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The Story Of Eyele And Adaba

While in heaven, the Dove (Adaba Lukori) and the Pigeon (Eyele) were sisters born of the same parents. They had grown to become very pretty but had no children. One day, Eyele who was the senior of the two, proposed that they should both go to Orummla for divination on what to do to have children. The pigeon’s name in heaven was Elemele Ule while the dove’s name was Elemele Oko. The Dove acquiesced in the suggestion of the Pigeon and they agreed to visit Orunmila the following morning. On getting to Orunmila’s house, he directed them to one of his Odus (followers) to make divination for them.

The name of the Odu they subsequently went to was Erukpe b’Oni Loju, Madi Ni-Leti, which was the heavenly name of Iwori b’Ogbe. As they were approaching the house of the diviner, they over heard an altercation between him and his wife. The argument was so noisy that the two sisters decided to hide behind the Wall for the quarrel to subside. It soon dawned on them that the couple were quarrelling because there were no materials and condiments for cooking on that day. They also heard when in a bid to pacify her, the diviner told his wife not to worry because divinees would sooner or later come in for divination.

On that note, the wife piped down and withdrew to the back of the house. Soon afterwards, the Dove and the Pigeon knocked at the door and they were let into the house. At the subsequent divination, the diviner assured the two of them that they would surely bear children provided they were prepared to make sacrifice. He advised each of them to make sacrifice with a he goat, a hen, a clay pot, a bundle of fire wood, pepper, a gourd of palm oil, 5 tubers of yam and other cooking condiments. They were also to serve their heads with a rooster by themselves. On their way home, the Dove asked the Pigeon whether the sacrifice was necessary since it was clear that the diviner only wanted to exploit their problem to provide for what he could not afford to finance in his house
Eyele however told the Adaba not to be so cynical in her approach to the hard realities of life.

She tried in vain to reason with her sister that divining was the man’s means of livelihood and there was therefore nothing wrong with what he prescribed for the sacrifice. Adaba retorted adamantly that she was not too stupid to recognize an hungry diviner when she saw one. On her part, Eyele promised to arrange for the sacrifice right away. She went to procure all the materials for the sacrifice and returned later in the afternoon to the diviner’s house. The sacrifice was duly made, after which he served Eyele’s head with a rooster, telling her to take it home for a small feast to the members of her household.

On her part Adaba got a rooster and served her head with it in her house. The following day, in consonance with the suggestion of the diviner, she took a bundle of fire wood to the top of an oak tree for the purpose of laying her eggs whenever she had the urge to do so. On the other hand, after completing her sacrifice, the diviner gave the clay pot to Eyele to lay her eggs in whenever she had the urge to do so. Fourteen days later, the two sisters had become pregnant and had the urge to lay eggs. After laying two eggs, Adaba went to Eyele to ask how many eggs she laid. Eyele replied that she laid two.

Adaba taunted her sister by teasing that she who made sacrifice laid the same number of eggs as herself who refused to make any. It should be emphasised that the laying of two eggs was a manifestation of the head she served. In consonance with the advice of the diviner, Eyele laid her eggs at home inside the pot with which she made sacrifice. When Adaba subsequently hatched her two eggs she brought forth two lively children. Once more she went to enquire from her sister whether she had hatched her own eggs. Eyele replied that she had given birth to two babies. The dove again sneered that without making sacrifice she had produced two children just like she who made sacrifice.

 

Meanwhile, Esu asked his friend Ighoroko for the names of people who were advised to make sacrifice but refused. He was told that the Dove refused to make sacrifice. Esu allowed the children to grow. Just before the little doves were strong enough to fly, Esu decided to make their mother to reap the consequences of refusing to make sacrifice. Esu conjured a tornado to occur and it was so strong that it uprooted several trees including the oak tree on top of which the Dove roosted her young ones. As the oak tree was falling to the ground, the Dove ran for her life, abandoning her children. As soon as the tree fell to the ground, Esu soaked the ground with palm oil right up to the nest containing the Dove’s young ones.

The palm oil quickly attracted soldier ants which lost no time in feasting on the helpless children of the Dove. At the dawn of the next morning, the Dove scanned the grounds of the fallen tree only to discover that soldier ants had devoured her two children. After wondering whether the tornado which ravaged the forest also affected the home where her sister lived. She decided to visit the Pigeon. When she asked the Pigeon whether the gale storm of the previous night affected them in the house, she gleefully replied that her children and herself were safely concealed inside the clay pot with which Iwori-b’Ogbe made sacrifice for her. She actually said it in the following words:

Mo fi ori kan kuku meeku
Temi mejeji ko be kuuru kuuru

 

In other words she was recalling that sacrifice had produced and protected her two children for her. That is the sound which the pigeon makes when it has cause to dance for pleasure. On the otber hand, the dove began to cry in the following word;

To kon Teeji Miirji
Iwori bo gbe Ifa Burukuu

Source By:’ Olafisoye Ibukun John

 

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