Otura Di

There was a crossroads and in the middle of it was the Devil, who had a trap ready, where everyone who passed the crossroads fell into the pit and the Devil ate them. Because of this, the town was very alarmed, since people disappeared when they went from one side to the other.

Once, the twins of that town, who were small children, were playing their little drums, and they called each other by their beat. One day they told their mother they were going to seek their fortune, and set out on the road. One hid and the other reached the crossroads where the Devil was. The Devil, seeing him so small, told him to go home because he could not pass through there. But the twin insisted, and the Devil answered: «If you want to pass through here, you have to lend me your little drum, so I can play it just the way you played it.» The twin said yes, and gave him the little drum.

The Devil played once, and the twin told him to play again, because he had not heard it. The Devil played again, and the twin told him to play once more, so he would do it better. Then the Devil played and it did not come out the same. The twin took the drum and played it so his brother, who was hidden, would come. When they swapped places, the other twin began playing the big drum the Devil had, and the Devil began to dance. The twins kept swapping like that, until the moment came when the Devil wore out and could dance no more; but the twins went on playing and dancing, until one of the twins asked him what was wrong. And the Devil offered to grant him whatever he wanted, if he would stop playing.

The twin took his chance and asked him to take the trap off the road, so everyone could pass. And the Devil granted it. And from then on, people could pass through the crossroads.

Elegba went about the world, enjoying the different lands. He came in at night and left at daybreak, and he always marked them with different secrets, keeping people under his control without their knowing what they were doing.

Everyone called on Elegba and gave him food on the earth. Elegba made himself invisible and carried the food off. Elegba said to himself: «There is one land left that I have not been to, and that is the land of Abeyalini Inle.» In that land lived Osain, who had made Ifá for his son Beyebe Awó, and he, with his knowledge of Osain, governed that land. But something was missing, and Osain, his father, kept reminding him: that there was still something for him to learn.

Since in that land Elegba and Ifá were not attended to as they should be, the people of that land were very unhappy and in uproar, and Osain no longer had a proper hold on it.

Beyebe Awó said to his father Osain: «I am going to call Elegba at midnight, when things are a little quieter, since we no longer have a hold on this land and we are going to lose everything.»

Beyebe Awó took a small goat, three young roosters and a turtle, and stood at the edge of town calling Elegba, and prayed: «Eshú Beleke Alaroye mowa eni Elegbá Obara Kikeño, Eshú Beleke Elegbá umbo Obara mi alado mobati Elegbá Awó Ifá.»

When Elegba appeared, he gave him food and began to sing: «Eshú Beleke Ifá Laroye ala Laroye Ifá laye Elegbá.»

Elegba ate and was very pleased, because in no other land had he been received that way. After Elegba had eaten, at daybreak, he set out with Beyebe Awó and came to where Osain was.

Osain had the turtle's shell with bee honey and corojo butter, and gave it to Elegba to eat, and Elegba was very pleased with the father and the son. They told Elegba what was happening in that land.

Elegba said to Osain: «That happened to you because you have never used a stone (otá). Now, while the people do not know we are here, we are going to prepare a stone; we will prepare an afoshé (powder) of different things, along with the turtle's shell, cascarilla and cocoa butter.» Osain said: «Take amansa-guapo, cambia-voz, paramí, yamao.»

Then Elegba went out together with Osain, and each of them ate a little of what they had prepared, taking on a far greater strength. They called Beyebe Awó and gave him some of it to eat, and the three of them swore at the foot of the ceiba to share their secrets.

They buried part of the secret, and the other part they scattered as powder (afoshé) over the land of Abeyalini. Elegba went inside every house, passing this powder over the heads of the whole population, and that is how Awó Beyebe and Osain won.

In a town called Iyebu there was a boy called Mayesi, and his father was a great Babalawo.

Mayesi, when he was born, brought a natural gift. From very small he seemed like a grown person. He grew up that way, and one day his father was reading for someone and ran into trouble. Mayesi, who was playing in the yard and saw the situation, called him and said: «Father, here in this gourd of water I see that you are stuck with that person you are reading, who is a child of Shangó. Do not charge him, and from the mamey tree in the yard, give him four; but do not knock them down yourself, send him.»

His father paid no attention, and the child of Shangó left. Seven days later he came back and told the Babalawo that nothing he had said had gone the way he had assured him.

So the Babalawo remembered what his son had told him, but he did not do exactly what he had been told, since he himself went and climbed the mamey tree to knock down the four mameys, and fell to the ground senseless, so that Mayesi had to fetch other Awós. They could do nothing; his father went on lying on the ground as if dead. One of the younger Awós said to Mayesi: «You, as Orunmila's favorite son, ask him and see, because Ifá is stuck.»

When Mayesi asked Orunmila, his father began to recover and happiness came.

Note: make ebbó, so you do not say one thing for another and end up in matters of law.