Ethiopian Folktales

Skinning A Fleaየቁንጫ ቆዳ መግፈፍ

Tigrayትግራይ · 1 min readደቂቃ ንባብ

Narratorተራኪ: Unknown

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Narrator Unknown

One man goes to the market to buy a donkey. He couldn’t get a donkey so bought seventy fleas. When he came home, one of the fleas flies though the window, instead of the door. While flying through the window the flea was broken. The man tries to skin the flea. For this purpose he asks help from seven people. They were all helping to skin the flea and it took them seven hours.

Then he took the skin of the flea and made a drum and put it outside to dry. A fly was coming from far away and it stands on the drum and now the drum has a very loud sound, and women in a far town heard the beat of the drum, and the women started ululation and other women in another town heard and started dancing, and the whole country danced.

የቁንጫ ቆዳ መግፈፍ

ተራኪው የማይታወቅ

አንድ ሰው አህያ ሊገዛ ወደ ገበያ ሄዶ የሚፈልገውን አህያ ስላላገኘ ሰባ ቁንጫዎች ገዝቶ ተመለሰ፡፡ እቤትም በደረሰ ጊዜ አንዷ ቁንጫ በበሩ ሳይሆን በመስኮቱ ለመብረር ስትሞክር ተሰበረች፡፡ ሰውየውም ቁንጫዋን ለመግፈፍ ፈልጎ ሰባት ሰዎችን እንዲረዱት ጠየቃቸው፡፡ እነርሱም ቁንጫዋን ለመግፈፍ ተረዳድተው ሰባት ሰአታት ፈጀባቸው፡፡

ሰውየውም በቁንጫዋ ቆዳ ከበሮ ሰርቶ ፀሐይ ላይ እንዲደርቅ ውጪ አስቀመጠው፡፡ በዚህ ጊዜ አንዲት ከሩቅ ቦታ የመጣች ዝንብ ከበሮው ላይ ስታርፍ ከበሮው ከፍተኛ ድምፅ ስላወጣ በሩቅ ስፍራ ያሉ ሴቶች ድምፁን ሰምተው እልልታቸውን ሲያቀልጡ በሌላ ከተማ ያሉ ሌሎች ሴቶችም እልልታውን ሰምተው መጨፈር ሲጀምሩ አገሬው ሁሉ አብሮ ጨፈረ፡፡

Check your understandingግንዛቤዎን ይፈትሹ

  1. Why did the man go to the market?

  2. What did the man buy when he could not get a donkey?

  3. How did one of the fleas leave the house?

  4. How many people helped the man skin the flea?

  5. What did the man make from the skin of the flea?

  6. What made the drum start making a very loud sound?

For discussionለውይይት

  • This story uses big exaggerations, like making a drum from a tiny flea's skin. Why do you think the storyteller made the events so impossible and funny?
  • At the end, the sound of the drum makes the whole country dance. What do you think this tells us about how one small thing can affect many people?
  • The man asks seven people to help him for seven hours to skin one flea. What do you think the story is saying about doing too much work for something so small?
  • If you could give this story a lesson or moral, what would it be, and why?