The Pact of the Hand and the Anus

To find good fortune everyone and everything must work together.

There was a time when humans defecated like animals; they would squat and be done. Yet the bugs and flies—these were attracted to the scent left behind —and the humans were miserable.

One day the anus spoke to its human, “I am miserable. I spend all my days working to cleanse your body of waste, but the bugs and flies—they follow me. My odor is bad and I cannot cleanse myself. Let us make a pact.”

“And what would that pact be?” asked the human. He, too, was overwhelmed by the insects attracted to the odor of his anus.

“I will continue to do what I do; I will cleanse your body of waste. And once I am done, you will have your right hand cleanse me so that the flies and bugs will leave us alone.”

It took no time for the human to consent, and the next time he defecated he took one of the leaves of the forest and wiped his anus clean. When the flying insects left him alone, all the humans in the world learned from what he did, and they did the same.

For this, they used their right hands.

In time, the first human who learned to clean his anus came to the shrine of Shangó to make ebó; and with his right hand, he reached up to Shangó’s implements to leave his favorite adimú—amalá. Shangó was appalled.

“Stop!” he ordered. The human stood there holding the gourd of cooked cornmeal in his right hand. “I have seen what you do with that hand,” said Shangó. “You defecate, and then with your right hand you wash your anus. I cannot take any food offered by the right hand. Make me another dish of amalá, and offer it to me with your left.”

The human did as he was told. He washed his hands, and cooked amalá for Shangó. When he approached his shrine, the orisha’s ebó was held in the left hand and not the right. Since that day not only have humans washed their anus after defecating, but also they have washed their hands; and when offering any ebó to Shangó, they bring it to him in their left.

Simply, it is the way things should be.