Chapter 07: Cities and the Dead 03

In that city, the dead are called to vote. They give testimony to all the hardships and injustices of the past year. And in each case, the dead man or woman is selected by lottery to return to life to speak for the dead and give advice.

There is a simpler explanation.

According to the current practice, all the records are kept by the City's "wet nurse" which is literally a person who brings newborn babies to be breastfed by women of a certain social class. In that role, they also receive bodies that are so damaged they need to be left at the city gates to be made whole.

In one version of this legend, the wet nurse receives the bodies that have just died in childbirth, and also ones that have just been beheaded for various perceived offenses. In either case, they make a deal with the head of the family whose member's body they're receiving.

If the family member's body has been beheaded, the mother brings the head in a jar to the wet nurse. If the body is a stillborn, the head is a white hen with an empty shell in its beak.

Of course, according to the legend, if the head of the family does not come to the wet nurse, the family member's spirit won't be able to enter the next life. If the head of the family is able to go to the wet nurse, the spirit will be able to enter the next life.

Of course, that's not the only version of this story.