Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Yusuf Adem Mandre

A long time ago there lived two monkeys together. One day they went out to search for food and found something to eat. They began to quarrel over the food.

They said, “Let us go to the fox and let him judge us,” and they went to the fox.

The fox, after hearing the case, said, “I will have to use the scales so that I can divide the food into two equal pieces. Unfortunately I don’t have the scales with me now. I have lent it to the lion this morning. Let us go to the lion and divide the food.”

So they went to the lion’s cave. At the mouth of the cave, the fox called out to the lion and told him the story.

He said, “Lion, make peace between the monkeys.”

But then the fox went back without entering the cave, and he picked up the food the monkeys had found and ate it himself. Meanwhile, the two monkeys began to tell their stories to the lion. But the lion had no intention of judging their quarrel. He wanted to eat them, so he ate them.