Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Kiwi Jared

There were two friends, the tortoise and the rabbit; they were male animals. Being so familiar with each other, they said, “Let’s have sex.”

So the rabbit, knowing how fast he was, said, “Let me do it first.”

And the tortoise said, “No, let me do it first.”

The tortoise thought, “Although I’m so slow and I have a shell on my back, I can beat him in this.”

And then the tortoise says, “Because my penis is so strong you can’t beat me. I must do it first.”

They agreed that the rabbit will do it first.

“To make things straight, let me go and bring water from the river so we can do it better, and I’ll have the first go.”

“All right,” the tortoise agrees.

Obobo (the name of the rabbit), when he comes with water in his mouth for the performance, the tortoise hides in another place and calls, “Bring me the water! Bring me the water!”

“Where are you, tortoise?”

“Where are you, where are you? I can’t find you!” the tortoise says.

The rabbit comes, the tortoise disappears.

The rabbit says, “We had an appointment, but you are not here.”

The tortoise says, “The place we had planned is not good. Go back to the river and fetch more water.”

So the second time the rabbit goes for water and again the tortoise hides. So the rabbit is very angry. This slow creature, it would be better to break his shell rather than to be sent to the river so many times.

The moral is: don’t undermine others, thinking they are inferior to you.