Oyekun Roso

The earth had been left without anyone to govern it, and Olofin could find no solution. He sent several Saints to restore order, but each one wanted to be first. Seeing that they kept quarreling, Olofin sent Abita. His first act was to bring them all together and ask them to unite instead of fighting. He succeeded, and so he took control of the situation and, therefore, of the earth.

One day he was surrounded by all of them, handing out orders, when the Ibeyis arrived. They accused him of being a liar and a cheat, since nobody was doing what Olofin had commanded. Until then Abita had looked like a young man of twenty two or twenty three. Suddenly his face changed: his ears grew pointed, his eyes turned red as embers, his nails lengthened, and horns sprouted on his forehead, along with a tail.

The Oshas knew at once who he was and begged him, shouting, to leave. Abita did not even listen. They then went to Orunmila's house, and he consulted the odu and gave an order: when Abita came near them, they were to cleanse themselves with a black dove and perform the Paraldo with a rooster, so that he could not reach them. That is what happened: Abita could not approach any of them and vanished. Since then nobody knows where he lives or where he is.

The Oshas went back before Orunmila and Olofin. Olofin explained: Abita, a spirit of creation, holds enormous powers that he uses to do harm. Because he never again presented himself before Olorun, he can be found in any corner of the earth. For this reason, whenever his evil influence is noticed, the ceremony of the dove and the rooster must be repeated, the earth must be fed, and Orun must be invoked, so that Abita leaves in peace the one who suffers him.

This is why, at a certain moment, the Oshas come to do harmful work, moved by the spirit of Abita, and harm those whom Olofin charged them to protect to the very end.

In a town there lived a well known onishegun, a pharmacist by trade and a great Oluo Osain. He roamed the countryside looking for the plants and herbs with which he prepared remedies for his neighbors. He came from another town, was already a mature man, and had arrived with a lot of money. Thanks to his knowledge and the virtues of Osain, this awó did good, and he helped the poor who came to his pharmacy to be cured.

One day he clashed with an omolú, who reproached him for curing the people the omolú made sick. From then on the omolú began to harm him with evil works. The onishegun consulted his Ifá and Oyekun Biroso came out, for Ikú. He performed the ebbó that Orunmila told him, fed an abó to his Egun in time, and made an offering to his head with two doves. Then he went to sleep.

A knock at his door woke him. A man had brought a sick child and needed help. The onishegun asked for the child so as to take him before Osain and Orunmila, find out what was wrong, and prepare the medicine. Before the man arrived, a spirit that worked with the Oluwo Osain had already told him mentally what the boy's illness was and that Ifá and Osain could cure it. Then the onishegun gave the father a bottle of oti, encouraged him to drink so he would not feel cold, and left him watching the entrance. He went to work before Ifá and Osain.

At midnight the omolú appeared together with Ikú, who had come for the onishegun. The child's father received them at the door and offered them oti. Ikú explained to him why she had come. She also noticed that the onishegun had fed his Egun; she tasted that food and was pleased. The father, on learning that death was looking for the onishegun, protested: it could not be, because that man was inside making the medicine for his son. He shouted so loudly that all the neighbors came out.

On hearing what Ikú intended, the neighbors said the same. They pointed at the omolú: there are many wicked people like him, who always enjoys making others sick; why take away such a generous man, who helps others with the power of Ifá and Osain, by the will of Olofin? Ikú answered: “You are right, you have convinced me. It would be an injustice, and this man still has to keep helping others; I will not take him. However, a death is already written and I must collect it, so I take this one.” She cut off the omolú's head and left with him.

The onishegun came out of the inner part of his house and found it full of neighbors and clients, who told him what had happened and how he had escaped from Ikú. He gave the cured child back to his father, with the medicines to continue the treatment, and said to everyone: “Kaferefun Orunmila, kaferefun Osain, kaferefun the herbs.”

This Ifá also holds a secret, which is in the full treatise.

Orunmila reigned in the land of Oyekun Biroso, together with the Ibeyis. His way of governing provoked envy, and the inhabitants made his life bitter: they threw ogú and shepe into his house, so much so that in the end he had to flee to the wilderness. He had already consulted this Ifá before leaving.

Once in the wilderness, among the trees, he performed the ebbó and fed a black rooster (akukó dundun) to Osain and to the earth itself. Osain responded and sent illness against the town that had expelled him.

Without Orunmila everything collapsed. Nothing bore fruit and misfortunes piled up one after another. At last the people understood what they had lost and sent for him, but he did not answer, because he thought it was a trap. Then it was Oshún who went to look for him. She explained how things were, and Orunmila agreed to return, with one requirement: that the Ibeyis come to receive him with all the children of the town, bringing osadie and eyele for the Ibeyis and, for the mokekeré, didun, that is, sweets.

So he came back, with the children around him, and governed again for the happiness of all. Since then parties are ordered for children, which help straighten a person's path and make him prosper more.