God created in the beginning a man and a woman, and the earth was so near to the sky that people on earth could easily reach God in the sky by a rope that stretched between them. Sickness and death were unknown, and a single grain of millet was sufficient for a day’s food. God forbade them to pound more that this single grain. The woman, however, wanted more food and she began to pound more grain with the long-handled pestle the Dinka use. In doing so, she struck God, who withdrew to the heights and sent a finch to sever the rope that had once allowed man easy access to him. Therefore man has since had to work hard to get his food, and death and sickness, unknown when God and man were near together, are his lot.