Mythology research project. Speaks of The Yoruba and Madagascar myths

Essay by OoFaUHigh School, 11th gradeA, September 1996

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        In The Yoruba and Madagascar myths of creation, the beginning of the world was a formless Chaos which was neither sea nor land. Orisha Nla, also called the Great God, was sent down from the sky to the Chaos by Olorun, the Supreme Being. His obligatory mission was to create solid land and to aid him in the accomplishment of this task, he was given a snail shell, a pigeon, and a five-toed hen. After the earth and land were separated, a chameleon was sent with Orisha Nla to inspect his work and report to the Supreme Being. Olorun was satisfied with the good things reported to him and sent Orisha Nla to finish. He planted trees, Olorun made rain water fall from the sky and grew the seeds into a great forest. The creation of earth took four days and on the fifth Orisha Nla rested from his work.

        Orisha fashioned the first people from earth for Olorun, but only the Supreme Being was able to give them life. Orisha Nla hid in his workshop trying to watch him, but a spell of deep sleep was cast onto him so that only Olorun knew the secret. He made the first man and woman and their daughter and her husband. The rest of the human beings descended from the them.

        As time passed, the Creator noticed that as humans multiplied and prospered, they gave thanks to Mother Earth but forgot about him. He decided thenceforth to take the souls of half the humans signifying a tribute.

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        In the myth, Why Men Must Die told by the Zulu's of Natal in South Africa, we are told how because of a slow moving tiny animal man-kind suffered and still does of mortality. The first man on earth, also a god, sent...