Chuku once sent a dog to mankind to tell them that corpses should be covered with ashes and laid on the ground, and that this would bring the person back to life. The dog was tired and Chuku decided to send a sheep in his stead; the sheep forgot the message on the way and guessed, telling mankind to bury the bodies of the dead. The dog eventually arrived, but his correction was not believed and so death is a permanent fixture.
Ala, daughter or wife of Chuku, is one of the more popular divinities. She is a goddess of fertility as well as death, ruling over the beginning and ending of life.
Other deities include Aha Njoku[?], a goddess of yams and the (female) farmers who grow them.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump