Odi Ofun (Odi Ofun · Odi Ofun)

Patakin:

In a fertile plain, beside the east, Olordumare planted a garden universally known as the garden of ewe Ozain, and in it he placed Obatalá to care for it.

Olordumare made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; he also planted the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and a river went out from there to water the garden, and from there it divided into four branches.

The first was the Pizón; this is the one that surrounds all the land of Abila, where there is good gold, bedelio and onige. The second river is the Guion, which surrounds the land of Gus; the third is the Idekel, which goes to the east of Asiria; and the fourth is the Eufrates.

He placed Olofin to govern the earth, and this one said to him: man, to feed yourself you shall eat of every tree that is here except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, since on the day you eat of it you will die.

After some time, Olordumare thought: it is not good that the man be alone on the earth, since he must have a companion so that he may give names to everything there is on the earth—the plants, the animals, the beasts and all the birds of the sky; and then Olofin, by Olordumare's command, caused the man (Obatalá) to fall into a deep sleep and from one of his ribs formed a woman.

Then Obatalá said: this must be called varonatala, since she was taken from the man, and therefore in the future the man will leave his father and mother and join himself to live with the woman, and they will be one single flesh. [The printed word is varonatala; the source does not explain the coinage, and the printed fue tomado is masculine although the referent is the woman.]

It turns out that Obatalá and his obini (wife) were naked and not ashamed, and it happened that one day the serpent came to where the obini was and said to her: so that you may never die, you must eat from the tree of eternal life, which Olofin had forbidden. The woman, tempted, went to the tree, stung by curiosity, and took one of those fruits and ate of it and gave her okuni (husband) to eat, and immediately the eyes of both were opened and they were ashamed, since they were naked, and taking leaves of higueretas they covered themselves with loincloths.

When Obatalá appeared there, both hid among the branches of the forest, far from his sight, but then the man was called and presented himself, and when they asked him where he was he answered that he was in the garden and that he was afraid because he was naked and that is why he hid. Then Obatalá asked him: who taught you to say that you were naked? The man answered that the obini had; then Obatalá said to him: have you eaten from the tree that you were ordered not to eat? Then Obatalá was condemned by Olofin, carrying the guilt, and Olofin said to them: you shall gather fig and thorns, you will have to work and you were mortal; and he said to the woman: for having heard the counsel of the serpent, which invited you to eat of the forbidden fruits, you will give birth in pain and you will live in the incessant struggle with the man and afterward you will remain under his empire and dominion.

[Source contradictions retained, not harmonized: the man is identified as Obatalá earlier in the story, yet “Obatalá” also appears as the one who questions the man and is then condemned by Olofin; the prohibition forbids the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while the serpent names the tree of eternal life as the one Olofin had forbidden; and eras mortal (“you were mortal”) is past tense among future judgments. Nothing here is reconciled to the Biblical account or to itself.]

to iban eshu.