The next task is transferring the ere ibeji to its parents. The parents who commissioned the work are given about a week's notice to prepare for the figure's arrival. The artist will set aside a day for the parents to receive the ere ibeji (1).
The figures are removed from the pot three days before the parents arrive. The carver rubs the figures with an ointment called ero which relieves aching joints. The ointment consists of the leaves from seven ewe odundun, seven tete atetedaye, seven worowo and one egg, eyin adiye kan. The leaves are ground into a pot, mixed with palm oil, shea-butter and the egg is cracked and added to the mix (1).
Around four or five on a Friday, the parents are to receive the ere ibeji. Friends and family of the artist and parents are invited to the carver's house. The parents will prepare food and carry it to the carver's house for the occasion. The food consists of various types of yams, plantains, beans, corn, honey, groundnuts, sugar cane, kolanuts and palmwine (1).
During this assembly, through a certain procedure, the
carver will determine how much he should be paid for the ere ibeji. Usually
the carver can not accept a fee that is not approved by orisa Ogun.
The usual minimum fee is five kobo. First,
the one of the four pieces of kolanuts that the parents brought will broken.
The carver will hold the four pieces in his left hand and place his right
hand on the pieces and say: "Ogun lakaye Osinmole. Should my
workmanship fee be egbewa?" Then he will throw the pieces on the
ground. If two face up and two face down he will charge the minimum fee.
If this does not happen time first time the carver will increase
his price until the correct kolanut pieces show. However, if after many
throws the correct kolanuts do not appear then they assume that there is a
hidden meaning. To resolve this the artist consults the orisa Ogun
using the same process with the kolanuts (1)..jpg)
Next, the carver performs a ritual sacrifice. The mother and father of the ibeji will step forward to the Ogun shrine where the ere ibeji has been laid on a mat. The mother kneels down with the father behind her and stretches her hands toward the figure while the artist recites a blessing. Then the carver will present the ere ibeji to her. She will place the figure on her back. If there are two she will put one on her back and one in her wrap at breast level. After the blessing, the mother faces her family. As they sing various songs to her she claps and dances in rhythm to their music (1).
The ceremony is complete. The ere ibeji is carried home by its mother. The mother is instructed not to talk to anyone on her journey home (1). Once at home the parents scrub the figure with black soap and the chaff of chewed sugarcane. The head of the figure is rubbed with waji, a cloth died with indigo or Rickets blue washing powder. A finely ground camwood powder, osun, is used to scrub the body of the figure. As a sign of wealth or connection to royalty the mother will dress the figure with beads and shells (4). The ere ibeji is placed on an appropriate mat and positioned in the corner of the mother's room. The figure is placed upright during the day and lying down at night. Sometimes the mother will prepare clothes for the figure. If the other twin is still alive they will be dressed in similar fashions. On the third and seventh day after receiving the ere ibeji the parents prepare food and drink which they bring to the carver's home. A small ceremony consisting of presenting food and praise songs, oriki, is performed every five days to ere ibeji. The appropriate food for the ibeji consists of epa, groundnuts; ireke, sugarcane; aadun, a mixture of cooked beans flavored with salt; ekuru, mashed beans; akara, fried corn meal cake; dodo, fried plantain; and isu, fried yam (1).
After completing these steps the commissioning of the ere ibeji is complete.