Quotes from _Magic From Brazil_ #2

"In African myth, when the great All Father, Olorun, finished creating the world and everything in it, He retired to His lofty realm for a well-deserved rest.  In His place He left certain lieutenants who exercised His will on the material plane.  These divine intermediaries between God and man are called the Orixas.  This is why in the Yoruba language the name means "minor god," that is, a potency second only to the will of the All Father."