Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Rhamsey Schwoll

In the ancient time, all the animals were living together. All of them were together and they had their own chief who could see their cases.

During that time the monkey took a loan from the lion and all the time the lion was asking the monkey to give him his money.

He would always say, “I will give you your money,” but he never gave it.

Whenever the monkey saw the lion, he used to hide himself so that he could not be got by the lion.

One day the lion went to the chief. The chief was the fox. He accused the monkey.

“Please, fox, I have a debt. My money has been taken by the monkey. He has been refusing to pay it to me until now and I don’t think I will get it. Therefore, you try to see our case.”

All the animals were called. The cow, the sheep, the goat, the rat, the hyena, the buffalo and many others. So they gathered under a tree to hear the case between the monkey and the lion. So, during the long run of the case being heard by the chief, the monkey was convicted that, unless he paid, there was no any other way, he had to be eaten by the lion.

Of course the lion is a very strong animal and none of these animals would be able to fight him, so they were afraid. Because of that fear, the monkey was convicted.

“Unless you pay the money to the lion, you must be eaten.”

First of all the cow decided this sentence, so the monkey was sentenced to be eaten by the lion. Every one of those animals said the same thing because they were afraid of the lion.

When the fox, the chief, saw that the monkey was convicted, that he was sentenced to death by all the animals, the fox didn’t like this thing, that the monkey would be eaten by the lion. He was not interested in this thing.

Finally he said, “Well, monkey, you are sentenced to be eaten by the lion, but before someone is eaten, you can see also the tree. You can see the tree. The tree is behind you. Even myself, I sentence you to death like any other animal. So it is a unanimous vote that you should be eaten, but you can be eaten seeing the tree.”

So, immediately, the monkey understood what the fox was saying and he jumped up and climbed the tree and every animal dispersed and the lion was unable to eat the monkey, so he saved himself by the tree.

This teaches children that if you borrow someone’s property you must pay it back. The other thing is that the fox, being the chief, was siding with the weaker animal rather than with the strong, and it was a democratic vote, a decision by all the animals that the monkey should be eaten. But he would suffer all his life, to be in hiding. That’s his punishment.