Ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀

The fastest instrument of Ifá began as a man. Ọ̀rúnmìlà's work has grown too heavy. The line at his door never ends, and the old way of casting is too slow. He goes up to the city of Heaven and tells the light. Those that would help you would come. Alákàn is sent down, a stranger in the market, and a master who goes to buy a slave finds he has already been helped. A year later two hundred barren wives are delivered, and Ọ̀rúnmìlà has found his helper. Then comes the second telling, under another Odù: a king's stool, a sharp sponge, a faithful wife, and a helper who broke trust and was made the chain every devotee would use. Two stories of one divining chain, from Ayọ̀ Ṣàlámì's Yorùbá Theology and Tradition, told with the Yorùbá ẹsẹ.