It will be recalled that when God created man, the divinity of Death hailed the action with hysterical optimism.

Death remarked delightfully that God created plants and animals to provide food for other divinities but that by creating man, He had at last provided food for him.

The other divinities for whom God supposedly created man to serve did not immediately know the importance of Death's jubilation.

It was only when Death began to remove men one after the other that they appreciated that he was out to plunder their servants.

They began to reason among themselves whether God's intention had been misconstrued or that God had made a mistake.

However, ALAGEMO- the favourite servant of God, insisted that God was incapable of making mistakes and that Death might have misunderstood God's intention.

Alogemo recalled that God had only authorized death to take any man who transgressed the basic natural law.

This argument remained extant until the divinities came with their mortal servants to the earth.

Even after man came to the world. Death who remained in heaven continued to the world to kill them at will not withstanding their moral dispositions.

That was of the fact that God at His first meeting with the divinities, enumerated the transgressions capable of attracting the intervention of death.

As it turned out subsequently. however death began to plunder man indiscriminately, irrespective of their ethical inclinations and behavior. Both good and evil doers fell victim to Death at will.

As soon as man got to earth, Death continued to with his CLUB (Alugbogbo In Yorubo, Ugbolo in Ibo and Ukpokpo in Bini) in hand to remove men in their thousands on o daily basis.

One day Death travelled to the world to take Orunmlla's eldest son, Sacrifice (Ebo) because he bad been helping man to obviate the onset of Death.

When Death discovered in heaven that (Ebo) Sacrifice the son of Orunmila was helping man on earth to prevent him (Death) from attacking them, he decided to go for Orunmilo's son himself.

Ebo was famous for playing the Ayo Game (lse in Bini) very proficiently.

One day, Death decided to go to the earth to challenge Ebo to at Ayo contest.

On getting to Ebo's house. Death challenged him to an Ayo contest with the caveat that if he defeated Ebo, he would kill him and take him to heaven which would have meant the end of all forms of sacrifices on earth.

On the other hand, if Ebo was victorious, he (Death) would refrain forever from coming to the world.

The game started in earnest and there were several contests in which Death was victorious for most of the time.

The equivalent of the Ayo game in other 'social cultures Is the (Game of Chess).

Towards evening of that day as the contestants were retiring to resume the game the next morning.

Death remarked that on the following day, it would be one full month since he had been defeating Ebo in the game.

Ebo in his youthful ignorance retorted by querying how Death could claim to have been defeating him for one whole month, when they had only played the game for one day.

Death explained Ebo's puzzle by reminding him that the new moon was going to appear on the next day.

Ebo argued that far from appearing the next day, the new moon was going to appear on the third day.

The argument was resolved when Death amended his earlier caveat by declaring that whether or not he ultimately defeated Ebo in the ayo game, he would no longer take him to heaven on that score.

His new conditionality was that if as he proclaimed, the new moon appeared on the next day, he would not only take Ebo with him to heaven but would invariably continue to return to the world to take human beings.

If on the other hand the new moon appeared on the third day as Ebo predicted, he would not only leave him alone but would stop coming to take anyone from the world. On that wager, they retired for the night.

Thereafter, Ebo ran to his father "Orunmila" and reported how he argued with Death on when the new moon was going to appear, Orunmlla quickly checked his lunar calendar and discovered that true to Deeth's prediction, the moon was due to appear on the next day.

He became perplexed. He however consulted 'Okpelle' his main instrument of divination on what to do about the situation.

The divination advised him to offer a he-goat immediately to Esu.

Ebo offered the he goat without delay beseeching Esu to prevent Death from overcoming him in the on-going contest because defeat for him would have wide ranging reverberations throughout the earth.

After eating his he-goat, Esu raced to heaven to visit the home of the Moon.

On his part, the Moon has only one loin cloth with which he dresses when he comes to the world.

The following morning he had washed and spread it on the grass of his court-yard to dry before putting it on in the evening.

When Esu got to the house he asked him when he was due to make his monthly trip to the world, the Moon replied that he was going that evening, with that, Esu left.

At that time of the day the Sun was beginning to retire from his daily trip to earth, Esu then gathered the little children of heaven to play and tread on Moon's white loin cloth which was already dry.

The Children marched on the cloth with their dirty feet and if become totally defaced with untidiness.

The children left the cloth in such dirty condition that the Moon would scarcely have been visible if he had appeared.

When at dawn, the moon got up to collect his loin cloth to wear, he discovered that the little children of heaven had messed it up.

He cried havoc threatening to punish the children of heaven, as he moved to strike, God intervened to find out what was happening and the Moon narrated what the children of heaven had done to his cloth.

God admonished the Moon for seeking to punish innocent children on account of a single error.

God asked him whether it was not the same little children who often hailed him anytime he made his monthly appearance, was he going to 'forget their songs in praise of him because of one mistake. God asked?'

The Moon responded by apologising to God for being so forgetful and with that, he forgave the children.

The Moon then decided that he would wash his cloth the next day and spread it on a rope.

Instead of on the ground to dry and would therefore appear on earth the following day.

Back on earth, Death and everyone else waited in vain for the Moon to appear that night.

He did not, it was in the evening of the following day that the Moon finally appeared.

Before then, the Moon usually come to earth every thirty days. It was from that time that he began to appear every thirty one days. When the Moon finally appeared on the thirty first day.

Death congratulated Ebo that events had proved him right and promised never to come to earth again.

That was how Orunmila and his Son sacrifice (Ebo) succeeded in expelling Death from the face of the earth.

Since Death had however proclaimed the human flesh to be his staple food he had to improvise a new arrangement for fetching his food.

As he did previously in heaven, he once again appealed to the ferocious divinities to assist in fetching food for him on earth.

These are:

OGUN (divinity of war, accidents), SHANGO (divinity of thunder, lightning end electricity), OLOKUN (divinity of water), WITCHCRAFT (divinity of sorcery), SAKPANA (divinity of epidemics), ARON (divinity of sickness).

When OGUN kills through war or accident, the victims are collected by the messengers of death because Ogun does not feed on human flesh.

The same is true of Sango when he kills by lightning or electricity. When Olokun kills in and with Water. The victims become food for Death.

When Sakpana kills via all forms of epidemics, death messagers are fetching food for Death.

Even when elders of the night kill human beings, they first tum them into animals while the human carcasses are taken by
the messengers of death to him in heaven.

On her part, Sickness - the wife of Death is slow to take her victims especially If they seek solace with sacrifice or with Osun divinity of medicine.

This work was inspired by LATE DR. C. OSAMARO IBIE, J.P.

Thank you for reading, leave a comment

Babalawos

Nice piece, read to d very end#kisses

Thank you

wahles:
Nice piece, read to d very end#kisses

At the end, Death turn every other gods to ''Death'', multiplying is power and mission on Earth,, thats so unfair to humans

Nice story though

O se Baba. Ki Olodumare fun yin ni opolopo Laakaye.
This is a wonderful commentary on Bibeli-IFA
Let all Creatures with Understanding praise The Supreme Spirit for all Creations.
Have you got this in a Book? Please tell how I ca get a copy? You're a Spirit!!!