Unle Builds a Home

After years of wandering and serving his elders, Eyeunle was no longer a young man. His body was old, his energy fading. He knew it was time to build a home of his own and cease his travels. Wanting to live some place serene and quiet, he searched the coast of West Africa until he came to a small village. It was well populated, but not overly so, and Eyeunle noticed that the people who lived there were the saddest, most miserable humans he had ever seen. I can help these people with my work, he thought. With his earnings as a diviner, Eyeunle hired the strongest and most skilled of the villagers to build a modest home, and although it was modest it was still grander than the homes of his neighbors. They became envious. When his home was done, Eyeunle moved in, and he divined for himself.

Elleunle fell on the mat. Eyeunle said, "Death, Iku, held me and left me. Sickness--the sisters Aro and Ano--embraced me and fled. I have survived the evil plans of my enemies."

He marked ebó for himself he made ebó, and the orishas told him that he was to offer all manner of food, drink, and kindness to any strangers who came to visit him. Eyeunle vowed to prosper in his chosen home, and he resolved to do all that the orishas had told him.

Little did Eyeunle know that the land he had claimed as his own, while outwardly serene and beautiful, lay in the middle of the sixteen osogbos who chose to settle on the earth. It was for this reason that the villagers were sad and miserable, because misfortune plagued them all the time. Iku, Ano, Aro, Eyo, Araye, Inya, Tiya-Tiya, Ona, Ofo, Ogo, Akoba, Fitibo, Egba, Oran, Epe, and Ewon each owned a plot of land, and together these sixteen plots of land encircled the village like a vise-grip. Each osogbo also owned an equal expanse of forest around one central plot.

This land in the center was the most beautiful and fertile, while the sixteen plots around were almost equally so, but to avoid fights about who would have the absolute best, the sixteen osogbos had decided to keep that land in the center neutral. And as humans sought new places to conquer and live, the osogbos were glad to let them settle in their midst as the misery they brought those humans brought joy to their hearts. But they could sense that Eyeunle was different, he had ashé. And while the osogbos weren't yet sure what that gift entailed, they sensed it could loosen their grip on the world.

Eyeunle was a skilled diviner, and people from faraway lands sought him out. They would travel through the abodes of the osogbos on their way to visit Eyeunle and make ebó, and there, at the mat, Eyeunle would know the osogbo whose land they had traveled through, and he would mark ebó so the osogbo could no longer hurt his client. Quickly they would make ebó, and this would only anger the osogbos more, for when the visitors would travel back through their lands, the osogbos were powerless to touch them.

One night, Ikú, Ano, and Aro met in the darkness. The night was cold, and they lit a fire against the chill. Some time passed awkwardly as they warmed themselves.

Finally Ano spoke: "Eyeunle is an arrogant man. The world is a huge place, yet he chose to settle in our midst. I will drive him out. I will visit him tonight!" "And what will you do? Give him a cold?" taunted Aro.

"Eyeunle may be elderly, but he's an extremely healthy man. Any illness you give him will be fleeting, easily cured." She gazed into the fire and smiled.

"No, let me go tonight. I will visit him and make his remaining existence miserable," Ikú frowned. "So you give him a lasting illness, Aro? And make him weak? He's already an old man. He is weak. And while he suffers from your visitation, he will still remain in our midst. He will wither for years, and we will have to put up with not only him, but also his brothers and sisters and godchildren as they make their way to pay their respects and nurse him back to health. And let us not forget that the other odu and diviners are powerful; even if you vex him well there is still a chance that one of them might have the power to destroy us. No, let me visit him tonight. Death is the only way to be rid of him. Not even the orishas can bring back the dead."

The three osogbos came to an agreement: Ikú would be the one to visit Eyeunle, for death was the only way to remove the old man from their midst.

Each supplied Ikú with their power.

Ano gave her all the fleeting illnesses of the world to use against Eyeunle, and her sister, Aro, gave Ikú all the lasting, terminal diseases she had at her disposal.

Ikú hid all these under her cloak; it swayed and billowed with their evil, as if whipping in an unfelt wind. Blessed with all the gifts of the two sisters, Ikú stole away, invisible to the world, to Eyeunle's house.

As Ikú scraped at the front door, seeking entrance, Eyeunle felt her presence. He called out into the night, "Who is here?" as he opened his front door in welcome, remembering his own divination from when he came to this place. "I can't see you, but I can feel you; I know that a powerful spirit has come to visit me tonight. Show yourself, and let us know each other."

Eyeunle knew that it was Death herself who had come to visit him, and he knew that Ikú only came when it was time to die.

Yet Eyeunle was a wise odu, and he knew many ways to thwart death for a time.

Ikú, surprised at the warm welcome by the naive man, called together a disguise; she presented herself as a middle-aged woman, pleasant to gaze at but worn from years of toil. As her disguise coalesced and congealed, Eyeunle was surprised. He had expected a fearful specter but instead found Ikú to be warm, almost inviting. Still, Eyeunle was not ready to die, and he intended to stretch out his time on the newly created earth. Before Ikú could strike, Eyeunle offered her a place to sit and rest her weary feet. Quickly he offered her food and drink, bringing out all the already prepared foods he had from that day. As they spoke, Eyeunle busied himself in the kitchen, and before Ikú could remember why she was at his house, the odu presented her with a wide array of yams, fruits, meats, and desserts.

Eyeunle continued to distract the osogbo with warm conversation while she gorged herself on the food before her, she was so full that she was lazy. And while Eyeunle chatted on, Ikú thought, I can't ever remember a victim who has fed me so well! Then she rose to strike, only she was so gorged that she could barely move.

Eyeunle, sensing danger again, brought her a huge share of liquor and encouraged her to drink. So quickly did she drink, and so quickly did she become drunk, that she could no longer hold a coherent thought. She soon forgot why she had even come to Eyeunle's house.

When Ikú was beyond intoxication, Eyeunle gasped and said, "Why, it is nearly morning and we have been up all night eating and drinking. I have a long day ahead of me, and I must have at least a few hours sleep." He helped Ikú up from her chair where she was all but passed out.

"Before you leave, my friend, let me offer you this, the fattest chicken from my coop. I am sure you have a large family yourself and will need to feed them, too, when you get home." Ikú was so drunk, so full, so tired, and so confused that she could only thank Eyeunle for his hospitality, and with the night slowly melting as sunrise approached, she left.

It was morning when Ikú stumbled back to the embers that remained of the osogbos' fire. She was visibly drunk and gorged, and the two sisters were angry when they saw she had returned without Eyeunle's soul.

Aro hissed, "Why did you not kill him like you promised? He still intrudes on our land!"

"You dared taunt me, Aro, because all I could do was give him a cold? And you, Ikú, I had images in my head of you slicing and dicing him to pieces with our scythe. Instead, it seems you had a merry time with the old man. Kill him indeed! Only way to get rid of him indeed! You are a disgrace! At least if I'd gone, he'd be drowning in his own secretions by now," yelled Ano.

Ikú, shaken and dizzy, mildly offered, "Perhaps we should just leave him alone ...?" She was still sated on Eyeunle's kindness.

"We will finish what you could not do!" screamed Ano as she took back all the misfortunes that she and her sister had piled on Ikú.

"You are useless. We will gather the other thirteen osogbos, my sister and I, and tonight we will rage on Eyeunle's home like a storm from heaven. We will do what you could not!"

The sisters left Ikú there by the fire, and soon she fell asleep.

Later that day, after Eyeunle had rested, he divined for himself once more.

The diloggún told him that he was facing osogbo again, and so he quickly made ebó with a goat, a ram, and sixteen roosters. With these he prepared a huge feast and set his table for sixteen guests. He also laid out sixteen bolts of cloth as his divination demanded. Then, exhausted, he sat down to rest and waited for his divination to fulfill itself.

It was at sunset that the fifteen remaining osogbos decided to assault Eyeunle and his home; with them they had brought Eshe, all the general afflictions of the world that they did not control among themselves.

Because Eyeunle had already proved with Ikú that he could see them regardless of how they appeared, they came in their full power and normal forms, assaulting his home from without, seeking entrance Eyeunle heard them as they scratched at his walls, and remembering how he was told to entertain all strangers that came to his home, he threw open his door and called out into the night, "Friends, it is cold outside and warm within my walls. Come inside and let us know one another.

Aro called to the other osogbos "This is too easy. To be invited is to guarantee one's own destruction Follow me!" All the osogbos rushed inside Eyeunle's house, and the modest man was aghast at the nakedness of his guests. Before any of them could raise their hands against him, Eyeunle gathered up the sixteen bolts of cloth and presented each osogbo with one "Clothe yourselves," he offered, "for it is not seemly to be traveling naked."

Such was Eyeunle's surprise and modesty that each osogbo blushed before him, and quickly they each wrapped themselves with the cloth offered. As they dressed, he ushered them to his table where the feast had been prepared.

It was then that Aro understood how Ikú had been thwarted. "Old man," she hissed, "someone has told you our weakness. You know that we cannot harm those who offer us random kindness."

"No one has told me anything," insisted Eyeunle.

"Someone must have!" The other osogbos, comfortable in their new clothing, were feasting, oblivious to Aro's growing frustration.

"I merely divined and did what divination told me. I made ebó to the orishas, and then laid out this feast and waited for the guests I was told would come."

"You are a diviner? There is a diviner living in the midst of our kingdom?"

Suddenly Aro knew why all those they had afflicted had been saved, and why they remained powerless to destroy them after that. "Now we will lose all our powers in our own kingdom."

"No one knows your secrets I myself did not know, not until you told me just now. I only did for you what the orishas told me I must do to avoid misfortune: received strangers with kindness. And now that I seem to know your greatest secret, I will do for you what I do for everyone who confides in me as a diviner: I will keep your confidence. Unfortunately, I must continue to help those who come to me for divination; those, I am afraid, will be saved from your evil if they choose to make ebó. But don't worry, not everyone who comes to me for divination makes ebó. Even if I continue my work, which I assure you, I will, you will still have plenty of victims to prey upon."

Aro stood, confused, angry, and hurt. She had not yet put on the cloth, and she was cold. She had not yet touched the food, but hunger overwhelmed her.

"Come, lady clothe yourself, and eat. The night is still young, and there is much to discuss, is there not?"

Aro smiled as she dressed herself.

"It was Ikú herself who came to see you yesterday, and it is your kindness that kept her from killing you the moment she walked through the door. I am Ano, sickness, and it is your kindness now that keeps me from laying waste to you. No human, Orisha, or odu has ever granted us such kindness. We will not harm you today. We won't harm you tomorrow, and definitely, we won't harm you the day after that. But watch yourself, Eyeunle; always remember us. For it is the nature of life to wither and die, and one day, while we won't come to you as an enemy, we will come to you again. It is what we do."

But that night, for once, all the osogbos were Eyeunle's guests; he tended and treated them all well. And when the sun rose the next day, they parted as friends. True to his word, Eyeunle remembered each of them with kindness and never betrayed their secret. And since not all his clients who came for readings made the prescribed ebós, the osogbos still had their fill of human misfortune.

This is how Eyeunle thwarted all the osogbos of the world with his wisdom and lived to a ripe old age, even in a land surrounded by misfortunes.