"Orisha' means god," says Baba Shango Akinwon. "In Oyotunji, we worship a pantheon of orishas, like the Greeks and Romans did."

Akinwon is standing in front of the shrine to the orisha Elegba, explaining Yoruba theology to a half-dozen tourists. The shrine is a little thatched hut decorated with a cow skull that's painted silver. Inside there's a red candle, a bowl with pennies in it, a goat skull, a sculpted wooden head festooned with rusty nails, and a mound covered with chicken feathers and topped with a cigar.

"Elegba is the messenger," Akinwon says. "We communicate with the deities through Elegba."

Elegba is also the god of luck, he says. And he's a mischievous trickster, a god who sometimes behaves like a naughty boy.

"At the other shrines, you'll see me bow down and touch the ground," Akinwon says, "but at Elegba's shrine you turn around and shake your behind."

He turns around and shakes his butt at the shrine. Then he leads the tourists to the next scenic spot.