The gift of death

Once the men did not die. But one day Amma judged that they became too numerous and decided to bring them death.
He came down to earth with a white cow. On the way he found two children who looked after the chickens and offered him the cow. <<How much is it?>> They asked him.
<< Nothing >>, Amma answered, << but who will eat it will die >>.
<<Go on your way, we do not want your cow>>, the children answered. Amma continued her journey and met some goatherds, then the cowboys and the horse-keepers. He proposed his cow to everyone, but no one wanted it for the price requested. Finally he came to a woman, Ya Samma: <<Do you want my cow?>> He told her. << How much do you ask? >>, << I do not sell, but whoever eats it will die. >> <<My husband is in the bush>>, said the woman, <<I cannot decide anything in his absence.>> The husband returned shortly. He wanted the cow, but he was afraid to die. The woman shamed him: << The man who is afraid of dying is not worthy of being my husband >>. And she told to Amma: <<Leave us the cow.>>
<<All right, I’ll be back in five days to kill the man.>> <<Only five days is too little; we would not have time to eat all the cow. >> <<OK, I’ll be back in ten days.>> << No, come in fifteen days. >> << Deal done >>, Amma said that she left leaving the cow.
The man and the woman killed the cow and ate it. The woman crushed the leaves of sorrel and put a pile to rot in a corner of the courtyard. On the fifteenth day Amma returned. The woman had hidden her husband in the stable, which she had carefully closed, leaving only a small hole for the air passage.
<< Where is the man? >> Amma asked << that I kill him? >>
<<He’s already dead,>> replied his wife, <<do not you smell a corpse?>> But it is useless to play cunning with Amma. He had seen the stable closed and blew the disease through the small hole. Then he left.
Three days later the man died. Illness and death had appeared among men.