Week 9 Story: Why People are Buried in Suits and Dresses

Why People are Buried In Suits and Dresses

In the beginning, Jake created the world. Jake made the men, women, plants, and animals. Jake loved his creations so much that he never wanted them to die. He wanted his creations to live forever. To ensure his creations lived forever, he needed to send a message to the people with instructions of how to properly bury people and animals, so that they would come back to life. Jake then saw a monkey, so he decided to give the monkey the message. He said, “Monkey, tell my people and your animal friends to bury the dead in their pajamas, and they will come back to life.”. Monkey was very excited to spread the message, so he climbed a tree and raced off through the branches to go tell everyone. 

            While monkey was swinging through the branches, he saw a bunch of bright yellow bananas growing, the perfect kind for eating. So, he stopped where he was at and decided to take a break and have a snack. After some time has passed, monkey decided that he had eaten too much and needed a nap. 

            Seeing this, Jake knew that he had to give someone else the message. Right as he had the thought, he saw a mongoose. He dropped down from the sky and gave the mongoose the same message that he had given monkey. The mongoose was very excited, so he ran off to go give the people and his animal friends the message. 

            While mongoose was running, he saw some delicious berries, so he decided that he was tired and needed a snack. He soon had eaten all of the berries and needed a nap. When he has woken up, he couldn’t remember the message very clearly, but he decided to go attempt to give it regardless. Around the same time, monkey woke up and remembered that he needed to deliver his message. 

            The two animals sprinted to town, and they arrived around the same time. Monkey jumped up on top of a building and yelled, “Jake said to bury all the dead in their pajamas!”. At the same time, Mongoose proclaimed, “Jake said to bury the dead in suits and dresses!”. The people looked at each other confused. They didn’t know who to trust. After days of discussion, the townspeople decided to trust the mongoose. 

 

Author’s Note: I based my story off of, “Why Dead People are Buried”. I kept the plot of the story very similar, but I changed up the characters. Instead of the creator, I used Jake. I also replaced sheep and dog with monkey and mongoose. I also changed up how the characters told the villagers how to bury their dead. 

Bibliography: Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, by Elphinstone Dayrell, 1910, Link

The Mongoose (From Wikipedia)