Ethiopian Folktales

Narrator Unknown

One day a donkey was sent out of his house and he was walking alone. On his way he met a dog.

The dog said, “Where are you going?”

The donkey said, “I’ve been expelled from my home and I’m going to the forest to live.”

The dog said, “I also am expelled, so let’s go together.”

The donkey said, “OK,” and was pleased.

They went together and night fell and they slept beside the road. The dog was hungry and slept but the donkey, because he ate a lot, was rolling on the ground.

He said to the dog, “Shall I bray?”

The dog said, “Shut up. If you bray, the hyena will come and eat you.”

But the donkey said, “Just once.”

So he brayed.

The hyena heard in the distance. He comes near, but doesn’t know exactly where they are. The hyena kept quiet, hoping he would bray again.

The donkey asked the dog, “Let me bray again.”

The dog said, “No, the hyena might have heard you. If you bray again he will come.”

But the donkey said, “Ha ha ha ha!” and the hyena knows where he is and kills him.

The donkey dies.

The hyena sees the dog and says, “Who are you?”

The dog said, “I am a hungry creature.”

The hyena says, “OK, you can butcher the donkey properly and give me the heart.”

The dog ate the heart himself.

The hyena said, “Where is the heart?”

“Oh. This donkey doesn’t have a heart. If he had a heart, he wouldn’t have died.”^{Traditionally, the seat of intelligence is said to be the heart. The dog is making a joke about the donkey's stupidity.}

The hyena ate the rest of the meat himself.