Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yisihak Aldade

Once there was a mouse deer. During the dry season she used to stand in the midday sun and shiver and shake as if she was very cold. A man used to watch her every day and every day she’d go out and shiver under the blistering noon sun.

So the man was very curious and he went across to her and said, “Hey! Mouse deer!”

“Y-y-yes? Y-y-yes? What do you want?”

He said, “I’ve been watching you for the past week and just at noon, when it’s so hot and the temperature’s blistering and the sun is so high, you come out here and shiver as if you are cold. Why is that?”

So she said, “Oh, you stupid human being. You only think about what’s going on in the present. You don’t look ahead to tomorrow. You’re so near-sighted. Why don’t you try to look ahead?”

The man was surprised and he said, “Do tell me, do tell me why are you shivering?”

And she said, “Oh, you stupid human being. You really don’t understand, do you ? What I am doing is getting my body ready and conditioning myself for the cold winter that’s coming in six months.”

So the moral of this story is, you should look ahead and prepare yourself for whatever might come in the future.