Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yusuf Adem Mandre

A long time ago, there lived a person called Abba Bukkush. He was a jolly fellow. He used to make the king laugh very much, so the king called him Abba Bukkush, which means 'Father of Laughter'. Abba Bukkush always sat beside the king.

Then one day he said to his friend, “The king is a very good man but when one man called Afewerke made mistakes, the king didn’t punish him. He should have given him some sort of punishment.”

Abba Bukkush’s friend went to the king and told him what Abba Bukkush said.

Then the king said, “Aha, so he has started to show disrespect for me,” and he was very angry with Abba Bukkush.

He ordered three of his soldiers to go to Abba Bukkush’s house and shit on his mattress.

So the soldiers went to Abba Bukkush’s house and said, “We have been ordered to shit on your mattress.”

So they brought the mattress out of the house and started to prepare themselves to shit.

At this time Abba Bukkush brought a big stick and said, “The king has only ordered you to shit on my mattress but he has not ordered you to pee. So if I see a drop of pee on my mattress I will beat your heads with this stick.”

The soldiers were confused and frightened since they couldn’t do one without the other, so they went back to the king and told him the story.

So the king was amazed and began to laugh and ordered his soldiers to take him some gifts.