PAPA LEGBA

[Haitian] The Haitian voodoo god who acts as an intermediary between the loa and humans. He is also the god of the crossroads; he opens the road to the spirit world. He taught mankind the use of oracles and how to interpret them. Papa Legba is commonly depicted as an old man sprinkling water or an old man with a crutch, and is also known as Legba or Legba Ati-Bon. In any vodoun ceremony, Legba is the first loa invoked, so that he may "open the gate" for communication between the worlds. The dog is his symbolic animal.