This is a very important story you need to know if you always do your Ose Ifa: ( IFA worship day ).
One day, a Babalawo wanted to do his Ose Ifa and got all the materials he needed, they started the Ose Ifa by giving Ifa all the necessary materials but one thing there is that Ifa refused to accept the Obi abata ( kola nuts) from him. They started asking Ifa what was wrong and Ifa told them that he sees death following the babalawo doing the Ose Ifa.
They started asking Ifa what they need to offer to avert the death. They asked all the animals they could thought of but Ifa rejected them all. Someone there then suggested tortoise and Ifa said yes. They used tortoise to feed Ifa that day. When you use four legged animal to feed Ifa, you will be asked to use your hand to stir the blood inside the Ifa together then taste it so the Babalawo tasted the blood of the tortoise.
In the evening of that same day, a friend of that Babalawo came to teach him one incantation, he taught him the incantation and he left.The next day, the friend of that Babalawo came back to check on him but he was shocked to see him alive and he asked "how come you are still alive?" and the Babalawo replied "why wont i be alive?"
The thing is that the incantation that the man came to teach the Babalawo was a very bad and negative one that after learning the incantation he expected to come and see him dead the next day. If anyone is to learn that kind of incantation, they will tell them to lick a little blood of tortoise because failure to do so will result to the death of such person few hours after learning the incantation.
What if the Babalawo didn't do his Ose Ifa that day? Would Ifa have been able to tell him to use tortoise to feed him and taste the blood? Moreover, this is to make many people understand that the use of animal in our tradition is very important and significant in different aspect.