The Journeys of Ògún

"In the beginning the world had no roads." Olódùmarè chose Ògún to go first. Ifá told him to make a sacrifice of a single link of iron chain, because a single link never breaks. Then he came down into the world alone, at first light, with his blade at his hip. Where there was no way, he cut one. On another day, Ifá told him to carry a cutlass wherever he went. Because he did, he had it with him at the river, where two men stood over one fish. He cut it in half, and one fish became two. From that day he was called Ògúndámẹ́jì. Years later he came down out of the hills, thirsty for palm wine, to a town called Ìrè, where every person had been told by Ifá not to speak. He was owed an answer. He was given none. Nobody in that story was refusing him, and what it left behind is a custom still kept: when the wine is gone, the empty vessel is laid on its side, so that Ògún will know, and pass in peace. And when he came home from war to a city grown past all recognising, the young man who met him at the gate turned out to be his own son. Four ìtàn about the god who goes first.