Otura Aira (Ogunda) (Otura Aira / Otura Ira)

There was a hunter who supported his family. For several days he had caught nothing, and so nothing had he brought home.

One day he went out and killed an elephant. Having hunted it, he leaned against a tree, and myrrh fell into his mouth, filling him with such satisfaction at the fortune this kill represented that he exclaimed: "Not even the King is greater than I am!" At that moment the King's soldiers were passing by, and, hearing such a proclamation, they honored him and gave him a great sum of money.

Ifá fore ayé... jicotea and parrot feather.

Rezo: Otura Aira adifafun Odooni sanishe iguate eni imole orun edomote awona kaferefun Eshu lodafun Orunmila orundo.

Ebó: One goat, one arrow, white, red, and black cloth, fox skin, everything that is eaten, the remaining ingredients, a great deal of money.

Eshu, in the land of Orundo, had a brotherhood formed of the Iguate Eni — the fox-men — whose pleasure lay in mischief. They would gather in the woods of Ode.

One day, Ode saw in the woods two foxes who, leaning against a tree, were speaking and tracing strange signs of their secret religion. One of them held a paper in his hand.

Ode fired upon the fox who held the paper, wounded him, and kept the paper, which was the secret of the world beyond the grave. When he returned home, he entered a tavern to drink aguardiente and told everyone present of his adventure. Among them was a strange figure, wounded, who asked after the paper. And when Ode was about to show it to him, the innkeeper saw that he had a tail and cried out: "It is an Iguato!" — at which the figure transformed into a fox and fled.

Ode then went to consult the Awó of the town, who cast Osode for him. This odu, Otura Aira, came out, and he prescribed ebó — Ode had to feed Eshu in order to appease him, for he had been trying to learn secrets that did not belong to him.

Ode made the ebó, but he did not give Eshu what Ifá had prescribed, and he decided to return home instead. On the road he met his whole family, who were moving to another town. They told him he had ordered his mother to make this journey, and they showed him a letter in which he asked that they sell all his property and go to another town to join him.

Ode examined the letter and saw that it was a blank sheet of paper. Though he no longer had a roof over his head, he decided to go back. The next day a younger brother appeared — one everyone had believed dead — who asked what misfortunes had befallen. Ode told him everything.

As Ode was recounting his adventures with the Iguatos, the brother said: "Ah, there lies the whole root of the evil — you have taken an interest in dominating and directing secrets that do not belong to you, and you have made a fool of Eshu."

Ode showed his brother the paper with the secrets. The brother snatched it from his hands, put it away hurriedly, and said: "Eboru, Eboya, Eboshishe — at last I have recovered what I sought." And, turning himself into an Iguato, off went Eshu — for the brother had been Eshu all along.

And so Ode was left without secret or direction.