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218 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
Orunga went and consulted his wife, Orisabi, who agreed that they would part with the
palm nuts, if by so doing they would become both rich and useful. Both of them set out
to get the nuts, which they collected by the aid of monkeys. All, sixteen in number, were
wrapped in a bundle of clothes, and Orisabi tied the bundle on her back in the manner in
which babies are generally carried, and she with her husband took them to Ifa.
Ifa received and took them to Elegba, who taught him, as he promised, the art of
divination; Ifa in turn taught it to Orunga, who thus became the first Baba-alawo (i.e.,
Father of Mysteries).
Hence in all geomantic operations the Baba-alawoes use the common formula:
Orunga ajuba oh!-i.e., Orunga, I respect thee!
Orisabi ajubi oh!-i.e., Orisabi, I respect thee!
This accounts for the sixteen palm nuts used in Yoruba divinationall corresponding to
the twelve houses of the heavens + two geomantic witnesses + one geomantic judge +
one grand judge obtained by the permutation of the judge, the fifteenth figure, with the
figure of the first house, all equal to sixteen figures.
There are various methods of divination, either with sixteen stones taken from the
stomach of an alligator, used largely by tribes in the interior of the Colony of Sierra
Leone, or with sixteen ordinary stones, beans, palm nuts, or cowries.
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