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This story was told by Chief Ajanaku, Araba of Lagos (the head of Ifa priests in Lagos) to T. J. H. Chappel in 1964 during a field study in the Yorubaland:

I. In olden days twins were forbidden and anybody having them had to kill them before it came to the notice of the oba [local ruler]. Isokun, near Porto Novo, in Dahomey, was the first place where twins were allowed to stay, and this was because Isokun was not, at that time part of the kingdom of Oyo. When these twins were born the parents did not know whether to kill them or to let them live because they were not in their own country and it was not the custom in those parts to kill twins as in Oyo. So they consulted the Ifa oracle. Ifa said that they should keep the twins, but they would have to dance around the town with them every five days. This they did and everyone took pity on them and gave them gifts. In this course of time they became so wealthy that people began to say it was the twins who had made them rich. This story eventually reached the ears of the Alafin at Oyo. He was convinced by what he heard that these twins were lucky children, so he said it was all right for the parents to keep them and not kill them as was the custom.

After some time these same parents at Isokun had another child whom they named Idowu. When the Alafin heard of this he decided that Idowu should come to Oyo and he, himself, would look after the child. Because of this people came to believe that the Alafin has actually given his blessing to twin births and so they stopped killing their twins. Idowu became very rascally in Oyo, so much so that people called him "the Eshu following after twins. (1)"