Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Ay Nuria Yusuf Abdalha

Two versions of the final part of this story – that of Ay Nuria Yusuf Abdalha and that of Najaha Abdul Kerim’s family – are included here.

There were two sisters. One sister was called Nadira. They lived with their mother and father. One day the parents called the brother of the two sisters and told him to look for a bride for himself. So he went out to look for a bride, but deep in his heart he wanted to marry his sister.

So he came home and lies to his parents and says, “I couldn’t find a bride who equals my sister, Nadira.”

So they sent him out again.

And again he comes back and says, “I couldn’t find a girl to equal my sister.”

Then the mother says to her husband, “Our son has looked all over town for the right girl, but he can’t find a girl who equals his sister.”

The father becomes very angry and says, “Are you out of your mind? Do you want him to marry his own sister? I don’t want to hear this kind of nonsense and you’d better behave yourself.”

One day the brother goes out to cut wood in the forest with his friends – discussing how to kidnap Nadira and take her away and marry her. But the young brother of Nadira overheard them. He runs away to Nadira and tells her. It was the mother who organised it. She was going to send Nadira out to her brother and his friends to bring them lunch.

So the little brother says, “Listen, when you arrive at the place where they will eat their lunch, they will be sitting under a tree. Before you take them their lunch, creep up on them without their seeing you and throw pepper in their eyes and run away.”

Then her mother called her to take the lunch to her brother and his friends. Then Nadira goes to her brother and his friends.

When they saw her approach, they were happy and said, “Here comes Nadira. Nadira, you have come, you have come!”

So she threw hot pepper in their eyes. Then they began to scream and shout and were blinded and she escaped and ran away. She didn’t stop till she came to a strong, fast-running river with a very big tree on the other side of it.

She began to pray to God:
“Please water, please stop.
Please water, please stop,
On the ground which Allah created.”

The water disappeared. She prayed again:
“Tree, bend down.
Tree, bend down,
On the ground which Allah created.”

Immediately the tree bent down and she climbed up on it.

“Oh please tree, stand straight.
Oh please tree, stand straight,
On the ground that Allah created.”

So the tree stands straight. Then she says:
"Water, flow again,
Water, flow again,
On the ground that Allah created.”

A bird came and landed on the tree and gave her a very big needle (bodkin) with different coloured straw for making a basket. So she began to sew beautiful Haderi baskets. She lives there.

Her brother and parents are searching for her and when they arrived at the other side of the river they saw her sitting way up in the tree; they couldn’t believe their eyes because it was so high no one could live there except animals.

So they called to her, “How can a human being live up a tree which is so high?”

She says, “How can an elder brother be a husband? And can my own father become my father-in-law? And how can my mother be my mother-in-law? Has it ever been heard and seen?”

Then they asked her, “How did you climb the tree?”

Najaha’s family version

She was so angry with her family, except for her little brother, she wanted them to drown in the river and be eaten by the crocodiles so she told them, “I swam the river and climbed the tree.”

So they tried to do the same and were drowned and eaten by the crocodiles but she saved her little brother by saying the rhyme, and the tree bent down and she pulled him out of the river. So one day a prince comes up to the river and saw them sitting on the tree. And he fell in love with Nadira and asked her to marry him.

“She says, “If my spit lands on you, I will marry you. If not, I will not.”

So she spat in his direction. The spit landed on the prince. So she came down from the tree and married the prince and lived happily ever after.

Ay Nuria’s version

One day a shepherd was looking for good grass near the river. He saw Nadira sewing the Haderi basket up in the tree. The shepherd was dumb and deaf. He runs to his master the prince and says, “Mmm Mmm!” The prince can’t understand. But the shepherd started to run towards the river. The prince followed him and when they reached the river the shepherd pointed out Nadira up in the tree.

He immediately fell in love and asked her, “How did you manage to climb this tree? But I can’t reach you up there so I can’t marry you. What shall I do?”

She said to him:
“The basket I made
Which the mule cannot carry
Who will carry it for me?”

“You must repeat this rhyme,” she told him.

He did.

Then she says, “If the spit I spat on you changes to gold, I will marry you.”

Then she spat and the spit changed to gold.

“The girl has sewn a basket.

Who will carry it?”

“If you say this I will marry you.”

So he says the rhyme. She repeats the rhyme for the tree and the water, and comes down from the tree and marries him at his palace with a big feast. Her young brother came to her and lived there too.

One day she looked out from top of the house through a telescope and she saw people coming towards the house.

“This looks like my brother, and this looks like my father and this looks my mother,” she said.

While they were living together her family came and begged for food because they were tired because of their long search (not knowing she was there).

The gatekeeper asked them, “What happened to you?”

They said, “We lost a girl.”

The gatekeeper said, “How could she be lost?”

They told him what had happened.

The gatekeeper asked them, “What was your daughter’s name?”

They said, “Nadira.”

The gatekeeper said, “What is your relation to this girl?”

“I am her father.”

“I am her mother.”

“I am her brother.”

So they let them in and gave them food, water, clothes and while they were relaxing, Nadira appeared, not certain that they were her family. Immediately, because mothers never make mistakes with their children, her mother recognised her.