Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Fatima Ali

There was a woman who was mistreated by her husband. He always beats her. She does everything he wants. She brings his injera^{Injera is a flat, round bread usually made from tef, a grain cultivated in the highlands of Ethiopia.} and wat^{A thick stew, served on injera.} but he always beats her. This woman was very much in a problem.

“I always do what he wants, but still he beats me. What shall I do?”

From time to time she went on asking advice from neighbours, relatives etc, and she was very much disturbed.

They tell her, "Go there, go here. Somebody might give you are remedy. There is a medicine there. There is a medicine here."

She went to a wise man.

“What’s the matter?”

She told him, “I do everything my husband says, I give him what he wants, but he beats me. He mistreats me. I couldn’t get any remedy for this.”

“There is no remedy here,” he says. “I can’t give you any medicine. If you can get the eyebrows of the lion, bring them to me. I will do something for you.”

She was at first very much afraid.

“How can I get the eyebrows of a lion?”

She killed a goat.

“Maybe doing this I can get the eyebrows of the lion.”

She sits on a tree where the lion cannot get her.

The first day, she killed the goat and threw a big piece to the lion. She did this seven days continuously. After doing this repeatedly, the lion ate the flesh and drank water at the foot of the tree. After the seventh day, she threw a bit of a stick at him while he was dozing to check on him if he would wake up. He didn’t wake.

“Now, that is my time to get the eyebrows.”

She climbed down the tree and took the eyebrows and went. Then she went to the wise man.

“How did you bring it?”

“Well, for seven days I took the flesh of the goat and threw it to the lion and while he was asleep that’s how I got it from him.”

The wise man answered, “Therefore it is just like this that you can win your husband, otherwise there is no remedy. Be as tactful as he wants you to be."