{"collection":"African","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/afr/ife/ife7.htm","path":"afr/ife/ife7.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/afr/ife/ife7.htm","text":"Sacred-Texts Africa Index Previous Next\n| | Ar\u00e1ba continues: | \n| After the War of the Gods, \u00cdf\u00e8 returns to the arts of peace. | O\u00edbo, graven on my memory Is the sad legend which my father told me Of the Great Gods' departure. . . The years slid by Unnoted while King \u00d3gun2 reigned. The World Was young: upon the craggy slopes the trees Shot forth red buds, and ancient \u00cdf\u00e8, gaunt With suffering, dreamed again her early dreams. Taught by the Gods, the folk began to learn The arts of Heaven's peace anew; the drum Returned to measures of the dance, and Great Or\u00edsha saw the joy of life once more In his creatures' eyes. Thus lived mankind among | \n| The foundation of \u00dabo | The Gods, and multiplied until the youth Of \u00cdf\u00e8 sought new homes and wider lands In the vast Forest; and thus was born the first Fair daughter of Od\u00fawa's city. Men called Her \u00dabo, and the leader took the name Ol\u00fabo of \u00dabo with his chieftaincy. | \n| is attended by strife from the first. | But to these colonists the Gods, their Fathers, Gave no good gifts: 'midst battles with the Wild, 'Mid struggles with the Forest the town grew- While dull remembrance of unnatural wrongs p. 41 Bred Man's first rebel thought against the Gods; And when the time of festival was near, Word came to \u00cdf\u00e8 that the folk of \u00dabo Would bring no gifts, nor worship at the feet Of \u00d3gun. But the King scorned them, laughing: \"Who lights His lamp between the leopard's paws?\"3 | \n| The Chief | Years passed | \n| of \u00dabo seeks advice, | In grieving while Ol\u00fabo sought the homes Of spirits of the Forest springs, laid gifts At crossway shrines where childless women go, Or wandered to drear coasts to share his wrongs With Ocean chafing at his old restraint. But rivers answered not, not brooks, nor Gods Of crossway altars at the light of dawn; And through the unceasing hissing of the foam No voice of counsel came. . . With Autumn's fall Ol\u00fabo came with gifts before the shrine Of the grim Forest-God who hedged his land, And prayed him to accept the corn he brought And the fat beasts, nor seize his lands again. And the God saw the oil, and smelled the blood Of birds and cattle; and the longed-for voice | \n| which the Forest-God gives him | p. 42 Came to Ol\u00fabo: \"See with the rain I come Each year upon your fields with springing trees, Rank-growing grass and vegetation wild: Your work of yester-year is all undone By my swift desolation. Be this your symbol: Go thus against the Scornful Ones arrayed As I.\" | \n| | In \u00cdf\u00e8 was great joy: the last | \n| | Black thundercloud has passed; the maids were wed, And all men feasted on the sacred days | \n| Ol\u00fabo in- vades If\u00e8, and takes the men away as slaves. | Of \u00d3gun and the Lord of Day\u2014when sudden, From the still Forest o'er the walls there broke Portents of moving trees and hurrying grass On \u00cdf\u00e8's stone-still revellers. (Hope perishes In the dark hour a mother sees the dance Of white-robed goblins1 of the midnight streets\u2014 A glimpse, no more; and her sick child is lost). Despair held rule: the new-wed wives were lone; Their men were slaves of \u00dabo lords. The drum Was silent, and laughter mute. About dull tasks A listless people wandered; but not so | \n| M\u00f3rimi consults \u00cdfa, | p. 43 M\u00f3rimi\u2014for she, assured of triumph, strode To the dim court of \u00cdfa, and laid bare Her gift. A vision flickered and was gone, And the priest prophesied: \"The bode is good. As when a sick man lies beset by fiends1 I call not to the Gods for aid, but take The pepper on my tongue and thus invoke Those very fiends in their dread mother's name, And then command the Prince of leaguing Woes (Though hastening to the River's lip) to turn Again\u2014such now is \u00cdfa's counsel, borne Swift in the form of Messengers to me | \n| who advises her to go to \u00dabo. | His priest, his voice: 'Evil has come down on \u00cdf\u00e8: By Evil only can desire prevail. Take six he-goats to \u00c9shu, the Undoer; Thus crave his aid and go, Great M\u00f3rimi, A harlot to the land of \u00dabo'\" . . So sped M\u00f3rimi to the rebel town; and when | \n| She finds out the secret. | A lord of \u00dabo sought her midst the shades Of night, the Undoer's will possessed his lips, And he betrayed the way of \u00dabo's downfall. While \u00c9shu's shrine yet ran with blood, the Gods, | \n| Meanwhile, the gods transform to stones, rivers, etc., | p. 44 Unknowing, sat alone in their abasement, And \u00d3gun said: \"We scorned our upstart son; Scorned him and let him be\u2014nor bore in mind The wisdom of the Past, 'A little snake Is yet a snake.'1 See now the end has come: Swift from the sight of mocking men we must Depart. The sage Os\u00e1nyi will lay wide The door of our deliverance: come then\u2014 For naked of dominion what are we Gods?\" And one by one Os\u00e1nyi gave his charms To the lorn Gods. . Or\u00edsha could but moan \"Children I made you\u2014who but I?\" and sank Beneath the soil he loved. And \u00d3shun2 threw Her body down\u2014but never ceased: a stream Gushed up, the sacred stream that flows for ever. Ol\u00f3kun3 fell; 'neath the wide Earth she flowed To the broad spaces of her troubled realm. . . | \n| except \u00d3gun. | So went the Gods; but last, as Os\u00e1nyi gave The charm to \u00d3gun, last of all the Gods\u2014 Back from the rebel town Great M\u00f3rimi Rushed back, and cried: \"The fire the vulture brought p. 45 Shall slay the hosts of \u00dabo!\". . . The months crept by Fate-laden, white King \u00d3gun's warrior son, | \n| Or\u00e1nyan destroys the \u00dabo army. | Or\u00e1nyan,1 schooled the sireless lads to War; But when the festive season came, he hid Them with red fire prepared within the city, And, as the invading hosts of \u00dabo scaled The walls, a rush of flaming boughs destroyed Grass garments and rebellious men. Thus fell \u00dabo before Or\u00e1nyan, and her folk Saw slavery in \u00cdf\u00e8. . . | \n| | Time spared these deeds\u2014 | \n| | But gave to the impenetrable wilds The place where \u00dabo stood, her rebel Gods, | \n| The \u00c9di Festival | Her rites. And here in \u00cdf\u00e8, by command Of M\u00f3rimi, the children of the captives Worship Ol\u00fabo, but must flee before Or\u00e1nyan's fire. And on those days of feasting No man may blame his wife for her misdeeds\u2014 All-mindful of the guile of M\u00f3rimi. | \n1 See Note VII on \u00dabo and the \u00c9di Festival.\n2 See Note X on \u00d3gun.\n3 Yoruba saying.\n1 See Note XIII. These goblins are called El\u00e9r\u00e8.\n1 See Note XIII for the incantation.\n1 Yoruba saying.\n2 See Note VIII on \u00d3shun.\n3 See Note IX on Ol\u00f3kun.\n1 See Note X on \u00d3gun and Or\u00e1nyan.","title":"V. THE \u00daBO WARS.","type":"page"}