Why the Dead Come Back No More

(Ifugao)

A very long time ago, there lived a very kind woman with her three little children. She loved her children so much that she worked hard to be able to feed them.

One day she fell ill, and in a short time she died. Her spirit went to Kadungayan, of course, as she lived a good life, but one night she thought of her poor little children whom she left on earth. She imagined that no one cared for them and that they must be hungry and cold. She pitied them so much that she decided to go back to earth.

When she reached their house, she called her eldest child to open the door for her. The children recognized their mother's voice and opened the door at once. She went in and spoke to them, but they could not see her because it was so very dark and their fire had gone out. The children had not built a fire since their mother died. The children were too small, and they did not know how to build one.

So the woman sent her eldest child to beg for fire from the neighbors as she felt very cold. The poor child went to the first house, but when she told them that she wanted fire for her mother who had come back home, the people just laughed at her. They did not give her fire. She went to the next house, but the same thing happened. Thus, she went to the next house, from house to house, but no one believed that her mother had come back. They thought the poor child had gone out of her mind. So the poor child went home without fire. The woman was very angry with all the unkind people. She said, "Am I to die a second death because men are so selfish? Come, my children, let us all go to that better place where I came from - Kandungayan. There are no selfish people there."

She took a jar of water and went outside in the yard. She shouted to all the people, "Ah, what selfish people you all are. From this time on all people will follow my example. No man will ever come back again to earth after death." With these words she smashed the jar on a big stone. This made a horrible sound. All the people became silent with fear.

The next morning the people came out to see what had caused the great voice. They saw the bits of broken jar and they found the three children dead. They now knew that the woman had really come back home that night and that in her anger at their selfishness had taken her three children with her. The people were so sorry for not having given fire to the little girl.

Since then no dead person has ever come back to earth.