Why People Have to Die

Why People Have to Die

(A Legend from Vanuatu)

Once there was a young boy who loved his grandmother very much. He was so small she often held his hand as they walked. Every day they walked under the leafy forest canopy to the bathing pool. There, the river was wide and slow. On the day that changed human lives forever, the birds were singing. "treee-kik, treee-kik.” It was spring, and purple trumpet-flowers lifted their open faces to the sun. No one knew that death was coming.

Vanuatu

The grandmother spread her best woven mat on the ground. She sat the child on it. “Stay here while I bathe," she said. “The river is cool, clear, and deep. Don‘t go in the water. Just wait for me."

Then she did a shocking thing. She crawled out from inside her old skin. It was full of wrinkles and hung limply around her knees and elbows. Even her cheeks sagged, like overripe fruit. The grandmother dropped her old skin on the ground as if she were throwing away the empty husk of a coconut. “I'll be back soon," she said to her little grandson. Then she slipped into the cool, fresh water.

Sunlight sparkled on the lazy water. Her grandson watched her splash. Soon she was clean, and she came back to him. “You see.” she said. “I wasn’t gone long, was I?"

He didn’t answer. He stared at her with terrified eyes.

Let’s go. I'll take you home to your brothers now." The boy stared and stared. His lip began to tremble. He had never seen his grandmother without her skin. He didn't recognize this young woman. Her skin was young and tight, like his own. Her face was rosy and smooth. She was pretty, but he didn’t want to go with her. Not this stranger. When she reached out her hand for his, he shrank down against the ground.

“What?" she said. “Are you afraid of me, my little one? I'm your grandmother. Do you think you don’t know me? Remember how we picked berries in the woods? How you found the ants inside that rotting log? How we sang the starling's song?"

The little boy was too scared to speak. He wanted only one thing: for his own grandmother to come back. He didn’t like this strange woman at all.

His grandmother sat down next to him. Her head hung down in sorrow. How much she wanted to be young and beautiful again! But she knew now that it couldn't be. She sighed a long, deep sigh. Gently, she picked up her old, wrinkled skin and dusted it off. Slowly, she put it on again. Her face sagged. Her brow was lined with age and worry. Her young, quick feet became flat and still to walk on. Even her belly swelled out in front of her.

The old woman sighed. “For love of the children, so it must be."

Source:

Pacific Island Legends: Tales from Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia.

Nancy Bo Flood, Beret E. Strong, William Flood

1991

Pages: 125-126