Obassi Osaw is the celestial high god of the Ekoi (Ejagham) of the Cross River region. With the earth god Obassi Nsi he creates the world, then takes the sky as his realm, sending light, rain and the alternating gift and threat of drought and storm. He is named as the maker of humankind. In the best-known Ekoi tales he gives the first man Etim 'Ne a calabash of seven stones from which all rivers and lakes spring, and he is the original possessor of fire, which a boy in Etim 'Ne's service steals from his sky-household and carries to earth. Ekoi tradition also names the water-serpent goddess Nimm as his wife.