Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Pastor James Duotdol

Once there was a hyena who was sent by his mother to collect firewood in the forest. He was hungry. On the way he met a fox. They recognised each other because the hyena was the uncle of the fox.

Seeing that his uncle was hungry, the fox said, “Why don’t we go home together so that your sisters will give you food? You are starving here in the wilderness.”

The hyena answered him, “It is true that I am hungry because I did not eat for two days, but I shall not go with you.”

“Why don’t you go with me?” asked the fox.

The hyena replied, “I shall not go with you because I am afraid of my enemies who could kill me.”

The fox encouraged his uncle, “If you are afraid of your enemies let me tie you up in the sticks of firewood, and when we reach your home, your sisters will hide you in your house and feed you with fresh food.”

And the hyena agreed with the fox. So he was tied up inside the sticks.

When the fox reached the door, he kept the firewood beside the house, but he didn’t tell his mother anything. His mother gave the food to the fox with a spoon by which she was stirring the food and the fox went secretly to give the food to the hungry hyena. But the hyena swallowed the spoon along with the food. The mother urged the fox to bring the spoon since the food was burning. The fox came quickly to the hyena and asked him to vomit the spoon.

The hyena said, “My nephew, excuse me for swallowing the spoon. It has already gone to my stomach because I was severely hungry.”

And the fox was crying, running back to his mother, asking her to wait for a while. Then he asked his mother for a big stick so that he could beat the firewood because there were many scorpions inside the pile. The mother gave him a big stick and the fox went to where the sticks were and he gave a very big beat to the sticks so that the hyena was beaten inside the sticks.

Then the hyena cried in a loud voice, running to the forest, and the mother asked the fox why he did that, and the fox said, “I did it because my uncle swallowed the spoon.”

That is why the hyena is a cripple up to now.