Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yisahak Aldade

God the creator listens to everybody’s prayers, no matter how big and how small. This story teaches us this.

Once upon a time there was a big fierce lion that used to live in the forest, and he would wake up in the morning and pray to his Lord, his creator, and one day he woke up and said, “Dear God, give me this day my daily bread. I don’t want to spend the day without having a meal so please give me a juicy bush-buck, a dik-dik, a mouse-deer, or a warthog, or something to eat. I leave it up to you God, everything is in your hands.”

And surprisingly enough, a few kilometres away, there was a mouse-deer who was pregnant, and she too was praying in the morning, and she was saying, “Dear God, you know that now I am at my weakest, because I am pregnant. If anything were to see me, I can’t run away and escape as on other days, and I am about to give birth so I am heavy and I can’t move at all. So please God, I leave it up to you, make no wild animal, the lion, the leopard, the hyena, or anything see me because today I am at my lowest and at my worst. So please take care of me God, otherwise I will be dead.”

So the mouse-deer and the lion both finished their morning prayers and they stepped out of the forest. The lion on his side had prayed for a meal and he came out from one side of the forest, and the mouse-deer had prayed for her survival and she came out from the other side of the forest. And they stood facing each other, face to face.

“Thank you dear God, you are so kind and so just. I just prayed for a meal and here is a mouse-deer right in front of me. You really are a kind Lord. Thank you for answering my prayers so rapidly," the lion said to God.

“Oh my God, what have you done?” the poor mouse deer said. “I have just been praying to you, I have hardly finished my prayers, and here is a lion about to pounce on me, about to eat me. Oh my God, what shall I do? Well, you are the creator of this world and everything is up to you, I’ll leave this matter in your hands,” the terrified mouse-deer said.

So just as the lion was about to pounce and he tensed up all his muscles, a huge herd of warthogs came. Now I am sure you all know what warthogs are; they are one of the foulest animals that live in the forest. They are very arrogant and they are heathens, they don’t think about God. They bathe and they wallow in the mud, and they bathe and they wallow again. They spend all day voluptuously eating and they are very bad and terrible animals. And these ugly warthogs came rushing down the road, and rushed right between the lion and the mouse-deer. So the lion also eats warthogs, and he jumped and he caught one, jumped, one escaped, he hit one over, and he managed to kill four or five, and during this time, the poor mouse-deer slowly walked back into the forest and disappeared amongst the leaves.

Therefore this shows us that God forgets none of the creatures that he has created. The big mighty lion, who prayed for his breakfast, got a meal, and the poor small mouse-deer, who prayed for her survival, also managed to survive.

So this story teaches us that no matter how big or how small we are, God is there to answer our prayers.