Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Alami Akwur

Once there was a girl living with her grandmother. One day, youngsters from her village went to another village to play, but her grandmother said, "First pound the grain and cook the food, and then go."

When the other youngsters left, she did everything for her grandmother.

When she had finished cooking, her grandmother said, "Now eat, or you will be hungry on the way."

So she ate, but everyone had gone. Then, when she was walking towards the village, she met a lion on the path. She sang this song so that the lion would not eat her.

"Lion, when you eat me, eat only my back,
Leaving my front behind for Alang's sons.
Alang's sons are playing the drum.
Oguta Nyimaro is one of them.
He cannot play the drum, so he did not go out to play.
He will be eaten by the lion today.
Go and eat him instead of me."

The lion said, "Yes, I will eat you later on."

Then the lion followed her and she repeated the song until they were near the village. And her husband, with a group of friends, heard her voice and he came up ready, and speared the lion with his spear.

When the lion fell, it said, "Please, spear me again."

He replied, "Why? If you had eaten my wife, would you have eaten her again?"

The meaning of the girl's song is: eat my back, not my front, so that my husband will recognise my face.