used by the divinities and our ancestors to expose the evil doers in our family, did not say

one
more word. When we questioned my father later, he explained that it would injure the pride and
name of the family if the world knew that there had been a spate of confessions in Chief Osague's
house. It turned out later that the ancestors did not take kindly to my father's action because they
wanted to expose the evil doers who were doing their utmost to extinguish the stars of the family.
The second factor that precipitated his premature death was his external determination not to
allow any of his children to die before him. He thought that the stroke that afflicted me was
going to terminate my life before him especially after one of his cousins, an Ifa priest in Ondo,
died of stroke at the University of Benin teaching hospital on February 6, 1990. My father died the
next day. When I realized that my father had a second reason for inviting death to terminate his
life, I insisted and moments before he died, he called me alone and told me that apart from
myself, another child of his was likely to die within three years and he did not wish to be alive to
see it happen. His predictions came true in 1992, less than three years after his own death. That
was the greatest father I knew about.

The Late Chief Thompson Ibie Odin

The Osague of Benin

IFISM
The Complete
Works of orunmila

Volume Eight

The Odus of Irosun

17
Irosun-Ogbe

THE ODUS OF IROSUN AND OWANRIN

Chapter

1ROSUN-OGBE
IROSUNGBAGBE LOJU
IROSUNAKEREGBE

I I
I
I
I
I
I
I II

He Made Divination for Ugun And Elulu:

hi juun ki o ba ri abore je. Adifa fun Ugun, abufun Elulu. Do not be greedy
if
you
wish
to prosper, was the name of the Awo who made divination for Ugun (Ugu
in
Bini)
and
Elulu (Erimohi in Bini) )the two sons of Oloore when they were
arranging to ascend

the throne of their father. They were both advised to make sacrifice. Elulu was the senior of the two
brothers and he was told at divination to make sacrifice with a he-goat, akara, eko, groundnuts, fried corn, and palm fruits, and to set a trap on the shrine of Esii to catch the head of the hegoat. Since he was the heir apparent, who had the first refusal option, he could not appreciate
why it was necessary for him to make any sacrifice on account of what was his traditional entitlement. He refused to make the sacrifice. Ugun, the junior of the two brothers was also told to
make the same sacrifice, adding a trumpet to the sacrifice. He made the sacrifice conscientiously.
After the burial of their father, the children had to mourn their father for fourteen days in
separate secret conclaves, without having any food or drinks. Every morning, Esu was feeding
Ugun with the materials with which he had made sacrifice. On his part Elulu had nothing to eat and
became very weak from hunger.
On the fourteenth day, Elulu was invited by the king makers to come to the palace for the
crowning ceremony. He could scarcely walk. On his way however, he saw an attractive palm fruit
by the side of the road. As he was traveling on horseback to the coronation site, he decided to
reach for the palm fruit. Unknown to him, the palm fruit was the bait of a trap. As he stretched out
himself to pick it up his neck was trapped. Try as he did to set himself free, he could not. The trap
subsequently strangled him to death.
After waiting in vain to see Elulu, the kingmakers sent messengers to bring him for the
coronation ceremony. They were surprised to see his horse without him. They decided to trail
him to his house. On the way, however, they found him dead in a trap. When the messengers
reported their findings to the kingmakers, they immediately sent for Ugun, who turned up without
any delay. They told him about the unexpected death of his brother and told him that it was his