In the days of the first humans, death was unknown. But one day a human stopped moving or breathing. Such a thing had never happened before. What to do? Ask Hyel. How? Send a messenger. But who? A worm. That will do. Show him how humble and helpless we are. Not to mention dumb.

With much devout wriggling the worm made it to Heaven and Hyel in his mercy gave the following instructions: “Tell them to hang the corpse in a tree and throw slush at it. Then it will return to life.”

Unfortunately a mischievous lizard who just happened to be eavesdropping ran ahead and shouted: “ Hyel says to bury that thing!” So they dug a lovely hole in the ground, laid the body to rest and covered it with earth.

The faithful worm returned and the humans were given the correct message. But they were so tired from all that digging that they yawned and moaned and couldn’t be bothered to dig up the body. And so mankind lost the power of life over death. It’s the same old story really.

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Article last revised on November 02, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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