayesi, the son of a great Babalawo.

Mayesi came into the world with a natural gift: when he was barely a child, he already seemed like a grown person. That is how he grew up. One day, while his father was handling a consultation, the work got complicated. Mayesi was playing in the yard, he realized what was happening and called his father: "Father, here in this gourd with water I see that you are stuck with that person you are looking at, who is a son of Shangó. Do not charge him, and from the mamey tree in the yard, give him four; but do not pick them yourself, send him to do it."

That advice was not followed, and the son of Shangó left. He came back seven days later to complain to the Babalawo: nothing he had been told had turned out the way he was promised.

That was when the Babalawo remembered the boy's words, though he did not follow them to the letter either: instead of sending the client, he climbed the mamey tree himself to bring down the four mameyes, and fell to the ground unconscious. Mayesi went out to look for other Awó, who got nowhere; his father was still lying there, as if he were dead. One of the younger Awó advised him: "You, as the favorite son of Orunmila, ask him and see, because Ifá is stuck."

Mayesi asked Orunmila, and from that moment his father began to recover and happiness arrived.

Note: you have to make ebbó, in case one thing is said for another and legal trouble comes out of it.