Irete Ika (Irete Ika · Irete Ika)

Patakín: There was a farmer of more than sixty years who lived in the mountains and was a worshiper of Esu. Esu would ask him for a rooster, but every day the farmer only made prayers to obtain riches. He kept this up for ten years. One day he discovered the illusory nature of riches and began a life of letting go. One day, while he sat contemplating the sunset, Esu appeared, radiant as though made of gold. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the man asked him.

"I am Esu, to whom you have been praying hymns for twelve years," Esu answered him, "and I have decided to appear before you to grant your wish."

"Ah, my dear Esu!" the man exclaimed, "now I have already gained the blessing of reflection, and I have lost the desire for riches. You have come too late... but tell me, why have you taken so long to come?"

Seeing this, Esu said to him: "Because you had not sacrificed, I could not interfere with the time of your destiny. But because you were my worshiper, I also did not allow misfortune to strike you." To Ibán Esu.

Ebbo: A rooster, abití, work tools, seawater and sand, a small piece of reef, bogbo ashé, and plenty of money.

Patakín: Orunmila divined for a difficult man. He thought and acted differently from the rest of us. He questioned everything.

Was he a rebel, or a prophet? He went to Ilé Orunmila and made sacrifice. Just as he was about to set his gourd of oñí at the foot of the araba tree, a turtle came out from among the underbrush and said to him: "I am Society, and I will teach you to be sensitive to public opinion and to the feelings of others."

After some time, Society said: "We managed to conform him. We made him into a person one could live with comfortably, perfectly adapted. In reality, what we did was teach him to live according to our expectations. We had made him manageable and docile. We told him he had learned to control himself, and we congratulated him on having achieved it. And he himself began to congratulate himself for it too. He could not see that it was we who had conquered him."

But the man fell into depression, for people began to abuse his meekness, and in a fit of rage he went to the river, and when the turtle came out, he killed it. Then he came to be respected by some and feared by others once more.