Otura Ka

The king’s ebbo

There was a land where no king could be found who was able to govern in peace. They decided to appoint 2 or 3 kings, but the people were not satisfied with this. So they sent for Orunmila and Eshu. Before setting out, they performed the osode and this Ifá came up. They were told to make an ebbo with a crown and other ingredients, and to offer an osiadie to Elegbá. Then they were to take it to Obatalá, who approved the plan. The crown was tried on whoever had made the ebbo, and if it fitted him well, he would be the king to guide the destiny of that land. When the crown was placed on Orunmila, it fitted perfectly. And so he took up the leadership of that land.

Oggún, the omo of baba

Obatalá had a son, who was Oggún, and he had everything: a house, jewels, sticks and so on. But to be happy he was missing one thing he could not get hold of, which was the maja. When he went into the bush with his machete to hunt for the maja, he would see it and slash at the undergrowth with the machete, but the maja would slip away from him. Worn out, he went to see Orunmila, who made osode for him and saw this Ifá, and told him: you want something that has become impossible for you, and what you are looking for in the bush you already have in your house, and that is where you will find it — but first you must make ebbo.

Since Oggún did not believe much in the saints, he did not make the ebbo and went back into the bush again with his machete to hunt the maja, and the same thing happened to him: he would see it but could not catch it, for although he handled the machete very well and cut through the undergrowth, the maja always got away. Tired and desperate, he went back to Orunmila’s house to make the ebbo. When Orunmila had finished the ebbo he told him: do not go into the bush to look for the maja; sit quietly at home, for that is where you will catch it. And it happened that Oggún had a stool, and while he was sitting on it the maja fell on him from the roof of the house; he seized it, and that was when he became happy.

Here pleasure and movement in the sexual act were born

At the beginning of the world, men and women practised ofikale differently from the way it is done now. They could barely enjoy it. In the land of Mawami Inle there lived a couple dissatisfied with this state of things, so they decided to go to Orunmila in search of a solution. In those days ofikale required a great deal of time for the semen to be released, since men had to wait for the power of their mind to draw it out after a long period.

When the couple consulted Orunmila, he revealed this Ifá to them and told them they had come about the problem of ofikale. Since the act lasted so long, it could only be performed once a year. Orunmila then told them to make an ebbo and take it to Eshu at the crossroads. When they brought the ebbo, they met a man who received them and told them that if they watched what he was about to show them, they would solve their problem. At that moment he let loose a pair of dogs, male and female, which he had kept tied up. The couple were able to watch how the dog mounted the bitch and how they began to move until the ofikale was complete. That man, called Eshu Afoieyo, told them: «You must do the same as those dogs do, so that you may enjoy it more and have greater happiness, practising ofikale more often».

The couple began to follow Eshu Afoieyo’s instructions, enjoying ofikale with greater pleasure and doing it more frequently. This couple taught that art to all the men and women of the land of Mawami Inle, and from that land it spread to other lands, each human being adopting his own form and style of movement during ofikale. Each one moved differently from the rest.

It was in this Ifá that it came about that men and women move in order to obtain greater pleasure in the sexual act and to avoid the mental exhaustion involved in the earlier way of doing it, where only the mind was at work and they were left so drained that they could experience that pleasure only once a year. For this reason gestation in a woman lasts 9 months. Here too is born the reason why men imitate different animals in order to adopt different positions during ofikale.

He looks at himself with Orunmila

Orunmila arrived in the land, and the news of his coming troubled the king, so he decided to have himself read. Orunmila asked him for the following: one aikordie and hairs from three parts, owo la mello, unllelo rubo.