Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Zarke Goite

The baboon and the monkey were living together in olden times. Their faces were the same. But although their faces were similar, the baboon was bigger and the monkey was smaller.

One day they held a meeting and after much discussion they came to the decision that if they sat on top of each other they could reach up to the sky.

The monkey said to the baboons, “You are big and strong so you must be at the bottom of the pile and we’ll climb on top of you to build up the pile.”

So the baboons started at the bottom, one after the other and the monkeys were sitting on the ground near them. After making the pile one of the monkeys put his finger into the anus of the baboon at the very bottom of the pile, so the whole pile collapsed. The bottom baboon had leaped up, so shocked.

So the monkeys, fearing the baboons’ revenge, fled away, afraid of being beaten to death.

And so they reached a forest and prayed to God, “Oh God, we have nowhere to hide. The baboons are going to beat us to death.”

“Why should you worry?” God said to them. “I’ll change your faces and there will be no problem.”

So God created the red patches at the bottom of the baboon, not to grow any hair. And on the monkeys he put white hair on the eyebrows. Then, after that, they started living together in peace, to these days, each of them not knowing the original looks of the other.