behold the sacred stones

                        
           

........Only  the monarch and  Oloris know the number
             ........Princes and Princesses must dance round  Itagun 
            ..........We have 16 shrines,I added one 

These Chiefs are explaining some points  about the  sacred stones

                                CURIOSITY

 Outside  His Royal Majesty Oba Joseph Adebayo Adewole  the Ajero of Ijero's  palace is a sacred place where hundreds of   stones are  neatly kept in a circle  and guarded by concrete  wall with sharp and pointing irons to protect the stones. Looking at the stones one may be curious to ask  over 1001 questions :what importance  are the dirty stones?Are they precious stones?. What are these stones doing here?.Why are they  here and for how long have they been here? . What could have been the reason for  dumping  here? 
                   SACRED STONES
 In Ijero -Ekiti this place has become a sacred place thus it has become a Tourist Center  and it is kept sacred , while it is kept neat always .Speaking with the   monarch  who doubles as the traditional ruler and head of the community , he said '' each stone represents a king that had passed away and that is how it has been from time immemorial'', he continued  ,'' nobody can count the number of the stones and while counting the number of stones you get confused , and that   is mysterious''   ” If you start  counting the stones one, two, three you would miss it and will never be able to finish counting them as you would get confused.





 And if you go back  and start  counting again you will get confused no matter how smart or brilliant you are. No man in this town knows the number of the stones deposited here .But It is only the Oloris   (wives of the Monarch) and the monarch himself  that know  the number ''.
He explained further as he emphasized on  the ''holiness'' of the place , he said ''the place is a sacred place and one must not go into the place, or throw things or rubbish into the place, whoever does that would see its repercussion.No one ever tries  it”, he said with his face frowned .

           A  STONE REPRESENTS A DEAD MONARCH
Still on the stones , the king said '' The sacred place where we keep stones started long time ago when our forefathers were not educated , so whenever a king dies the community would place a stone there .So if you want to know how many kings that had passed away you will have to count the number of stones there. Despite our civilization , education and modern world we refused to jettison the idea .When I pass away too a stone would be placed there'', he said .

 
These stones represent the number of the departed Kings in Ijero