Iwir, or olcan is the ghost-man, or soul in Yoruba mythology
Etymology
Another word is ojiji, or oji, which has the meanings of ghost, shade, or shadow. Iboji means literally, place of the ghost or grave (ibi, place; oji, ghost).
Behavior
After the death of the body, the ghost-man goes to Ipo-oku, "the Land of the Dead" (Ipo, place; oku, dead), which is beneath the earth, and where each man does that which he has been accustomed to do, and holds the same social position as he did in the world. To enable the ghost to reach this land it is essential that he should have the prescribed funeral rites performed over him. Should they be omitted, the ghost wanders about the world, cold, hungry, and homeless, and he runs the risk of being seized by some of the evil spirits which roam about the earth in great numbers, and cast by them into Orun-apadi, "the unseen world of potsherds," an uncomfortable place like a pottery furnace, heaped up with charcoal and the débris of broken earthen pots.
Rituals
Funeral rites cannot, of course, be performed at the moment that breath leaves the body, but as an earnest of their intention to perform them, and to prevent the evil spirits from seizing the ghost, the relations at once offer a sacrifice to propitiate them; and when the corpse is buried, a fowl, called Adire-iranna, "the fowl that buys the road," that is, "that opens a right of way," is sacrificed.