Sometimes people give me silly answers to my questions because I am "only 6." I think 6 is pretty old though. I mean I am already in first grade! Papa used to tell me that I am an "old soul," and I think I am because Papa was always right.
Anyway, I really am curious as to why people decided to put other dead things into big holes in the ground. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I want to be able to see my Papa even if his soul is up in heaven.
"Mom look, there's a dog!" I shout. She seems too sad to walk away from my Papa's hole, so I am just going to go by myself to pet the dog. His tail is wagging so much that I know he is going to be a nice one!
As I got closer, the dog said, "I heard you asking your mom why your Papa is being put into the ground earlier...you weren't too content with her answer, were you?" WOW! This is THE coolest dog ever! I always ask my dog to talk to me and he ignores me, but this one is talking and treating me like an old person!
"You're exactly right, Mr. Dog!" I replied.
He sat down with me and we talked for almost 30 minutes. I asked him if he knew the real reason why people get buried into the ground and he knew so much information about it!
He told me that a long time ago, when our creator was still around, a dog was commanded to go share with the people of a village that if you bury someone in the ground and sprinkle wood ashes over them, they will come back to life.
The dog went on his was to tell his people, but he got distracted along the way and could not remember all of what his creator told him. He just sat down waiting to see if he would remember because he didn't want to walk all the way back to the creator to ask him again.
In the meantime, the creator was curious as to why he hadn't heard back from the dog. He insisted on letting the people know this information and tried to send a sheep their way instead this time.
The sheep int the long way to the village and confidently told them that the creator commands the people to bury the dead in the ground. Unfortunately, the sheep forgot to mention the part about sprinkling wood ashes over them in order to bring them back to life.
After 2 days had passed, the dog finally remembered the command and sprinted into the village to spread the word. By this time, they had already heard from the sheep and did not believe anything coming out of the dog's mouth.
So, that's why people that have passed away are buried in the ground and never come back to life.
(Photo from Wikipedia.)
Author's Note:
The original story just included the portion about the creator sending the dog and then the sheep to spread the news about spreading wood ash over the bodies after burying them to bring them back to life. I just thought it would be interested to have a little girl telling the story because I feel like that's a perfect question from a curious child.
Hello! What an interesting story! I did not read the Nigeria Unit so I definitely did not know what to expect from this retelling. I think it was very smart for you to choose to tell the story from the perspective of a child. Children always seem to be curious about everything so it made sense for the girl to ask such a question.
ReplyDeleteWow this is so interesting! When we came around to this unit, I chose the West Africa Unit, but they have a lot of the same ideas in place. The main theme among them is giving somewhat wild, and somewhat realistic explanations to everyday events. Why do spiders live in corner? Why do roosters crow in the morning? Silly questions that they created a whole story about. I think it is so fun!
ReplyDeleteI loved the ending to your story! I think I'll read the Nigeria unit next week because I really enjoyed your rendition of the original story. I agree with your author's note that telling the story from a child's perspective is perfect. It makes the story so innocent and enjoyable because kids ask so many questions naturally. Really good story!
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