Oshe Yekun

The ebbo of the fly

The fly says to him: «You are going to die if you do not make ebbo, but I will mark it for you.» Orunmila answers: «Very well, I shall make the ebbo, but I will mark it for myself.»

Orunmila MARKED: eya tutu, oñi, flypaper, eku, eya and the remaining ingredients. When the fly came to eat, it stuck to the flypaper and went off in the ebbo.

The path where oluwo popo created the fly

Babalu Ayé and Ozain made a pact to pass on to each other their secrets and their knowledge. Babalu-Aye disclosed his secrets to Ozain. When Ozain’s turn came to hand over his own, he said: «it is late now, better to leave this for another day.» Understanding Ozain’s treachery, oluwo-popo said to him: «Wait, and see whether with your knowledge and your secrets
you can wipe out this new plague that will scourge all humankind and destroy all your children.» And oluwo-popo created the fly, and with it cancer — a plague and a malignant sickness, both unknown until then.

And so oluwo-popo took his revenge for Ozain’s treachery.

Why chiefs do not consecrate themselves

One day, all the young bokonos of Dahomey gathered together because they wished to hold chieftaincies, and they went to see Orunmila, who made them an osode and saw this Ifá. He told them: «Bokonos of Dahomey, aido hwedo is the dynamic principle that moves heaven and earth and existed before the creation of the world, and the chiefs are the sons of Oggún Algbede. If you go to his house and see Dangbe, the python, cutting and eating Oggún’s spear, you will become black-tailed chameleons, Ikú (death). But if you guard that spear of Oggún, you will become red-tailed chameleons, emi, life.»

For this reason chiefs are not consecrated by themselves: however much their merits may vouch for them, they need to be confirmed, and this is called Igbo Nole Leri. This is foretold by Oshe Yeku, the destiny of man, whose body disappears when life ceases but is preserved in his spirit — and this is Oshe Yeku. The confirmation of kings and chiefs throughout the earth is what gives and helps to sustain of itself the fire needed for royal power, with the smith at his forge. Then Orunmila had them kneel and confirmed their Ifá, giving them their crowns after making them the ebbo.

In the land of the dead there were thirty-six just spirits who were the representatives of Olodumare, and they were commanded by Oshe Yeku.

The four kings of the earth

One day the four kings of the land of the dead — Orun, Eggun, Olokun and Ashikuelu — decided to go and claim their dominions back from Oshe Yeku. Faced with the claim of the four kings, Oshe Yeku went to see Olofin, and Olofin granted him the ashe of being the oba and foreman of all the Oba Eggun, giving him an asho dun dun so that he might make ebo and cover himself with that cloth.

When the four kings saw Oshe Yeku transfigured and covered with that asho dun dun, they recognised in him the messenger of Olofin in Araonu, the land of the dead, and paid him the honours due to a king. Ever since, Oshe Yeku is the foreman of all the oba Eggun of Araonu.

The path where Ikú rid himself of the flies

Ikú lived surrounded by a stench coming from the Eggun, who fed mainly on Ekute and Aguema, and with whose bodies and flesh Ikú would rub himself all over for pleasure. The stench drew the flies, which gave Ikú no peace. For that reason he chose to hide by day inside his house, which was the ayapa. One day, weary of the noise, the ayapa went off to the riverbank, where eya orun came out of the river and let out a whistle that frightened the ayapa, and she died.

On hearing her whistle, Orun, Ikú left the dead ayapa, but not before eating her flesh. The flies began to trouble him again, so he had to return to the ayapa’s shell, which was clean by then, and he crawled inside it. Ayarun saw him go in and whistled at him once more, forcing Ikú to leave again. On returning to the earth, Ikú found that all the people were living sick, so he decided to eat them all, carrying off the Eggun; but they were many and weighed too much. He then decided to take them to a nearby hill that was full of cobwebs, and he used those to cover the Eggun he left there.

Afterwards Ikú saw another nearby hill covered with flies and decided to go there to see what it held. He found it was a hill covered with flowers, which he took and passed over his body, driving away the flies that were troubling him. Then he pulled up many flowers and carried them to the other hill to cover with them the Eggun he had laid there.

To Iban Eshu.

Orunmila saved the king

Orunmila came up to the king’s bed and asked him what was wrong. The king explained that he was gravely ill and that the physicians had told him he was going to die. Orunmila answered that he could cure him, and the king, seeing that he had nothing to lose, decided to trust him.

Orunmila made some consultations with his divination tools and discovered that the king had been poisoned by one of his counsellors, who envied his power and his wealth. Orunmila prepared a potion with special herbs and asked the king to drink it. The king recovered quickly, and Orunmila was hailed as a hero by all the people.

The king, grateful to Orunmila, offered him a great reward for having cured him. Orunmila refused the offer and asked instead that he build a school where he could teach his knowledge to the young people of the town. The king granted Orunmila’s request and built the school.

From that day on, Orunmila became a teacher respected and loved by everyone in the town. People came to him seeking counsel and help, and he was always willing to give it. Thus Orunmila became a legendary figure in the history of the town, and his legacy as a wise man and healer was passed down from generation to generation.

The king insisted, and the physicians agreed among themselves to call Orunmila, knowing that the king would die anyway. The soldiers brought Orunmila before the king, who asked him to cure him. Orunmila accepted, but on the condition that he be left alone with the king for three days, to sleep there and to give him a broth he would prepare himself. The physicians withdrew because the king wished it so, but they were certain the king would not last three days.

Orunmila set up the conditions and began to work on the king’s cure. Three days later the king was sitting up in his bed, eating, and word ran through the whole region that Orunmila had cured the king. Orunmila, seeing the king cured, decided to go out for a walk through the city and asked the king’s leave, which he gladly gave.

The physicians came to loathe Orunmila for having made fools of them before the king and the people. They decided to hire Orun to kill Orunmila. Orunmila noticed something strange in the air and made himself a consultation with his divination tools. He discovered that something evil was about to happen and decided to go to the palace at once.

At the palace he found a great feast in his honour for having saved the king. Even so, he chose not to go in by the main door, but through the kitchen. There he sat down with the cook, who asked him why he was not eating and drinking with the rest, since the feast was in his honour. Orunmila answered that he was comfortable there and that he would eat and drink whatever he was given.

The cook prepared some sweets and gave them to him. The king, seeing him there, asked what was going on. All at once he was deeply angered by what his physicians had done, took Orunmila by the hand and presented him to everyone as his saviour. He threw all the physicians out of the palace, and Orunmila became a hero venerated by the whole town.

By this path one must receive Elegbá and Orunmila and take whatever Orunmila says.

The path where misery and need were born

In the land of Boro Boshe, misery was the leading figure and struggled to stay alive. One day, while she was thinking how to get out of her plight, she heard a voice in the distance calling her. The voice kept repeating «Boro Boshe Olona, Boro Boshe Yebi Olona, Boro Boro Awa, Boro Boro Yebi Olona Awa». Meanwhile, Ikú appeared before misery and asked her to follow him. Despite her fear, misery decided to follow him until she reached the land of Maloni Malonun, where she found need.

Misery and need began to speak of their sufferings and of how they could no longer bear them. They spent their days calling upon Obatalá and weeping. At last, Obatalá decided to go out and travel the world to see what was happening and how he might help.

Obatalá came to Melorun and found the misery and the need of Oshe Yekun, both of them almost spent. Seeing this, Obatalá asked about their situation and offered them his help. He had an apo with ishu, eyele, ewefa ebomisi and obiri for misery and need.

He gave oti to misery and sent need to eat ishu so that they would have the strength to fight. Then he told them to go to the land Obaye be Ifá, where Orunmila lived, and to hand over to him everything he had given them so that he would make them ebbo. He also asked them to say that he had sent them.

Misery and need did as Obatalá told them and arrived at Orunmila’s house, where Shangó was cooking every kind of unyen. Orunmila asked Shangó to serve unyen to misery and need, since they were starving and in need of the unyen. Then Shangó made them the ebbo and gave them ashe, saying: «Oshe Yeku Boro Boro Boshe Benireo, Boro Boshe Benireo, Oshe Bara Oshe Nile Awarore Ifá Odara».

Misery and need felt better thanks to the effect of the unyen that Shangó gave them. He told them they had to carry the ebbo through every land, ringing a bell and singing a conjuration: «Agogó Nile Wawao Agogó, Elegwa Agogo Elegbá Agogó Nile Wawao Agogó, Ikú Agogó Nile Wawao Agogó, Bogbo Orisha Agogó Nile Wawao Agogó, Eggun Agogó Nile Wawao Agogó.»

As they passed through the different lands, Egguns, Oshas and Orishas came out and began to follow misery and need. Together they sang and pleaded with Obatalá and Olofin for help. Misery and need walked in front, carrying an igba with everything that had been given to them. At last Elegbá heard them and gave them his clothes and the money he had, and so they prospered.

Misery, need and Elegbá went to give thanks to Shangó and Orunmila, and gave Moforibale to Obatalá. He had a surprise waiting for them: an aboran obini for them to worship.

The ebbo of this path is thrown far away from the place where one lives.

The man and the spider

There was a man who suffered hunger and want, so he set out to seek his fortune. After walking a long way he came to a farm and asked the owner to let him stay the night. The next day the man noticed that the owner of the farm was not working the land, and he proposed to farm half of it in exchange for splitting the harvest between them. The owner agreed.

Later on, the man decided to explore the area and came across a young goat running loose. He chased it and went into a house that turned out to be Orunmila’s. Orunmila asked him why he was chasing the goat, to which the man replied that he was very hungry. Orunmila served him a plate of food and, realising that he was in Orunmila’s house, the man asked to be looked at.

Orunmila made him osode and saw this Ifá, advising him that he would find a place where he would have to follow the guidance given to him, and that if he did not listen he would have bad luck, but if he followed it he would have good fortune.

After Orunmila had looked at him, the man went on his way and saw a castle on top of a mountain. He asked the owner of the farm whose castle that was, and was told that it had been abandoned. The man thought it unfair that he should be without a home while the castle stood empty, so he decided to go there.

When he went into the castle he could barely walk for all the cobwebs. At that moment two enormous lights came towards him and he lost consciousness. When he woke, he heard a voice telling him he had nothing to fear. It was a giant spider that lived there. The spider asked him why he had come, and the man answered that he had nowhere to sleep and had thought he might sleep there. The spider said that was fine, but on one condition: that he never lie down on any chair or bed.

As time passed, the man found that he lacked for nothing, since the spider saw to everything. One day, tired of sleeping on the floor, he lay down on a bed and became tangled in a spider’s web. The spider appeared and made to eat him, but the man told her he was not a fly. The spider looked at him and told him that he was indeed a fly, and swallowed him.

Orunmila speaks

HERE Orunmila SAID TO MEN:

• • What a sadder morning when the air does not carry the sound of the mortar pounding the ishu.
  • What a sadder night when one listens in vain for the noise of men cutting up amala.
  • What a more painful day when the frying pans do not bubble with the stew of ejoro (rabbit) and of adie.
  • What a blacker shadow when Orunmila withdraws under the shadow of hunger.
    
    

  ORUNMILA MUST BE FED.