Ethiopian Folktales

Narrator Unknown

There were seven women, the seventh was lame. All of them gave birth. After that, forty or eighty days, the seven went out to fetch firewood. The lame woman put her child under a tree and the others put their babies up in the tree.

A hyena came and the women said to the hyena, “Our babies are up in the tree so don’t touch them, but the son of the lame woman is on the ground. You can eat him.”

So the hyena said, “OK.”

The lame woman cried and cried and the others were laughing and playing. When they came back with their firewood they found the son of the lame woman was OK, but the others were eaten. So the lame woman was very happy and the others were crying.

The women said to the child, “You can have the milk from all of us and have seven horns, or you can have the milk from one of us and only one horn.”

He chose to get seven milk and seven horns.

One day he dug the soil with his seven horns and he found water in the ground. And the hare came across him and asked him if she can drink some of the water.

He said, “OK. But first guard the water for me while I go and eat my lunch.”

In the meantime the fox came by and asked the hare if he could drink.

She said, “No. The man with seven horns will come and kill you.”

So the fox went away. Then a lion came.

“Oh hare, may I drink water?”

“No. The man with seven horns will come and kill you.”

So the lion said, “Why should I care?”

And he kicked her and drank the water.

The hare sang a poem:
"Mr. So and So with seven horns
The water is being drunk by someone."

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing. I’m just singing."

The man with seven horns came and quarrelled with the lion.

While they were fighting, one of his horns was broken and one of the lion’s teeth was broken, and the hare said, “Stop, let’s go home and I’ll mediate between you.”

So they accepted and went together.

The six-horned man sat on his bed drinking tala^Beer. and eating good quality k'olo (roasted grains). The lion also was drinking, but only the remains of the tala. He was eating only k’olo of barley.

The lion went to his home and sent a message to the hare saying, “I’m sick, you’d better come and treat me.”

So the hare went to him with injera^{Injera is a flat, round bread usually made from tef, a grain cultivated in the highlands of Ethiopia.}.

He invited her to eat barley k’olo. She refused.

When she refused the k’olo and the remains of the tala, he hit her with a stick.

The hare said, “This will not harm me.”

And the lion said, “What will hurt you then?”

He told the hare he would bring a special stick from the nearest mountain, and he tied her with rope.

The fox went past the lion’s house and saw the hare.

“What are you doing here?” he said.

She said, “Mr. Lion has asked me to eat k’olo and drink tala and I refused so he tied me here.”

The fox said, “OK, I’ll let you go, but tie me in your place, so that I can eat and drink.”

So the lion comes back and with his special stick began hitting the fox.

So the fox said, “No, I’ll eat and drink!”

But he said, “Whatever are you talking about?”

So he went on hitting her, but the hare escaped.