Reading Notes: Nigeria Folk Stories, Part B
Why Dead People are Buried:
"The creator" of the world gave the a dog the following message to tell the people: "whenever any one died the body was to be placed in the compound, and wood ashes were to be thrown over it; that the dead body was to be left on the ground, and in twenty-four hours it would become alive again." But the dog got distracted and forgot. And so the creator gave a sheep the same message, but the sheep also got distracted and forgot what the message was, so he told people that the creator said to bury dead bodies. By the time the dog remembered to tell people the creator's message, no one believed him because they had already been told the other message.
The moral of this story is that now the dog is not trusted as a messenger. However, if I were to rewrite this story, I would change the moral to something along the lines of how rumors get started.
Bibliography: Why Dead People are Buried by Elphinstone Dayrell
"The creator" of the world gave the a dog the following message to tell the people: "whenever any one died the body was to be placed in the compound, and wood ashes were to be thrown over it; that the dead body was to be left on the ground, and in twenty-four hours it would become alive again." But the dog got distracted and forgot. And so the creator gave a sheep the same message, but the sheep also got distracted and forgot what the message was, so he told people that the creator said to bury dead bodies. By the time the dog remembered to tell people the creator's message, no one believed him because they had already been told the other message.
The moral of this story is that now the dog is not trusted as a messenger. However, if I were to rewrite this story, I would change the moral to something along the lines of how rumors get started.
Bibliography: Why Dead People are Buried by Elphinstone Dayrell
Puppy dog. Source: Pixabay
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