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205 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
have brought his Igbadu into it previously under cover of night to preserve the sacred
object from public gaze, and there perform his ceremony with the aid of such fellow
Olodu priests as he might have seen fit to invite.
Ifa lays claim to every plant in creation as sacred to his worship, and thus it is come to
pass that upon consultation by a Babalawo, one Odu will advise the use of the leaves of
certain plants; another will prescribe one of these, or others totally different along with
them, and so other Odus. But the plants whose leaves are always in demand, and which
are considered as specially sacred to Eji Ogu, the Prince of all Odus, are Tete, Odundun,
Renren, Gbegi, the Oriji herb, lpoye, omini, and the Iwerejeje plant; but some of these
are known and described by sacred names on occasions of, or for purposes of
divination. Then the leaves of the Tete herb become Ewe attedaiye, i.e., the herb that
betokens our seniority in our entrance into the world; Renren becomes Ewe tutu, the
herb of pacification; and Gbegi become Ewe Agidimogboyin.
Ifa or Orunmila is believed to know all and everything and is therefore consulted upon
every circumstance of life, that of sickness not excluded; and he, through a consulting
Babalawo, always prescribes medicines for the diseases referred to him; and for this,
there is a foundation in the circumstance that in the traditional sayings of every Olodu,
or Odu, mention is always to be found made of sufferers from this or that form of
disease and of the remedies that cured them effectually. Hence every Babalawo is
necessarily a physician in his own way, and he is often resorted to by professional
practitioners for consultation with Ifa for aid to them in the exercise of their art.
Ela is evidently one of the many attributive names by which Ifa is described, and a very
principal one among them. It is a contraction of the term "Orun mila," and is intended to
represent the Divinity to all its worshippers and devotees, principally as a Saviour and
Deliverer, and one that is strong and mighty and is unconquerable by Death itself, so
that all that look to him for help in trouble and against any other evil, death not
excluded, will find that their confidence has not been misplaced; and this, although the
name is often used as if it represented a separate and distinct Divine personality, and
although a separate and distinct representative ensign made of pieces of ivory, carrying
four eyelets each and corresponding in number to the Ifa palm nuts (Ikin) which, with
one Oduso, are 17, are chosen and employed to represent him.
He is sometimes described in songs of praises and in other speeches as "Ela omo Osin"
Ela the child of "Osin" (the Ruler); sometimes as "Ela omo Oyigi (Oyigiyigi) Ota omi"
Elathe offspring of a stone, i.e., the hard stone from the bed of a spring of water (an
emblem of great strength), a quality which believed in, enables devotees to identify
themselves with him, and regard themselves free in consequence from death, or
protected against it, and say also when they utter the above praise, "Awa di Oyigiyigi, a
ki o ku mo," "We are ourselves. becomeOyigiyigi, that is the stone which gave birth to
Ela, and will no longer die," or, at other times to say, "Ela ro a ki o ku mo-Okribiti, Ela ro
(sokale) Oruo Ifa," "Ela has descended to the earth-we shall die no more-and this is Ifa's
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