Elegguá is the oricha of the crossroads, the doorway, and the beginning and end of every path. As the Lucumí form of the Yoruba trickster Èṣù, he is the indispensable messenger between humanity and the other orichas: no ritual, divination, or offering proceeds until he has been saluted and fed first, and none concludes without his release. His numbers are three and twenty-one, the last counting the roads or aspects (caminos) under which he manifests, from the childlike Elegguá Laroye to older, more dangerous forms. His color pairing is red and black, and his emblems are the hooked garabato stick and a cement head studded with cowrie shells kept behind the front door. In Cuba he is identified with El Niño de Atocha and the Anima Sola. With Oggún and Ochosi he forms los Guerreros, the Warriors received early in a devotee's religious life.