Otura Tikú

Otura Tikú was a woman who had married a man who knew about Santo, but who had a bad temper in his dealings with women and was, all the same, a great womanizer. This man did not even respect his wife's friends. So he came to have relations with a woman Otura Tikú knew, and over that they had several quarrels.

Since Otura Tikú already had three children by that man, she confronted him, and between the quarrels and the confrontations, one day the man went so far as to raise his hand to her. That is why, as soon as he proposed a divorce, she accepted and divorced him.

Even though they were divorced, he would not leave her in peace. Otura Tikú, knowing that he already had another woman, did not dare accept any man, for fear that he would beat her again.

Worn out by this situation, Otura Tikú went to the house of the town's Awó, who made osode for her, saw this Odù, and told her: «You have to make ebbó, so that man leaves you in peace.» So she did, and she was able to live in peace and accept another man.

In the land of Obí Ikú Orún, Ogueday was born, who was Obatalá's son and had been born deformed, so that he was ashamed to go out into the street. He let nobody see him, he took everything Obatalá had in the house, and Obatalá, seeing him that way, felt sorry for him and let him be.

When Ogueday was fourteen, Obatalá said to his son: «You are the same as everyone else, why do you not go out into the street?» He always answered that he was going to go out, but he did not. Obatalá, seeing that his son did not go out, built a house outside that land out of every kind of wood. He also took a stone, smeared it with corojo butter and set it in the middle of the town. For seven days Obatalá went there and smeared it with corojo butter and, at the same time, scrubbed the house with cotton. On the seventh day, at midday, he began to sing: OGUEDAY INA FUN LOYE, OGUEDAY INA FUN LOYE.

Ogueday heard Obatalá's song and came out to see what was happening. He took a club and, running, he sang: IKU LOREO AWA LENERO IKU LOREO AWA LENERO OFO OGUEDAY.

From that moment on, the land began to have no quiet. Obatalá was frightened to see what he had done, the state he had put his son in and what he was doing.

Elegbá, who had come back to the land of Obí Ikú Orún, asked what was going on there, why there was no quiet. When he arrived at midday and saw Ogueday and what he was doing, he said: «Ah, my brother, I am going to be with you!» Once the two of them joined together, they did and undid, tearing apart whatever they liked.

Obatalá, seeing all this, suffered. He set out on the road and said to himself: «I am going to see whom I can find to give me some shelter for my own quiet and for this land's.» As he walked, he sang: OSANYIN BOMBO OSANYIN SHAKOTA OSANYIN LA MIRA MI.

Obatalá reached the land of Orí Koye, which was Osanyin's land. Osanyin, hearing him, began to sing: AWA NIYE OMO OSANYIN AWA NIYE OMO OGUEDAY AWA NIYE OMO TINSHE OMO ELEGBA.

Obatalá and Osanyin embraced. Then Obatalá told him everything that had happened since Ogueday was born. Osanyin said: «I am going to ask permission from my father Shangó, to see whether he can settle the trouble in that land.»

Osanyin came to Shangó and told him everything. Shangó said: «Why has Obatalá not come? Bring him.» Osanyin and Obatalá presented themselves before Shangó, and he said: «You are the one responsible for all this, since you should have left him as he was and looked carefully at what had to be done for Ogueday.»

Obatalá began to weep. Shangó wiped his tears with his tongue and said to Osanyin: «I am going to give you a virtue: I am going to turn you into a feathered bird.» And so he did. Osanyin flew off and headed for the land of Obí Ikú Orún. It was midday and Ogueday and Elegbá were up to their tricks. Seeing that bird they took fright, since the bird told them: «I am Osanyin, the one who has the mastery of the world.» He separated Elegbá from Ogueday and told him: «Elegbá, you have ashé of mine.» He let him go, and Elegbá ran off out of that land.

Osanyin took Ogueday and swore him into his secret. And from then on the quiet came back.

On this road, there was a very disobedient, stubborn and very curious man, whom they called Enfeloyu, because he wanted to know everything: he read a great deal and studied, and for that very reason he wanted to understand everything. He had an industry or a business, which served him for his living in the land of Ilufa where he lived.

His business began to go badly, through the wickedness of his envious enemies. He decided to go to the land of Oyá and, when he got there, he looked for the Awó of that land to make osode for him. This Awó read him, and this Odù came up, Otura Tikú, which marked him ebbó and told him that when a masked gathering was held, he should not go near it and should go elsewhere. He also told him not to put on the mask that had come out of the ebbó, that he had to consult his Ifá to see what it told him to do.

He paid no attention to what he had been told and, to find out and learn what those people were talking about, he put on the mask as they had and got into the gathering. Those people had bad spirits behind them and above them: they were holding that gathering to say their prayers, as Oyá had told them to, in order to have them taken off.

After leaving the gathering, Enfeloyu began to fall ill and got very bad, in a difficult state of health and with his industry falling behind. He decided to go back and see the Awó of the land of Oyá, telling him what had happened, and the Awó said: «You have to receive Awofakán at once and afterward make Ifá, to save yourself from this bad health, to set your business right and, on top of that, to steady things with your wife, since, for all this, you have been a great one for love affairs.»

He also told him that he should listen to advice, and not be disobedient, stubborn or curious. So he did. And then the prosperity and the quiet he had wanted came to him.