Material on the sixteen signs has usually crossed two language boundaries before an English reader meets it: from Yoruba into Cuban Spanish across generations of oral transmission, and then from Spanish into English by a translator.
Each crossing costs something. Yoruba is a tone language and the tone marks are lost almost everywhere in Spanish and English publication, so distinct words collapse into identical spellings. Names were reshaped by Spanish phonology, which is why the same sign appears under several spellings. Proverbs, which carry much of the weight in this kind of divinatory speech, are the least translatable element of any tradition, and the least likely to survive two passes.
Bascom's 1980 volume prints Yoruba text with facing translation partly so a reader can see this happening. Most other sources do not.
The practical rule for a reader is to distrust short glosses. A single English keyword attached to a sign has been through both crossings and has usually lost its provenance on the way.
Osa, the nine-mouth throw, is documented as one of the sixteen. Its proverbs and prescribed remedies are conferred within initiated practice and are not reproduced in this entry.