Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Amino Ojulo

Agenga is talking to the king, who said, “You can’t fool me. If you succeed, I promise I’ll give you my gun.”

After a while the king went to hunt in the forest, and Agenga heard of this and took the opposite direction. The king didn’t see him, but Agenga watched the king and pretended to be the honey bird, which leads people to the honey. After that, when the king whistled, Agenga made the bird’s song, and so the king searched for honey without seeing Agenga. He searched for a long time around the termite hills but he fell into a thorn bush where Agenga was hiding, and he was scratched.

Then Agenga showed himself and said, “It wasn’t the honey bird you heard. It was me. I fooled you. Give me your gun.”

He replied, “OK, you succeeded in fooling me, so let us go to the elders to judge.”

When they went to the people, the king said, “Agenga succeeded in fooling me, so I have to give him my gun as I promised.”

The people said, “What did he do for you?”

“Nothing. But he tricked me, and I wasn’t willing to kill him, and because of my promise I must give him my gun.”

So Agenga took the gun before the people.