Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Niall Gatch

Ganya Tut, usually called Tut, is a greedy man who has many things in his house and he is a rich man. One day his wife cooked a very big meat for him, and he ate it sitting up in his barn. His dog came in and watched him while he was eating. Ganya moved back, away from his dog and the dog jumped back towards the door of his barn. Ganya jumped back too, but he didn’t realise that there was a hole behind the place where he was sitting, and he toppled off his seat and fell into the hole, spilling all his food. His son was there, with his nephew and the little child of his daughter. The little girl started to cry.

“What’s the matter?” they asked her.

“I’m crying because my grandfather’s food is all spilt and spoiled,” she said.

Ganya was angry.

“Don’t cry for the food,” he said. “What about me, you stupid child? Why don’t you cry for me?”

Then he spent three days in his house nursing his broken leg.

After three days he went slowly and carefully and sat with his three friends. They talked and laughed happily until his friend slapped him on the leg.

Then Ganya said, “Oh! You’ve broken my leg. Now you’ve got to pay. Give me ten oxen.”

They went to the judge.

“This man broke my leg,” Ganya said to the judge, showing the judge his broken leg.

The judge decided in his favour, and Ganya’s friend had to give him ten cows.

Ganya killed one of his oxen and another friend came and said, “Please give me a leg of your ox.”

“Alright,” said Ganya, “But what will you give me in return?”

“When I kill my ox, I’ll give you a leg,” the man said.

So the man took a leg of the ox.

But after five days Ganya went to his friend and said, “Please give me the leg of the ox you promised me.”

The man said, “Yes, please wait until I kill an ox.”

Then Ganya went and killed one of his friend’s oxen, and cut off a leg and took it home. His friend came very angrily and accused him of killing one of his oxen without permission.

Ganya said, “I didn’t take the ox, I just took one leg, in return for the one I gave you.”

The judge said to the friend, “What do you want me to do against Ganya?”

He said, “Kill one of his oxen, so that I can take a leg.”

So Ganya took an ox and killed it and gave a leg to his friend.

Then^{The ending of this story is not clear.} he said, “OK, because I killed my ox and gave you a leg, you must give me a leg that you took last time.”

So the man went and killed an ox and gave it to Ganya.

This is the story.