Erinle

Also Known As: Yoruba Erinlẹ̀; also Eyinle; Inle and Ode Inle among the Lukumi of Cuba; Oxossi Ibualama in Brazilian Candomblé; the name is usually linked to erin, elephant, joined either to ilẹ, earth, or to ile, house
Region/Culture: West Africa
Mythos: Yoruba Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Erinle is a hunter who became an orisha by going down into the ground and turning into a river, and his power sits in the smooth stones and water of that river.
Role in Mythos: He is the chief orisha of the town of Ilobu, the guide who led its founders to their home, and in Cuba the physician among the gods.
Relation to Humans: His followers keep river water, sand and stones in a lidded clay pot and speak to him through a kola nut or cowries laid in a small bowl on the lid. In Ilobu he is thanked for finding the town its ground and for guarding it in war.

There is a clay pot in the corner of the shrine, dark with indigo, and the thing inside it is the god. Lift the lid and there is no figure. There is river water, a bed of sand, and a few stones worn round and smooth by the current. The stones came from one river in the west of Nigeria. The river is called the Erinle, and before it was a river it was a man.

He was a hunter. That is the usual account, though some tellings make him a herbalist and some a farmer, and nobody seems troubled by the difference. The hunter version has the most weight behind it, and it comes with a speciality. Erinle hunted elephants. His name is commonly read as elephant joined to earth, or elephant joined to house, and the people who use the name have never settled which. A man who walks into the bush after the largest animal in it, with iron and nerve and not much else, earns a certain standing. Erinle had it while he was still alive.

He also knew the country. When the first Olobu, the founding ruler of Ilobu, was looking for somewhere to put his people, it was the hunter who went ahead through the tall grass and brought them to the place. He knew where the water ran and where the ground was good. The town stands where he said it should. Later tellings add that he kept Ilobu safe when Fulani horsemen raided south, which is a great deal to ask of one hunter, and the town gives him credit for it all the same.

Then comes the part that made him more than a remembered ancestor. One day, near Ilobu, Erinle went down. Some say he sank into the earth where he stood. Others say he walked into the river and did not come out. Either way the ground took him, and water came up or flowed on in his place. The stories give no cause. There is no quarrel, no wound, no curse. He was a hunter in the morning and a river by night. The Erinle still runs north of the town and empties into the Osun, the river of the goddess Oshun.

A river is a hard thing to bring indoors, so his people bring a piece of it. The pot is called the vessel for the stones of Erinle. Women make it, since among the Yoruba pottery is women’s work, and the finest of them, Abatan of Oke Odan, was known by name across the region in the twentieth century. The lid is the showpiece. It rises in open arches like a crown, studded with small knobs that stand for the stones hidden below, and a woman’s head and shoulders lift out of the top with a little bowl held before her. She is a worshipper, shown in the act of giving. Each morning someone sets a kola nut or a few cowries in her bowl and says what needs saying. The clay is cool to the hand. The water inside does not move.

Wood has its turn at festival time. In Ilobu, carvers such as Maku and his son Toibo, from the nearby village of Erin, cut figures for the shrine, and the best known is a mounted man riding with a single rein thrown over his shoulder while a flute player goes ahead to announce him. He is a follower too, a great man arriving to pay respect. Once a year the figures are rubbed with colour, wrapped in cloth and carried out past the palace of the king, with the flutes sounding and the dust rising under a crowd of feet.

Erinle crossed the Atlantic with the people who served him. In Cuba, among the Lukumi, he is Inle, and the hunter has added two trades. He fishes, and the tools set out for him include a harpoon. He heals, and he is called the doctor of the orishas, sharing ground with Osanyin, the keeper of leaves and herbal medicine. Cuban Catholics saw in him the archangel Raphael, the healer who taught Tobias to make a cure out of a fish. In Brazil he is folded into the hunter Oshosi under the name Oxossi Ibualama.

Cuba also gave him a silence. In one telling the sea mother Yemoja loved him, lost him to Oshun, and cursed him so that he could not speak. In another she pulled him down to the floor of the sea herself, showed him what was there, and then took his tongue so that he could never describe it. Since then Inle does not talk to his followers directly. Yemoja talks for him.

What Erinle can do follows from what he was. He finds things: game, a path, a place to build, and across the ocean the right medicine. He holds a town together because he chose its ground. He has the patience of water and the hunter’s habit of arriving unseen.

His limits are just as plain. He belongs to one river, and his presence travels only as far as someone will carry a stone from it. He has no face. And in the Cuban stories the god who knows the bottom of the sea cannot say a word about it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Erinle in Yoruba mythology?

Erinle is a Yoruba orisha who began as a human hunter, known especially for hunting elephants. He is the chief orisha of the town of Ilobu in Nigeria. He became a god when he went down into the ground or the river near Ilobu and turned into the Erinle River.

How did Erinle become a river?

Erinle sank into the earth near Ilobu, or in some tellings walked into the river and did not return. The stories give no reason for it. The Erinle River, which flows into the Osun River, carries his name.

What is kept in a shrine pot for Erinle?

A shrine pot for Erinle holds river water, sand and smooth round stones from the Erinle River. The stones stand for the god. The figure on the lid is a worshipper, and the small bowl she holds is where a kola nut or cowries are placed to speak to Erinle.

What did Erinle do for the town of Ilobu?

Erinle guided the first Olobu, the founding ruler of Ilobu, to the place where the town was built. Later tellings say he also protected Ilobu from Fulani raids. Ilobu honours Erinle each year with a festival in which shrine figures are coloured, wrapped in cloth and carried past the palace.

Who is Inle in Cuba?

Inle is the Cuban Lukumi name for Erinle. In Cuba, Inle is a fisherman and the doctor of the orishas as well as a hunter, and he is matched with the archangel Raphael. Cuban stories say Yemoja took away his speech, so she speaks on his behalf.