Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yisahak Aldade

Once upon a time there was a sheep and a goat. This sheep and this goat were very much exploited, therefore they were sickly and tired and skinny and they were very, very miserable.

And their owners also had basically lost hope in the goat and the sheep because they were so sickly and miserable. Therefore, unfortunately, they didn’t take good care of them. They would take all of the other animals to a hot spring which was far away, and just leave the goat and the sheep tied up to the hut.

Now this obviously was very annoying to the sheep and the goat, because they would have loved to go to the hot spring, and graze on all the fertile grass and drink the water. But they were usually ignored, because the trip was almost a two-day trip, therefore they couldn’t take so many animals. They would take the cow who gave a lot of milk, and they would take the fat sheep and the other goats, but they wouldn’t take the poor goat and the poor sheep. They were always kept in the yard, always tied up with nothing to eat.

Therefore the sheep and the goat got very tired of this, they didn’t do much except being tied in the yard, and grazing just around the hut. So one day the pair of them decided to run away to the hot spring, and to drink and eat to their hearts’ content.

So they got up and they set out early in the morning, and they walked and they walked and they walked, and it was a long journey.

Suddenly they came to this big lion.

“Good, a goat and a sheep, I can eat them up,” the lion roared.

“Well, haven’t you heard what’s happened?” the sheep and the goat said.

“What?” the lion said.

“Oh, the earth is splitting and the sky is about to fall, that’s why we are running. Everyone is running to escape this natural disaster.”

And they ran on their way. The lion, thinking that they were telling the truth, also ran to the forest.

So the sheep and the goat ran on and on and on, and after some time they met the leopard.

“Good, a meal!” said the leopard, and he was about to jump on them and tear their throats, when they said, “No, no Mr. Leopard. Haven’t you heard the bad news? The earth is splitting and the sky is about to fall down. Therefore if you eat us the natural disaster will catch up and kill you, so you ought to run and save your life.”

So the leopard left them and went running away to save his life.

On and on they ran until they met the hyena.

“Good, I’m famished, I’m starving, I need something to eat,” the hyena said.

“Oh no, Mr. Hyena, you don’t have time to eat us,” they replied. “Haven’t you heard what’s happening? The sky is about to fall down and the earth is splitting, therefore run, to save your life.”

“OK,” said the hyena, and he ran away.

So on and on the goat and the sheep ran. They hadn’t realised that the spring was so far away, or that the grassy fields would take so long, and after some time they met a fox.

“Good!” said the fox, “I can eat you two.”

“Oh no,” they said, “You don’t have time to do that. There is a natural disaster. The earth is splitting, like an earthquake, and the sky is falling down, therefore you ought to run away and save your life too.”

And the fox ran away.

So they ran on and on for such a long time, and finally they reached a steep valley which the hot spring was in. So they ran down the steep cliff sides and when they reached down there, they drank and grazed to their hearts’ content. They drank and drank the sweet water of the hot spring and they ate all the juicy grass around it, and they spent a long, long time there. Finally they decided that it was time to go home, and they started to go home.

But climbing up the steep cliff was not very easy for them as running down was, because firstly they were weak after having run all day, and secondly their stomachs were bloated and heavy with water. So they climbed up slowly, step by step, higher, weak with their stomachs full, and it took them a long, long time to climb up the hill. So when they reached the fields they were very tired and it was very late. Finally night fell and they didn’t know what to do. They had never spent a night out in the open, and they were afraid that they would be eaten up. So they came to this huge tree and they talked together for some time and they said, “Look, if we spend the night under the tree, some wild animals might eat us, so we’d better climb up into the branches.”

Well, by its nature a goat is used to climbing over things and a sheep isn’t. Therefore the goat climbed up the tree very easily, and the poor sheep struggled and struggled because her hooves would not hold, and she had to make her way up slowly, struggling. But she did finally manage to get into the branches.

Then they slept there for a little while, but then they heard a noise under them, and when they looked down there was an animal meeting. All the animals were there; the lion, the hyena, the leopard, the jackal, the fox, it was a huge meeting and all of them were talking.

The sheep and the goat were terrified and they crouched lower in the branches and stayed quiet and began to listen to the meeting downstairs.

“So, what shall we do?” one said.

“Just stay quiet and listen," the other one whispered.

So after some time the animals below started talking.

“Oh my God, I was tricked in such a foolish way today,” the lion said.

“Really, what happened?” the others asked.

“Well I met this goat and a sheep along the road and I was about to eat them up, but they warned me that the earth was splitting and the sky was about to fall down. So I thought they were speaking the truth, and I ran away to save my life, but obviously they just made up such a lie to save their lives.”

“Oh my God! The same thing happened to me.” said the leopard. “I also heard them and they fooled me in the same way. I must have been foolish to have been fooled by a stupid goat and sheep.”

The hyena said that that had happened to him too, and so had the fox.

“But this is appalling, we should catch them and eat them some other time,” they all agreed.

In the meantime, the sheep’s bladder became full, because she had drunk so much water and she wanted to piss. But the problem was, if she pissed from the branches, it would land on the lion below, and they would all obviously come up the tree and gobble them up in a minute. So she was desperate. She tried to retain hold on her bladder, but her bladder was bursting. So she whispered into the goat’s ear, “Goat, I have got to go to the bathroom, my bladder is full.”

“What rubbish!” the goat said, “They’ll kill us if you do anything. You should just hold up a little longer.”

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t take this any more.” the sheep said, “I’ve got to have a leak.”

“Oh, you stupid sheep!” the goat said. “Well at least we have got to save ourselves. Therefore there is only one thing you can do. You should lower your head and try to roll over upside-down, and then try to piss very slowly so that all the urine will soak into your wool, so not a drop will go down. That’s the only thing we can do if you can’t hold it any longer.”

“No, no, I can’t, I’ve got to go,” the sheep said, and the sheep tried to turn upside down so that she could piss upwards and her urine could soak into her wool. But as the sheep was turning around, because her hooves couldn’t hold onto the branch, she slipped and BHAM she fell down into the animals below with a big noise. And as the sheep fell and went BHAM onto the earth, the animals below thought that the sky had fallen down and they all ran away in different directions to save their lives. So the sheep and the goat managed to survive the night, and in the morning they walked back safely to their hut.