Chigbu's thought of their progenitor, Ekwulu, seemed to have been taken over by the thought of a legend. It was about the beautiful Ose River that gave them a cool-off massage as they swam around it on their way back from Uga, their ancestral home.
They had in their history that it was Ose, the goddess of the Ose River, who gave out her daughter, Iyi Agada, whom the more elderly people called Iyi Agada Omirima, out in marriage to Iyi Ogbudu- Ogbudu River, after she lost her husband Debego- a god, to a flirtatious Ovomanu, a water goddess who hardly stayed one place. She was a fair-weather woman who remembered her home only when Chukwu- God almighty, gave Ana- the earth god, cups of bland liquid to water his farm for him.
She only returned to have a taste of the bland liquid around plain valleys. She was a beautiful woman, so irresistible that her beauty was capable of breaking homes without a trace, and she did. She hated to work hard, and waited only for men to till her lands. In contrast, others, like Ose, tilled their farm lands, and still remained women. She was so boneless in her two arms. She was a fair-skinned, sun-like-looking woman that radiated through dark spots men made for their honor and dignity. A barrier breaker she was. She was that capable. There was nothing hard she loved doing, except coming around to drink the bland liquid which Chukwu yearly gives to Ana for his farm.
Debego became carried away by beauty and the lust that always hung on its stinging tail. He was pretentiously insisting that he was the only son that needed a son, an heir that would sit beside his throne whenever he went to the market or to his maternal home. Ose did not oppose that, albeit she would always promise Debego that she would have a child, a son, for him after weaning Agada Omirima. She would always say she wanted a female child first to help in domestic affairs before preparing for more hostile boys. But who can stop a shaft that has risen to make a hasty journey through the bushy path of its coming, especially when the signs are there that there is no danger? Or who can stop an agenda that has taken a vow in the blood stream of its carriers? O, well; only time will tell.
Ose did everything she could for her husband to at least look her again in the eyes, but even when Debego did, his heart would be somewhere making some reckless dancing moves with the image in his head. Not even Anuihe, her friend, who came around to help babysit her daughter, was safe.
Debego kept making some flirtatious moves towards her, and, out of anger, she told Ose one afternoon, during harmattan, that instead of allowing what Debego was trying to achieve with her to succeed, she had decided to marry an old Eke Forest Spirit who had devoted years to wooing her for marriage. But Ose pleaded with her friend, Anuihe, to be second wife to her husband, Debego, since they were friends already, and, as it seemed, that Debego loved her, too. Anuihe would not have that. She said friendship gets sweeter when built around visitations than around a permanent stool.
She also told Ose that Debego does not love her for marriage. Instead, he wanted to have a double of the same meal. ''Whatever had gone inside the shell of a snail and lived there already had a body'' Anuihe would always tell her friend, Ose. The two friends would always laugh over this, albeit the hurt in the heart of Ose, who hardly saw her husband whenever it was heard that Chukwu had given Ana bland water to irrigate his farm, because Ovomanu would always come by to flirt around in order to have a taste of it from Debego, who was also a god of a stream. He was a very good friend of Ana. It was only in the hands of Ana that Chukwu found worthy to entrust such service to.
Chukwu chose Ana because Ana had so many big pots to store the liquid before another bland water was provided the next year. Not only that, Ana was known for generosity, and also knew how best to punish wickedness. She had the power to empty any of her pots against anybody that challenges her power, and could also choose to punish such a one with dryness, or make a run across such one's stool. Good thing too: Ana knew how best to reward hard work and goodwill.
The heartbreak Ose the goddess had following what her husband was doing made her return home with her daughter, Agada Omirima, to Ekwulum-Alona, a fortress valley. It was during Harattan when everywhere around the Gboo nation, and beyond, faced the chilling cold of the year. There was no one to cuddle Ose in the night to warm her body, a woman whose body was still as fragile as her newborn baby. She couldn't bear it anymore. On one very sunny afternoon, she was accompanied by her friend Anuihe to return to Ekwulu-Alona. Later, her friend, Anuihe, made up her mind, paid a visit to Eke Forest Spirit, fell in love, and accepted to marry him.
Ose's stay in Ekwulu-Alona lasted like life itself; however, the flirtatious romance between Debego and Ovomanu did not last long. It died as it came because Ose goddess cursed him with a furious rage, because her husband abandoned her within the time she was nursing young Agada Omirima, her beautiful daughter.
Ana heard how her friend, Debego, was treating his wife and became angry. She thought about what to do, and settled for punishing him. She took her pot that she had always kept in Debego's house, with which he enticed Ovomanu. Debego tried everything he could to change her mind, but Ana wouldn't reason with him. By this time, Debego had given Ovomanu the last cup he scooped from the pot before Ana heard about his wickedness, and decided to punish him.
Debego's pleas became an anathema in the ears of old Ana. And when it became very obvious that Ana had closed her heart against Debego, he went back to Ovomanu to get some bland water. He was surprised to learn that Ovomanu had heard what had transpired between him and his old friend, Ana. Still, the problem that lied ahead against Debego was yet to be revealed to him.
It had been weeks, and he had not deemed it wise to see Agada Omirima, his daughter, although Ose was still sending him food which he hardly had time to eat because he had once more found a home between the two legs of Ovomanu. He only remembers his wife when bland water in his custody finishes. When it finishes, he adjusts his taste buds to have a feel of whatever comes from Ose, his wife.
Now, the pot of bland water had been taken away from him. He went to Ovomanu and told her what had happened. Ovomanu pretended that she had not heard about it, but asked him to keep begging Ana. He was given a little to drink, to get enough appetite for his pleas. Debego left again to beg. Ovomanu was getting information about his fruitless efforts because she would always send Ikuku- the god of the wind, who had been trying to make her his fourth wife, to go behind him in order to get information readily available for her, so that she doesn't waste her little remaining bland water on an empty brain called Debego.
On the last day of his fruitless journey of empty pleas, he returned to get some encouragement or at least some ego-massaging words from beautiful Ovomanu. He met her, spreading her two legs wide open on the floor so that Debego could count and name all the pubic hairs that were in-between her two long legs. A husky voice groaned. ''Give me some bland water, I failed again today'' was the only thing any creature with ears could hear from Debego.
''When you were coming to Ovomanu, you first met her face, right?'' Ovamanu asked. ''Yes'' Debego said, admittedly. ''I welcomed you in and gave you a seat. And suddenly you forgot the face that brought you in and focused your attention on my crotch. I thought you had just found pleasure in what you had decided to face. Am I right after all?'' Ovomanu asked. Debego's eyes started piercing through the house, searching for bland water while still standing. ''What do you mean?'' Debego inquired.
''Always face what faces you. I positioned it enough while you were coming in so that your face would not miss anything you had decided to face. And if you are done facing what you came to face, let's decide to face another thing. But that will be in agreement. However, I suggest you face what still faces you. I am a bee; I also eat what I give. And I do all this with my face. I only expose my buttocks when there is stinging to make. I only come around to go around. I was not born for man, but to grow into a man, what it takes to face himself like a man'' Ovomanu said.
It was now dawning on Debego that the bland water was no more. He ran back home to take whatever Ose could give him. He was disappointed to notice that Ose had run away from his house. He met only an empty house because Ose took all she had, including a pot she used to keep her heart for her husband. He cried.
When Ogbudu- the spirit of the Ogbudu River, was told by the wife of his friend, Ekeoha, that her friend Ose was no longer married to Debego, he made so many appeals to get the attention of Ose to marry her. But all his appeals came to nothingness because Ose had decided to spend her life at Ekwulu-Alona.
While Ogbudu was trying to get Ose's attention, Iyi Agada Omirima, her daughter born to Debego, started liking him. When Ose was told that Anuihe had married Ekeoha, who lived close to Ogbudu's house- a river, she accepted to give out her daughter's hand in marriage to Ogbudu, because of the proximity. However, she had sent a search team to inform Debego wherever he was found about the marriage proposal Agada Omirima was getting from Ogbudu. Shame could not allow him to come to perform the rite because he was seen following Ikuku around, who was a friend to all, only living but having no home.
Debego was a friend of Ogbudu. He used to visit Debego when he was still living with Ose. When he waited to receive a message from his old friend, Debego, but could not get any, he decided to pay him a visit. However, he was bewildered when he found out that the place that Debego's house used to stand had become a bush.
Out of shame of not having where to welcome his friend, who is now an in-law in the making, Debego ran away further and did not honor the call to give his daughter's hand in marriage to Ogbudu. After waiting in vain to see or hear from him, Ose gave out her daughter in marriage to Ogbudu. This was how Iyi Agada Omirima got married to Ogbudu.
In the realm of the mortals, Ogbudu was the very river where Iyi Agada Omirima, fondly called Iyi Agada among Amaide people, empties itself. Thus, visiting Ose stream for the people of Amaide was like grandchildren visiting their grandmother.
In some Igbo many Igbo republics, they attributed human characteristics to some natural environmental parts. Streams and rivers are most of the time seen among the communities they surface in as their custodians, in the light of so many things, especially mothers, and generally, parents. And each has their own veneration.
This belief system has helped them foster unity among themselves. Water bodies were indeed houses of refuge for the Igbos. People that fetch from the water body always end up sharing some bonds. Yes, the memory of the visit to Ose stream on their way back had reignited in Chigbu the beauty of the legends of their people that look more real when the names of natural things around them find life in them.