Marriage Chain
Narrated by Yirga Ejigu
Once there was a couple – a wife and husband living together, sharing their love, ideas and everything else. However, in the middle of their life, the wife falls in love with another rich man and becomes his mistress. Her lover wanted her to divorce and marry him, and he was richer than her husband.
He thought of a plan to break her marriage. First he advised her to ask her husband to buy her the most high quality clothes, and her husband did. And she went to her lover and told him. And her lover advised her again to ask her husband to buy her gold. And her husband didn’t have enough money and he went to look and looked and looked for a job to earn some money.
Finally he got to be a daily labourer and he bought her the gold and went home, but while he was out she was with her lover.
She received the gold and went to her lover and showed it to him and said, “Look, my husband has bought it.”
Now her lover was worried because he is losing and he was upset and lost his temper. So he thought of a third way.
He told her, “Go and tell your husband to perform you a miracle.”
She said, “What type of miracle?”
He said, “Anything, as long as it’s a miracle.”
So she did so.
Her husband was very worried.
“What shall I do?” he asked himself.
He was plunged into deep thought and he left her and went away.
On the way he started praying to God, “Oh Lord God, please help me to make a miracle. The kind of miracle my wife wants from me.”
After a while a demon (amlak) came to him.
The demon gave him two sticks and told him, “If you touch a man with the first stick he will change into a donkey, and if you touch the donkey with the second stick, he’ll turn into a man.”
So he took the sticks to his wife and said, “I have come up with a miracle.”
“What miracle?” she said.
“Let me show you.”
He touched her with the first stick and she turned into a female donkey. After a while he touched her with the second one and she turned back into a woman. After that he gave her the first stick, which changes a man into a donkey.
She took it and went to her lover.
“Oh, my husband has done a miracle.”
“What is it?”
“Wait, let me show you.”
She touched him with the first stick and he became a male donkey.
The husband took the donkey and started to use him to carry heavy loads. The neighbours were worried because the rich man was missing. The husband overused the donkey for many years.
As the neighbours searched for the rich man, they discovered the truth of the matter and they sent some wise old elders to the husband. They begged and cried to him to turn the donkey back into a man. And the man, after many pleadings, he touched the donkey with the second stick. Now the donkey turned into an old man, because it had been worked so hard. And now the husband and wife started to live in peace.
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