Oyekun Wori

Keta Aboñu (the stomach), Iñi (the teeth) and Inzo (the hair) shared a house and treated each other with great affection. Inzo was a trader, and so he spent the day away; his wife was left without company.

Keta Aboñu saw an opportunity in this: he courted the woman and gave her foods that she did not know. When he returned, Inzo wanted to be close to his wife, but she rejected him. First she wanted to eat, and in return she would tell him what had happened during his absence. Inzo served her palm oil and kola nut, new things for her, since until then she had lived only on fat. With a full stomach, she confessed everything. Furious, Inzo left the house and threatened to destroy Keta Aboñu as soon as he saw him.

Elegba, who was nearby, heard the threat. Keta Aboñu was his friend, so he went to warn him. Keta Aboñu consulted Orunmila, who found this Ifá and explained that only Ifá could rescue him. He followed that advice.

A week later, as he left his house, Inzo caught him and took a secret from him. Keta Aboñu escaped by running; he saw a man with his mouth open and took refuge inside him. Inzo soon arrived with Iñi and explained to the man what had happened. The man remarked: “So that is why Keta Aboñu got inside me.” Inzo did not believe him, rested his ear on the man's belly and heard Keta Aboñu inside, jumping and praying to Ifá. Then he placed Iñi in the man's mouth, with the order to block Keta Aboñu's exit and to bite him if he tried to leave. Next, Inzo spread his children over the face, the nose and the anus, so that they would watch him. This is why men have teeth, a beard, a mustache and hairs in the nose and at the anus.

The man went to Orunmila, who told him that he must be initiated in Ifá. Inzo was not a babalawo and could be defeated, but he made a pact with Eran and came out again.

Keta Aboñu carried off the life force and the secret of Ifá. For this reason he must be fed throughout his whole existence, as happens in the consecration of a babalawo, and so the life of Ifá continues in the world. Since then, a single hair in a man's food is enough to make him vomit, because Keta Aboñu and Inzo are still enemies. According to this Ifá, a man must not abandon his wife.

There was a merchant, a son of Oshún, whose business had collapsed. He complained bitterly about his bad fortune, and an old man who used to pass by that place heard him. The old man told him not to be distressed and to clean his house using the herbs of Oshún, his mother. The merchant obeyed. The next day the old man asked him also to scrub the door, and he did so. With this advice he began to improve and soon paid all his debts, until he became very rich.

Surrounded by wealth, he abandoned the practices the old man had taught him. One day the old man went to speak to him and the merchant received him unwillingly: he no longer had time to talk, because the affairs of the business kept him very busy. Little by little he stopped dealing with him, and the old man, seeing such ingratitude, never came back. From that moment the merchant began to go backward and soon was bankrupt again.

Then he remembered the old man's good and selfless advice, and thought that if he had not scorned him, perhaps he would not be in that situation again. The losses made him ill, but even so he mounted his horse and went out to look for him. The old man was Orunmila, who on seeing him ruined and desperate had felt compassion and tried to help him, and had received only ingratitude and contempt.

While the merchant rode along, he found a murdered man lying on the road. Elegba, who wanted to punish his ingratitude, used his power to make him believe that the corpse was that of the old man he was going to look for. He dismounted and told himself that his misfortune had no limit, since he found dead the very man he was looking for. He turned the body over to see its face closely and, once he confirmed it was him, mounted again and continued on his way.

At that very moment the real murderers were arriving in the town and reporting to the authorities that there was a dead man on the road. The authorities went to the place and found the merchant. They questioned him, but he, confused, did not know what to answer, and so aroused suspicion. They searched him and saw bloodstains on his hands, because when he turned the corpse over he had stained himself without noticing. They arrested him, put him on trial, and he ended up losing his life.

Olofin ordered Elegba to go for the head of Orunmila, and Elegba set out for his house intending to obey. That day Orunmila had just consulted the oracle, and the Ifá spoke to him of a loss through Ikú. At once he prepared the ebbó that the Ifá indicated, with a goat, a rooster, a head made of mud, goat hair, and other things. When the ebbó was finished, he performed the ceremonies proper to this path and left the head of mud behind the entrance door.

Elegba called out and announced that he came on Olofin's errand, and that Olofin demanded the head of Orunmila. Orunmila answered that he should take it. Elegba reached out his hand, felt around, and found the hair. He declared that this was the head and took it before Olofin. Olofin was stunned to find that it was made of mud, and understood that nobody can prevail against Orunmila.

That is why that head is placed behind the door, and the ebbó is kept until three days have passed.