The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume I Part 45

MYTH OF THE CONTINUANCE OF DEATH[785]

The following story is told by the Balolo of the Upper Congo to explain the continuance, if not the origin, of death in the world. One day, while a man was working in the forest, a little man with two bundles, one large and one small, went up to him and said, "Which of these bundles will you have? The large one contains knives, looking-gla.s.ses, cloth and so forth; and the small one contains immortal life." "I cannot choose by myself," answered the man; "I must go and ask the other people in the town." While he was gone to ask the others, some women arrived and the choice was left to them. They tried the edges of the knives, decked themselves in the cloth, admired themselves in the looking-gla.s.ses, and, without more ado, chose the big bundle. The little man, picking up the small bundle, vanished. So when the man came back from the town, the little man and his bundles were gone. The women exhibited and shared the things, but death continued on the earth. Hence the people often say, "Oh, if those women had only chosen the small bundle, we should not be dying like this!"[786]

[Footnote 785: See above, p. 77.]

[Footnote 786: Rev. John H. Weeks, "Stories and other Notes from the Upper Congo," _Folk-lore_, xii. (1901) p. 461; _id._, _Among Congo Cannibals_ (London, 1913), p. 218. The country of the Balolo lies five miles south of the Equator, on Longitude 18 East.]