Pataki: The Young Buffalo (Osa Kuleya)

                           

The path where Oyá gave up eating male sheep! (Osa Kuleya)
                                                                “Ogodo Makulenkue”

Oyá was the owner of the marketplace and she was obsessively in love with Shangó, but she did not gain his favor. One day when she w...as in the forest, because she hunted, she saw a beautiful black buffalo had come into the woods. She went to shoot an arrow when she saw with surprise that the buffalo had taken off its skin. So instead she hid and saw that it was Shangó who was now carrying the buffalo skin. He hid the skin and left.

Oyá robbed the skin and took it to the market. The next day, when Shangó went to look for the skin he couldn’t find it. Desperate, he looked for the trail and it lead him to the market. There he reprimanded Oyá and she said to him that she wanted his romantic attention before returning the skin to him. Shangó accepted the offer with the condition that she not reveal his secret. She said yes, and thereafter, with this agreement, the two came to live together and give birth to the Ibeyi.

Oggún, who was the enemy of Shangó, through the intervention of Yemayá, the sister of Oyá, obtained the secret and told it to everyone: Shangó was the ogodó makulenkue, the young buffalo!

Upon seeing that his secret was public knowledge, Shangó took out his disguise, put it on, and came out of the woods in search of Oyá. Oyá had gone to the house of Orunmila for osode, and this Ifá came out, marking for her an ebó with akukó, eyelé meyi, otí, orí, efún, and $9.45.

Oyá made the ebó and left to put in her herd of abó, which she raised to eat.

So Shangó, who was looking for Oyá in the woods, instead found Ogún. Ogún knocked Shangó (as buffalo) over and cut off one of his horns, which he kept as a trophy (for this reason the ogué of Ogún consists of a single horn). But as the magic of the buffalo disguise still allowed it to grow horns, Shangó instantly had two to fight with. Shangó left Ogún and continued looking for Oyá until finally he found her with the abo and the Ibeyi, and he thrust himself forward to gore her.

Upon seeing agodó, Oyá now understood everything and thinking she was all but lost, got the Ibeyi away to save them. She then threw an abo at Shangó, who thrust forward to eat it, thereby staying forever with abo as his principal food.

Oyá had renounced abo in order to save herself and her children, the Ibeyi. “Whirlwind” took her children, the Ibeyi, and carried them home them to the house of Olokun.

(c) Copyright David H. Brown 2013

 

Pataki: The Ibeyi Defeated the Devil with a Drum (Otura Di)

The Twins spent seven days and seven nights in the forest, sleeping peacefully, protected by the cedars, ácanas, jocumas, yayas, and yabas. Amongst the vines and creepers nothing evil and absolutely nothing of note happened to the Ibeyi. In time, even the Chichicates, Mamelitas, and Guaos—the three evil sticks of the forest—disappeared. Thusly the Ibeyi went on under the open sky, through unremarkable stone dotted-land, which smelled of the esparto and granadillo plants. Further on was a hill, which led to a highpoint and then graded down from there to the sea.

For another seven days they wandered about the mountains, and upon coming down early in the morning they found themselves in the throat of a small valley. Everything was still and there rested amongst mountains of human bones, the Devil. He slept deeply, standing up, in a kind of eternal drowsiness of heavy silence. The Ibeyi went right up to him. Taiwo, scurrying like a lizard, hid in under a Piñon de Botija.

The Devil opened his sleepy eyes and showed his teeth, long and filed like knives, and without moving went off to sleep once more.

Kaindé, noting this, got closer to him defiantly and grabbing hold of the thick hair that hung from his shoulders shook him hard, shouting with all his strength, “Taita, get up, wake up!” The Devil stirred and started to awaken and the peaceful valley bellowed like a bull.

“What are you doing here mokekeré? Watch out; I’m really hungry because no one has been through here in many years and I haven’t tasted human flesh.”

“Let me pass through,” the Ibeyi replied sweetly. “Open up the road odara.” The Devil answered, “I will open it for you, but before that you have to submit to my law, which is that you have to drum for me so I can dance. If you succeed in wearing me out, the road is yours. But if you don’t, I’ll eat you too.”

The Ibeyi said, “give me the drum,” and when he had it in his hands he began to play a rhythm the Devil hadn’t heard before. The devil danced four hours without stopping and the Ibeyi began to feel his fingers getting numb and painful, and at the point of almost falling out he said, “Taita, I’m thirsty. Let me get a drink at the spring I see over there.”

“Drink,” the Devil answered. Without stopping the drumming, Taiwo replaced Kaindé. Taiwo continued drumming while Kaindé rested, and the Devil kept on dancing contentedly. When another four hours had passed, Taiwó said to the Devil, “Taita, I’m thirsty.” And the Devil replied, “look, beyond that jagüey tree a river is the beginning of a river. Drink all you want; but don’t stop the drumming,” and he showed his filed teeth. So now Kaindé began drumming again, coming back refreshed and nourished, after having devoured six eyelé out of twelve that an eagle had offered him.

The sun went down and night came. When the moon rose all the birds of the darkness swarmed in thick flocks around the Devil’s head of knarled hair. The mountains of bones crackled and came alive as the valley filled with skeletons. The Devil shook it up until he was tired out and dumb and at the end he fell, almost defeated. But the Ibeyi, sounding the drum with even more force said to him, “this is your law; keep dancing while I play.”

The Devil got into it again, falling over like a drunk, dancing morbidly, this time accompanied by owls and bats. And without realizing it and in the middle of the night, he fell flat out on his back with the face of a defeated moon.

“Your time has come,” the Ibeyi said in unison. They ripped his guts out and burned them in a bonfire and pulled off the cruz de asta from his necklaces.

The twins took three iron rods that they pulled from the forest, a malva tree, and a clay pot. They ripped out the Devil’s heart, shredded it with the leaves, and threw it in the pot. Thusly they did it—beating the Devil and opening all the roads. That night, the Ibeyi brought back to life all number of people who had been lost, and at the Palm Tree they all went up to the sky and petitioned Obatalá that he never deny them anything, that he return those old skeletons their old bodies and souls that the okuní burukú had devoured.

 

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(c) Copyright English Translation David H. Brown 2013

Pataki: Adoration of the Twins (Otura Di)

At the beginning of the religion all roads were closed. No one knew the cause behind it and no one could move forward on the roads. The few that dared to travel never returned. Communication among the people of the country was impossible as everyone was a captive in his home. To travel was to die. Impossible as it was to go from one place to another, life simply stagnated. Nevertheless, there were a few men who preferred misfortune to life and happiness made monotony, so they left their towns only to succumb along the unknown and closed byways.

In one of those towns lived two Africans who during the many years had produced numerous children. As soon as the boys grew up they said to their fathers,

Babá ni lo ladé.

And they set out on the road and never came back. Their mothers cried and said,

Omó, omó umbo son son.

And in this way one-by-one they were lost. Already very old and without realizing it the Africans produced a number of twins and when they were born the happiness was limitless. Everyone admired them. They slept on beds of dried yagua and on mats of palm boughs. They wore necklaces of pearls and jet and with cruz de asta that shone a divine light like that of Obatalá.

The “elder” twin was named Tabo [Taiwo] and the “younger” twin Caín [Kaindé, Kehinde]. Their mother raised them with reverent passion, because they were the sons of Elube—Shangó, the orisha who was the Strong among the Strong, the universal inheritor of Olofin, the creator of life. Those children were the only ones that Iyansá cherished—the divine woman of the marketplace and the cemetery. She fed them abundantly with epó.

Great ceremonies were made in order to honor them, and to put them content, songs and dances were made to the Ibeyi, who were happy and naughty, but always united.

They went to the top of the caimito tree; here the twins cried for their fathers (Taita) and repeated the same words as their brothers before them (Babá ni lo ladé), such that the women began to cry and lament the luck that was going to be lost. But there was an ancient woman of more than a hundred years old, crippled by time, and who in her younger days was the best horse of Siete Rayos in the land, who now began to loosen up miraculously and the spark of life for an instant impelled her heart to fill with vitality, urging her voice proudly to dominate the chorus of the other women; and those cries turned into songs of joy, and upon two wooden plates exactly the same the woman excitedly hit their palms and danced rounds to the Ibeyi.

One fine day, Chichicate, Mamelita, and Guao, three evil sticks of the forest appeared before them and made the Ibeyis go off to those forbidden woods. Secret of Ogundá Bedé.

Note: In this Ifá, in osobo, you have to make three paraldos.
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  (C) Copyright David Brown 2013.

Pataki: The Appearance of Shango in the World (Odi-Obara)

The appearance of Shangó in the world took place in this camino. Shangó was born from the breasts of Obatalá through the work and grace of Olofin and Olodumare. Olofin spoke, “this is my son and I deliver him to Abañere Orisha, and this woman was the one who raised him and Olofin subsidized the costs of raising the child. The... boy grew and his father, Olofin, communicated all of the secrets to him, given that he wanted to have a son living on the earth. Olofin went to see him every six months.

It happened that when Shangó became a man he took off. One day upon finding this out Olofin, desperate because he didn’t have his son, went to the house of Orunmila who made osode for him and this odu came out, Odí Bara, and he said, “you are desperate because of the disappearance of your son and in order to find him you have to make a rogación and afterwards order the rogación deposited in a joro joro, and afterwards pass it along that there will be a reward or gain for the person who finds your son, who knows the secrets of life.”

It happened that Orisha Oko was tilling the land with his plough and sang thusly:

Yoniko Misere Yonibo Misere

And he heard a voice that came from the bowels of the earth that answered his súyere; this was the voice of Shangó. Orisha Oko, upon hearing this pushed his plow deeper. Just then an otá appeared on the surface of the dirt and in that instant the otá transformed into a man, and this was Shango; and Orisha Oko recognized the stone and kept it in his pocket and went to the house of Olofin. Upon arriving he related the whole story of his experience while tilling the land. Olofin replied, “that was the man that I’ve been looking for, the only one who knows my secrets in this world.” Olofin then blessed Orisha Oko, telling him, “from today onward, you will be king of the land for ever. Orisha Oko is the man who, after Olofin, is the second closest friend of Shangó and for that reason, Shangó has to receive Orisha Oko. For the moment he won’t have to do so, only that he paint a teja of funfun and pupua to adorn his house.

Note: take good care of all the moist and soft parts of the body such that they are not exposed to the sun. If it is a woman, take good care of the breasts.

Patakin: Obatala and Oshosi (Baba Eyiogbe Meyi)

In this path: Obatalá left to look for Oshosi, who was a forest dweller and hunter. Oshosi believed he had no father and spoke of having been born from nothing. Obatalá, when he went looking for Osh...osi, disguised himself as a deer, mounted a mirror on his forehead, and went deep into the forest. Oshosi, upon sensing a noise, began to shoot at the deer, which was none other than Obatalá in disguise. The more he shot, the more he missed and this was when the deer began to sing:

Bansemi Semi Bansemi Semi; Eke Eke Omó Eyaluko Egue Gui Omó Temi.

Oshosi wondered how this animal sang to him, and the song itself told him that the deer was his father though he believed he had no family. The deer got closer to him and continued singing and Oshosi continued trying to shoot him but not a single arrow got him.

When the deer was very close to Oshosi, he lifted his head and the sun’s reflection lit up its eyes. Oshosi kneeled and threw his bow and arrows on the ground and began to sing:

Bansemi Semi Boromi Romi Aruciko Kekiko Erosibaba Karere; Erosibaba Yaloko Erosibaba Temini.

This song means: I am defeated; I have found my father. Then, Obatalá answered him saying that even the leaves on the trees have a father and mother because the earth is the mother and the sea is the father, since the land and the water give life to plants. There is no one who lives alone; we all have someone who we belong to.

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(c) David H. Brown 2013.

Small Treatise of Obatala

 

Obatalá is the orisha of the creation and he is the owner of all heads. His name is composed of the terms obá-king, ta-brillar sobre, nlá grande—which signifies everything. Obatalá: king over everything.*

It is said that he was the orisha that sculpted the form of man in the vagina of woman, that he is one of the oldest orishas. It is said that, like Odudúa, Obatalá has avatars divided into female and male aspects. The oldest of the Obatalás are found in the first “marriage,” comprised of Oshalufón and Orisha Ayé. There is a controversy about female orishas here in Cuba as to which ones have their otá taken out, leaving only the dilogún, the tools, and a sea shell—a long one of the type of Cobo Okinkonkó—which represents the mystical aspect of Orisha Ayé, wherein it is said that the female Obatalás were born in the sea and the male ones on the land, and that the union of both created the human species in general. The first Obatalá that came out of the sea was Orisha Aiyé. Obatalá speaks in many odu of Ifá, but his descent to the world was in the odu Babá Eyiogbe, although the construction of the head, its formation, is in the odu Ogundá Meyi and Ogbe Yono. These two odu are ruled by Ayalá, which is the Obatalá charged by Olofin with the construction of human heads. This is why, when there is a guerra de santo over the possession of a head, that Obatalá is crowned so that all fighting over that lerí is placated, because all [orishas] owe obedience to his office as the owner of the world.

 

 

 

*Translator’s note: the Yorùbá etymology of the Lucumí Obatalá is, in fact, Obàtálá (Obà-tí-àlà): Obà = King;  tí = which is the;  àlà = white cloth, or “King of the White Cloth.”

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