Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Peter Ochande

A boy named Kaga said to his friends, “Let’s go and trap some mice.” (A trap is made of woven twigs with bait under it. The mouse disturbs the prop and the weight falls and crushes it.)

But his trap didn’t have food or a spring.

So he said to his friends, “Let’s go and bathe in the river. Dive to the bottom of the river.”

While his friends were in the river, Kaga ran back to the traps, took all the mice and put them in his own trap, which had no food and no spring. Then he came back to the river and dived with the others.

After a while he said, “Let’s go and see if we’ve caught mice.”

All the trapdoors had fallen, but they were all empty except for Kaga’s.

He said, “Look how many I caught without a spring and food! How much more I would have caught if I’d had a spring and food.”

They laughed at him, thinking he was foolish.

When they went home, they told the story to their fathers, but Kaga’s father was angry.

“A trap without a spring and food can’t catch mice. I’ll punish you if you do this again.”

This warns people not to believe things which are unbelievable, and to take care of tricky people and not to steal other people’s property.