Babalú Ayé is the Orisha of healing, disease, and the earth. In his dance he arrives as a sick man: bent over, limping and weak.
According to EcuRed, Babalú Ayé always arrives as a sick man: back bent, hands stiff, limping and weak, sometimes falling. His movements are those of someone with a fever; with his aja (broom) he shoos the flies from his open wounds and sweeps the air clean of bad influences. The other dancers join in a circle, bent over and limping.
According to EcuRed, the aja is one of his objects of power; in the dance he uses it to shoo the flies from his wounds and sweep the air clean. EcuRed also lists a corojo or coconut palm frond, a branch with a piece of sackcloth decorated with beads and cowries, a pair of crutches and a triangular wooden bell. His clothing is made of sackcloth covered with cowrie shells.
According to EcuRed, two little dogs are among his attributes.
Babalú Ayé is syncretised with Saint Lazarus and regarded as particularly miraculous. On 17 December, tens of thousands of devotees gather at the leprosarium church of San Lázaro in El Rincón, on the outskirts of Santiago de las Vegas near Havana. Arará believers honour him as Asojano.
Toques: the furius.ca toque database lists Oyokotá as a toque for Babalú Ayé. See the Babalú Ayé toque.