Week 6 Reading Diary: Nigerian Unit Cont.

This is the continuation of Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).


 Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes

 I thought this chapter was pretty funny because the moon was described as a pale, fat woman who lived in the sky. I've read several folk stories that have described the moon and it's usually the same description of a beautiful, wise woman. Sometimes the moon would be described as the sun's twin or the sun's lover. It caught me off guard to hear that the moon was a plump, round woman, but it makes sense! The moon noticed that a poor woman was starving, so she offered the old woman some of her meat. Eventually the moon became thinner and gave little light which explains why the moon wanes.


Why Dead People are Buried

 This story was quiet interesting since it explained the origins of burying practices. The almighty creator felt sympathy for the humans and creatures whenever they died. Therefore, the creator decided to send a message to the humans that the bodies should be buried in a compound with wooden ashes thrown over it, and within twenty-four hours the body would become alive again. For some reason, the creator chose a dog as a messenger to deliver the message to the humans, but of course the dog saw a bone and became distracted. To redeliver the message, a sheep was sent as a messenger. Why a sheep? I have no idea! The sheep became distracted with grass and forgot the message. By the time he remembered it, the sheep told the humans to bury their dead in the ground. The dog tried to tell the humans the correct message, but everyone ignored the dog because they have already heard the message from the sheep. To think, if the dog delivered the message successfully, the dead would have been revived every night.

My take on the dog as the messenger. Source.