Week 7 Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part B

 

"Dog eating a bone" Source

Nigerian Folk Stories: Why Dead People are Buried

    This is another story in which there was a reason given to an otherwise overthought thing, why are dead people are buried? As the story goes, in the beginning, the creator made men, women, and animals. The creator hated it whenever someone would die so one day he sent a dog out as a messenger to tell all people that when someone dies they are to be placed above the ground and wood ashes were to be placed above them so that in twenty-four hours they would come alive again. 

    So the dog set out to deliver this message, but after half a day of venturing, he became tired and hungry. He stopped by an old lady's house and saw a bone with some meat left on it and made it his meal and fell asleep. When he awoke, he forgot the message he was sent out to give and did not return to the creator. When he noticed that the dog was not returning, the creator sent out a sheep to relay the same message. However, the same thing that happened to the dog happened to the sheep. It became hungry and ate the grass and forgot that it had a message to deliver. When it remembered that it had a message to give to all people, the sheep forgot what exactly that message was and began telling people to bury those who died in the ground. So that is what they did. 

    Eventually, the dog remembered his message and ran back to the people telling them to place those who died above the ground and to lay wood ashes upon them so that they could come alive again. These people did not trust the dog because the sheep had just told them to bury the people below the ground. It is because of the dog's mistake that all people are now buried below the ground and have no chance to live again.

Bibliography: "Why Dead People are Buried" by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).