Odi Sa

The hawk

The hawk would steal adie from the cage, and when they came to catch him, he took an eyele and fed his own leri. Since the hawk was fun fun, with the eyerbale of the eyele he disguised himself, and they did not catch him.

The man and the dead obini

There was a man who was deeply in love with his wife, but she would not return his love. Later the woman died, and the man buried her body inside the house itself, building a grave shaped like a ridged roof. His grief drove him to constant lament, and he lived on nothing but roots resembling yuca. He wanted to die so he could be with her again, for without her he could not go on living.

So great was his sorrow that he called on the woman’s spirit until it appeared before him. Ikú (death) knew the man needed a way out, so it advised him to take the tail of an eran funfun and the tail of an eran dun dun, together with ewe, in order to conjure it at midday.

Just as he had been advised, at midday the man called on his deceased wife, who told him that nothing had ever existed between the two of them; but as a reward for all the unconditional love he had shown her, he was told where a secret treasure lay hidden.

The child of this sign works with the dead woman.

The blacksmith and the bellows

The blacksmith could not find a way to keep a fire burning, which put at risk the orders he had to fulfill. His friend the bellows then advised him to tie it to the forge with a rope and pull on it from time to time to feed the fire, and he would see that it did not go out. That was how he finally achieved his purpose.

Afterward the bellows begged the blacksmith to set it free, but he refused, and decided to keep it bound to the forge permanently — his answer to all the good it had done him.

The path of the excrement

In a town there lived Ole and Ishe Ogu; the latter was a sorcerer and the former, a thief. They lived near one another. Ole had many woolly animals, but one of them was very robust and caused trouble for Ishe Ogu. Ole relieved himself outside the house, in the surrounding woods, and Ishe took advantage of this to gather his excrement at night and work it with his ikoko ogu, causing the animal to begin suffering from a deadly diarrhea.

Ole went to be cleansed, promising never to steal again if he found a way to save his prized animal. Eleguá then directed him to Orunmila, who read the Oddun and discovered that his Omo Keke had been worked with the thief’s excrement. Ozain, for his part, gave him an inshe Ozain to make him invisible and so carry out the plan: to substitute the two real goats with two others of malu.

Having done so, he returned to the place and immediately shouted, «My friend Ishe Ogu, I have stolen your two goats!» — and thus he rescued the poor animal from death.

Ishe Ogu replied that the animals were not his, but his eyes were. He then begged Ole and his companions to restore his animal’s health so that his precious eyes could be returned to him. And that is how the young man kept his sight, thanks to the healing power of Ishe Ogu.

In this way Ole understood the value of helping one’s neighbor without expecting anything in return, and keeping his promise, he went to the sorcerer’s house to give back his precious eyes. Ishe Ogu thanked him deeply, reminding them both: «two leopards cannot bite one another.»

In Odi Sa, excrement is worked to make people fall ill. The awo of Orunmila cannot defecate just anywhere.

The disobedient young man and the chichiriku

The son, full of joy at the journey ahead, set out to find his soulmate. On this new stage of the road, a hidden spot invited him to rest and eat, following his father’s advice. Yet he could not resist the temptation of the nearby place where the shadows cradled him until he fell asleep.

He did not realize it was precisely the crossing of two roads. Soon a chichiriku passed by, and seeing the young man, asked him: «Where are you going?» Delighted, he answered with enthusiasm: «I am going to find my betrothed.» Astonished, the chichiriku said that he too was on his way to be married; so the two decided to take the same road and continue the search for their brides together.

The chichirikues, eager to fulfill Ozain’s request, hurried off to fetch the water. Meanwhile, Ozain ordered the young man to take a broom and gather up the sticks and dry branches from the ground. The young man obeyed without asking anything, and in a short while the sticks had piled up into a mound.

Ozain then said to the chichirikues: «If you want your betrothed returned to you, then each of you must place every one of these little sticks on this mound.» Anxious to satisfy the demand, they had no better choice than to comply with Ozain’s orders. When the work was finished, the young man and his woman were free.

One chichiriku went to the river with the pumpkin, but however hard he tried to fill it, he could not, for the pumpkin had a hole through which the water drained away. Seeing this, the chichiriku finally gave up, and fearful of Ozain, fled, leaving the pumpkin on the riverbank.

One by one the chichirikues went to the river, sent by Ozain, and one by one, faced with the impossibility of filling it with water and half dead with fear, they ran away — until only three remained: the young man, the woman, and Ozain, who, turning to the young man, gave him some powders and said: «Do not be afraid to return home. If you should come upon others, blow the powders and you will see that they can do nothing to you. But remember, and engrave it in your memory: if you want a long life, do not scorn your father’s word or the counsel of the elders.» And so, in that way, that young man made sure to follow the counsel of his elders throughout his long life.

Once the ebbó is finished, the rooster and the jicotea must be given to Ozain.

The person being read must have an Ozain in order to overcome difficulties. At the same time, they must be faithful in their duties to the dead. This person has moments in which they believe in nothing.