The Dog That Spoke to the Ancestors

The Samburu believe that dogs, because they live so closely with humans but are not human, can often see and hear things from the spirit world. A story is told of a time of peace when the warriors grew lazy and neglected the evening rituals. A man's dog began to act strangely. It would not eat, and at night it would whine and stare into the darkness at something no one could see. The man took the dog to a diviner (laibon). The diviner listened to the dog's whining and then said, "This dog is speaking. He says the ancestral spirits (nkai) are angry because the warriors have forgotten them. They are no longer guarding the homesteads, and danger is coming." The warriors scoffed at this message from a dog. But that very night, a large raiding party from an enemy tribe attacked the village, and because the warriors were unprepared, many cattle were stolen. They learned then that the dog's strange behavior was a message from the ancestors, and they never again ignored the warnings of their animal guardians.