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Let us continue with “The Passing of Ógun,” from the book “Myths of Ífè,” translated by John Wyndham from recitations by the high priests of Ífè. King Ógun, who reigns in peace, was the last of the Gods to leave, retiring after the people preferred His son Orányan. THE PASSING OF ÓGUN. After the Úbo Wars, Ógun reigns in peace. “Arába continues: An age passed by, and Ífè knew no more of battles, for Ógun, grey and bent, chose out the way of peace beloved of old Arámfè. Forgotten lives were lived, and shadowy priests kept warm the altars of the departed Gods: old men went softly to the river’s lip […] and unremembered wives sought out the shrines of the givers of new life. Their names are lost. . . Yet now, Oíbo (white man), let a final tale be told; for, at the last, that silent age yields up the legend of its fall. In those last tranquil years the mothers blessed King Ógun for peaceful days and night’s security; and old men used to tell of their brave deeds in battles where Orányan led, applaud the torch-lit dance and pass their last calm days happily. . . but then came traders from the wilds by thorn and tangle of scarce-trodden ways through the dim woods with wondrous tales they heard at crossway markets in far lands of deeds Orányan did on battlefields beyond the region of the forests. These tales, oft-told in house and market, filled the air with rumors and dreams of war which troubled the repose of ancient Ífè—for, while the fathers feared the coming of the day when the grey God, aweary of Earth’s kingship, would go back to his first far-off home, the young men’s dreams were always of Orányan, and their pale days.” Orányan returns from distant Wars to demand the crown. “Lagged by. . . such were the various thoughts of men in Ífè, when on a day, unheralded, Orányan with a host appeared before her peaceful gates. None could deny his entrance: The hero strode again the streets he saved from the Olúbo’s grass-clad men, and came before his father to demand the crown of Odudúwa. King Ógun spoke: ‘My son, it is long since you were here, and you are welcome. But why with these armed men do you recall times well-forgotten and the ancient wars? […]”
