The Woman Who Followed the Dead

Once upon a time, there was a country whose people loved to dance the Wongko. People from other countries would come to dance with them. When these visitors danced, they would make friends, and when it was time to return to their homes, their new friends would accompany them partway down the road. This was their custom.

But there was one woman who loved her friend too much. One day when strangers came to dance in the town, when they departed, everyone went to see their friends off on the road. A dog went with them on the road. When they had gone a little distance, some of the young men told their friends, "Goodbye. We will meet again next moon."

Some of the women turned back, but others told their friends, "Wherever you go in this world, we will go. If you die, we will die with you."

When they had traveled far, they reached a great valley. Then all the men told their friends who had sworn to die with them, "You must go back now. When the next moon is full, we will come again."

So they all went back—all except one. She said she must follow until she reached the place where her friend lived. The dog stayed with the woman.

The man told the woman, "Go back!"

The woman said, "No!"

The man said, "I care for you too much. Stay in town. When I return, I will come to you, but don't follow me to where we are going."

The woman said, "I will go!"

What this woman didn't know was that this man was a dead person! When there were dances in town, the dead would come out of their graves and dance with the living people, but the people never quickly realized they were dancing with the dead. When they found out, they would tell all the women, "When people come from far countries to dance, you must not go with them. Sometimes they might be dead people, and you won't know."

This girl too had been warned: "Dead people come out of the grave to dance, so don't make friends with those who come from far away." But the woman was strong-willed, and she had taken this dead person as her friend.

When they had gone so far that the other dead people had disappeared back to their graves, only one man remained. He and this girl went to his town, but the woman didn't know this was a town of the dead. When they arrived, they reached at night and found only one house in the place.

The girl saw the place was all white—nothing but dead people wearing white clothes were there. The man had vanished from her side, and this woman was inside the house alone. The dead people came to curse her and suck their teeth at her, nothing more, but the woman was terrified. She had nobody. She saw only white clothes; they would suck their teeth at her and disappear again. She could hear them but couldn't see anyone.

But did you know that dogs have supernatural powers? The dog could see the dead people, and he began to bark at them to make them go back. This dog then transformed into a person and asked the woman, "If I save you from this trouble and take you home, when you cook for your friends and I steal all the rice and fish—if you call me 'dog,' you will die." He didn't want the girl to call him dog because he had become a person.

The girl agreed and said, "Come, take me back." The dog turned back into a dog so he could bark at the dead people. He stood in front, and when the dead people came, he barked at them, and they retreated.

When the girl and the dog had gone far on the road, they didn't know the country and came upon a great river. They didn't know how to cross it. The dog said, "Come, lie down on my back." So the girl lay down, and the dog carried her across the great water. When they had crossed, the woman thanked the dog profusely.

The dog said, "I accept your thanks, but you must not call me 'dog' when you reach town. You must give me another fine name like a person." He didn't want to remain a dog when they reached town because people would ask the girl, "Where is the dog that followed you?"

The dog carried the woman until they reached home. The woman told her people all the trouble she had seen. She said, "This thing that followed us saved me," but she didn't call him 'dog.'

The girl's people treated this dog well. It didn't matter if other people called him dog, but only the girl must not call him dog. One day the woman cooked fine, sweet rice for her friends—not for the dead people, but for other friends in town. When she had cooked it and went to call her friends to come eat the rice, when she returned, she found that it had been eaten. She didn't say anything; she cooked more rice and gave it to her friends. The dog kept eating the rice that the girl cooked all the time.

One day she became angry with the dog. She had cooked fine rice with fat beef for her good friends in town. When she went to call her friends, she found the dog had eaten the sweet rice and was lying down near the empty bowl. The woman was furious and said, "This dog steals my rice all the time! Look how he has stolen the rice I cooked for my friends!" When the girl called him 'dog,' the dog looked at her, and the girl fell down dead.