Eastern African Folktales
Somalian Folktales
Don’t Be Too Shy
Once upon a time, there was a boy called Mohammed Hassan. His father and mother died when he was very young. They had had a hundred camels, a hundred and twenty goats and eighty cows. All this property came to the boy, but he had no father and mother. His uncle, who had the same name, Mohammed, and who was his father’s brother, became his guardian and took all the property. The uncle was poor with only two cows. The uncle’s wife was called Ambaro and he had four daughters. Mohammed had a problem with Ambaro. She always shouted at him and she was always angry, and he got a complex and never said anything about it to his uncle.
Mohammed helped his uncle’s daughters to herd his cattle, goats and camels. He helped the eldest especially. Her name was Deka. Deka, if she fell down, he would help her up. If she was hurt, he tried to make her better, or to put leaves on her wounds or cut her a stick. He helped her a lot. The other children didn’t like her or him but these two were friends. When she was older and started helping in the house, she would hide food for him and give him special food and creep out at night and give him food, because he had been starved by his aunt. And she was in love with him. He became happier and was no longer so angry with his aunt, although she still hated him and wanted him to go.
When he was old enough he told his uncle he was ready to marry. The elders came together and his uncle said, “Mohammed has the whole property, which has increased, and he wants to marry. He wants to choose a girl from the village. I am ready to marry him (that is, to find him a wife).”
So they agreed to find him a wife. But Ambaro shouted, “No! No!” and she quarrelled with her husband.
She said, “They’re not his now. You have looked after them and all the increase is due to you. He’s a child. How can he take all this?”
All the elders wanted Mohammed to marry their daughter.
“Oh! The boy who has all these properties! The child who has no father and no mother!”
Everyone wanted to have him.
The uncle reproved his wife angrily and said, “The property is his. If he wants it he can take it.”
At last the elders decided that half the property would be the boy’s, and he had to marry with it. So, because of the quarrel, the boy decided to take half of all the cattle to another village, to his mother’s relatives.
“I will marry a girl there. I’ll take it there and I can manage my own property and when I’m ready I will marry.”
So he went.
As soon as he left the village, Deka became very sick. For three years she was sick. Dying even. One day, the boy met someone who came from his uncle’s village.
“How are you?” he said.
“Fine.”
“What about the village? My uncle and his family?”
“They are OK, but Deka is very, very, very sick. Since you left she has been sick.”
“Oh! That lady was very kind for me. I have to take two sheep and sell them.”
So he sold two sheep and took the money and went to the village to see her. He bought clothes for her. When he was near the village (she had been sleeping under a tree near the village) she saw him coming up the road. As soon as he reached her she was very glad and sat up and saluted him. He wondered at how thin and changed she was.
“How are you? My sister, are you well? I heard you were sick.”
Then he gave her the clothes and things.
“I will give meat to eat, special food.”
Deka felt better. She bathed herself and was normal again. So Mohammed stayed for two weeks. Then he went back to his mother’s village. At once Deka became sick again! Everyone noticed that when Mohammed is there, Deka is fine, but when he goes she is sick.
“Maybe this girl, since they grew up together, she wants to live with him. Let him take her, a new place will do her good.”
Deka was very happy when she heard this.
“She can stay with him,” the elders said. “Since he is alone and hasn’t married yet, she can help him as a sister.”
Because they didn’t suspect she was in love with him, and she didn’t tell her love. In Somalia, girls (daughters) cannot tell their love. It’s very shameful. Only a boy can tell his love.
It was far to Mohammed’s village and on the way were dangerous lands full of lions and other wild animals. They couldn’t go alone and had to have three boys with guns to accompany them. On the way she killed a small hare. She gave the meat to Mohammed and as she gave it she sang a poem but indirectly she told her love.
The other boys recognised that she loved him and said, “Mohammed, we will advise you. We have seen that this girl loves you, according to the poems, and how she has given you the meat. All this we have observed.”
He jumped up. “Oh! How can I love my sister and she can love me! It’s impossible. I am her brother. We grew up together. I helped her when she was a very little girl. We are brother and sister! Don’t say that again!”
As soon as he said this, she fell down and hit her head on a stone and was seriously ill and couldn’t talk. They took her to Mohammed’s village.
The elders came together and said, “How can this have happened? Maybe on the way these boys did something bad to the girl. We must question them.”
“No, no!” said the boys. “When we told Mohammed that Deka was in love with him, and he refused her and said, ‘How can my sister love me?’ she fell down and hit her head. We did nothing to her.”
One elder said, “Ah, I have understood. If she is in love as much as this, if we engage them together here, how would that be?”
So she woke up and said, “This man is very clever. He understands.”
All the rest became silent. Then the elders decided that the two must marry and they did. After their engagement, Ambaro heard the news.
“Oh! Oh! How can she do this without telling us! I don’t like that boy!”
Her husband said, “Don’t shout. Don’t disturb yourself. This boy has property and when he wanted to give it for another girl’s family you were angry. Everyone wanted him and wanted to take him and his cattle into their protection. If he marries Deka, all his property will come back to you, and even more, as his relatives will give more for the marriage. You will become very rich, and also he will be under you again.”
“Ah, you are right. I have not looked on that side,” she said, and thus she agreed.
So Mohammed’s mother’s relatives also gave cattle and camels to Deka’s family. So they became very rich and very happy. And all of these things the mother got because of her daughter. She liked boys, but she got more because of her daughter.
The Black Crow
The crow was once a sheikh or priest, and at that time he was white. But all the other birds made an accusation against him.
They said, “On the one hand he eats meat, and on the other hand he eats fruits.”
So all the birds came together and said, “You are a sheikh or a priest! But what you do is wrong. The smallest birds should eat meat. And the biggest ones eat fruit. But you eat from both sides.”
In not only Somali but Cushitic culture in general, it was said that the crow was the representative of the Sun God called Wak. Oromos believed in the Sun God also. People believed that the crow interpreted what Wak, the Sun God, said to the people and people would send their messages to the Sun God through him.
The crow, when he speaks, says “Wak! Wak!”
But the crow became dishonest and ate from both things – fruit and meat, and so he was punished. They cursed him and he became black.
The Head
There was a man who was the husband of a good lady. She was very honest and a hard worker and she did everything well. But he was ungrateful to her and he divorced her and married another. The second wife had no child for a while but finally she got pregnant. The man was very happy and waited and waited, but then she delivered only a head. The head could eat and drink and do everything, but they decided to take it away. They put it in a sack and left it by the road.
The head, in its sack, jumped around shouting, “Please take me!”
People gathered round and picked the sack up and began to take it to the city.
“What shall we do with you?” they said.
“Just take me to the first tea shop you see and put me there.”
So they did.
The head said to the shopkeeper, “Hey, do you want to get rich?”
“Yes.”
“Then take care of me.”
“OK, but….”
“Don’t ask me anything else.”
So the merchant fed him and looked after him. The head gave him advice: kill many animals, bring many rugs and other items. People will come here and buy your things. Soon the man became very rich.
There was a king or ruler in the area who had a daughter.
When the daughter was ready for marriage, the king said, “I will give my daughter to anyone who gives me what I want.”
People came every Saturday with presents.
“Show me what you have!” said the king. “No, I don’t want that. Bring this and this and this – impossible things.”
One day, the head said to his friend the shopkeeper, “Go to the king, and ask him whatever it is that he wants for his daughter.”
“OK,” said the merchant.
The king said, “I want a he-camel,” and he described it in great detail. “The camel should come in front of me and salute me and speak to me in my language.”
The merchant went back to the head and told him.
“He said that?” said the head.
“Yes.”
“Well,” said the head to the merchant, “we will bring the talking camel to the king. Go to such and such a place, and buy such and such a he-camel.”
So the merchant did as the head told him, and bought the camel and took it to the king, and the audience was waiting, and the camel saluted the king and did everything that the king had asked.
The king was very surprised.
“When will you come to me to marry my daughter?”
“Tomorrow,” said the merchant.
The merchant ran back to the head. “Everything is ready. What shall we do?”
“Take me!” said the head. “Let me be the candidate.”
“OK,” said the merchant.
So the king made a feast and all the people were there.
“Who will come to marry my daughter?”
“He is here!” said the merchant, showing the head.
“Oooh! What is this!”
The king was embarrassed. What to do?
But so that the public would not know how he had been fooled, he said, “OK, I have agreed. I will honour my word.”
The head was taken to the house as a bridegroom. The daughter was brought, the marriage was performed. By the time they get into bed he became a very, very strong young man. In the morning, the mother of the bride was so unhappy. She came early and people gathered, and the king himself was looking – Ooh!
At ten o’clock the daughter opened the door and said, “Why don’t you bring breakfast to us?”
“To whom, my poor daughter?”
But the handsome man was there. The king was called and the whole city rejoiced and the young man became heir to the throne and a king.
The father of the head, due to natural disasters, became severely destitute, and he was compelled to come to the city to seek help from the head of the nation. So the father and mother came to beg from their own son.
The head said, “Go to these people. Bring them in. Give the woman food and bring the man to me.”
So they did – Ah! Ah!
Finally he told him, “I am your son who you threw away. Take this and this and this and go back to your place but don’t tell anyone that I am your son.”
This moral is that the first wife was honest and good and the father of the head divorced her. So this was his punishment. The tea merchant lived always rich and happy.
Deya Ali, the Cheating Fox
Once Deya Ali, the cheating fox, was in the village and she saw people crying.
She said, “What happened to you?”
They said, “A man is very seriously ill and going to die. That’s why we are crying.”
Deya Ali said, “I will try to cure him. Will you follow my suggestion?”
“Of course,” they said.
So Deya Ali said, “Please take your camels and cattle and cut off the meat and bring it into the room. Nobody else must be there. Just me and him, and I know I can cure him.”
So they said, “OK,” and they did bring much meat to the room and waited outside while the fox (Deya Ali) cured this friend. But at once the man died.
The people kept asking, “How is he?”
And she said, “Oh, he’s getting better. Bring more meat. More! More!”
So they did and she closed the room and she collected flies in a big jar and all night she kept it covered. Early in the morning she took off the cover and the flies flew out buzzing loudly.
“What’s happening?” said the watchers outside.
“Oh, the patient is trying to do ‘adhan’ (to pray at the mosque).”
“Oh! Very good!” they say.
So the fox makes the flies come out and whenever she does it, the people think the man is praying. So the fox goes on until she has eaten all the meat.
When she finished the meat she covered the body and said to everyone, “He’s asleep, don’t touch him for a while. He’ll wake up and feel better. Goodbye.”
And away she went.
After a while, when they took off the cloth, they saw that he was a dead body, and the fox had been telling a lie.
“Ah,” they said, “We have to find her.”
So they took horses and chased after the fox and caught her and tied her by a rope to a tree.
Then they said, “We’ll boil some water and put her in it to kill her.”
So they went back to the village and put the water on to boil. While they were away the hyena came and said, “Fox, what happened to you?”
“Oh! My uncle says he will invite me, and bring a lot of meat for me to eat. He said, ‘Don’t run away. Don’t move. So that we know where you are we have to tie you to this tree, then we’ll come and bring you lots of meat.’”
“Can you change with me?” said the hyena, “I want to eat the meat.”
“OK,” said the fox. “If you want to eat the meat, untie me and I will tie you up.”
“OK,” he said, so they did.
The fox hid near the tree, and the men came with the big pot of boiling water.
The hyena was very happy saying, “Oh, they’re bringing me meat.”
But when the men were near, they didn’t look at the hyena, just put him in the boiling water.
“Oh fox! Help me!” the hyena cried.
“I can’t help you. Sway like a camel and maybe you will become better.”
So he swayed and his skin became very red.
And that is all the history.
Another Fox Story
The cheating fox was the lion’s niece. The lion, the fox, the humu-humu bird (vulture), the forked stick, the axe, the husk of the coffee bean, the butter, the corn chaff and the hyena all lived together. And they had a lot of cattle which they herded and used. The fox was included, and she was the cheater, and the lion was their king. And the lion sent his niece, the fox, and the hyena to herd the cattle. So they took the cattle to the field to graze.
When the sun was setting, the fox said, “Please, we are hungry. We don’t want to eat our own cattle or the lion will beat us. Let’s try and catch a cow belonging to someone else.”
“OK,” said the hyena, and he tried to kill a cow belonging to some herdsmen, but they saw him and shot him dead.
When the sun set, the fox brought all the cattle back to the village on her own and she said to the lion, “Oh, my uncle lion, I have been herding all the cattle all the day alone. That fool the hyena went to kill and eat a cow belonging to other people and they killed her. I was alone all day.”
“Oh!” said the lion. “Who do you want to go with you tomorrow?”
“The humu-humu bird,” said the fox.
“OK,” said the lion.
So the fox and the humu-humu bird went off in the morning to herd the cattle.
Early in the morning the fox said, “Please, humu-humu bird, can you find us something to eat? If you don’t, I will.”
The humu-humu bird didn’t want to go so the fox said she would and she ran about all day finding snacks to eat. At the end of the day when the sun was setting and the fox had to go back to the village, she said, “You, humu-humu, I only found a stone and some syrup. Try to swallow it.”
So the humu-humu bird opened her mouth and tried to swallow the stone and it stuck in her throat.
All the humu-humu bird could say was, “Humu, humu.”
They went back to the village.
The fox said, “Look, this stupid humu-humu bird went off early in the morning and spent the whole day looking for food for herself. Now she’s come back and her voice has gone, because she’s full up, and her throat has stuck. And I was alone all day, herding and herding the cattle.”
So the lion said, “Why did you do this?”
“Humu, humu,” said the humu-humu bird.
The lion was angry.
“You are stupid,” he said, and he killed her and she died.
“Now, fox, who do you want to go with you tomorrow morning?”
“Forked stick I want to go with me.”
“OK.”
So next morning the fox and the forked stick went to the field.
When they had been herding all day, the fox said to the forked stick, “Please, you, forked stick, these people have been cutting thorny branches all day to make a cattle fence. Look, they are your uncles. You should go and help them.”
“Yes, OK,” said the forked stick and he went off to help the men.
They picked him up at once, and they liked him, and while they were using him, the forked stick broke and died.
So the fox went back to the village with all the cattle and said to the lion, “That stupid forked stick ran to some of his relatives who were making a fence for their cattle. He said, ‘Please use me if you need my help.’ So they did use him and he broke and I have been herding, herding the cattle the whole day.”
“So who do you want to go with you tomorrow morning?”
“The coffee husk.”
So they went to herd.
But in the afternoon, the fox pointed to some people and said, “Look at those poor people, how hot and thirsty they are! They need a drink. But a husk would be as good as coffee for them. Can you help them?”
“OK,” said the coffee husk, and he went up to the people.
“Oh, we’re lucky, we have a coffee husk,” said the people, “So let’s boil some water and use it.”
They put the husk on to roast and then they ground him and made him into coffee and drank it.
So the fox went home and said to the lion, “Oh, that stupid husk, he went to some of his relatives and they drank him.”
“So who do you want to go with you tomorrow morning?” said the lion.
“The butter can go with me.”
“OK.”
So the butter and the fox went to the field, and the fox said to the butter, “Sit on that big stone. I’ll do the work.”
The big stone had been sitting full in the sun and it was very hot. And as soon as the butter sat on it, it melted away to nothing.
When the fox went home she said to the lion, “I’ve been herding and herding all day on my own because that stupid butter sat down on the hot stone and melted.”
“Oh,” said the lion. “Who do you want to herd with you tomorrow morning?”
“The chaff.”
So the chaff went with the fox. When it was time to go home, the fox said, “We’re all hot and dirty. Let’s go to the river and take a swim.”
“OK,” said the chaff.
And the chaff tried to swim, but he became distributed (that is, dissolved) in the water and there was no more of him.
So the fox went back and said to the lion, “The stupid chaff tried to swim in the river and melted away.”
“So who remains to herd with you tomorrow?” said the lion.
“There’s no-one else,” said the fox. “You must come with me yourself.”
“OK,” said the lion.
Then the fox made a big hole and put a fire inside, and covered the hole, and then she said, “Uncle Lion, you sit here and I’ll do the herding.”
Then when the lion sat down he fell into the hole and died. So all had finished, and the fox alone remains for all the cattle.
People saw that all the cattle belonged to the fox.
“Let’s rob her,” they said. “She’s alone, she has no one to help.”
So they came to rob her.
“Is there someone?” they said.
“No,” said the fox. “Who are you?”
She ran round and round, trying to sound like many people.
Then the fox sang a song saying, “Deya Ali, the fox, the people see me coming and they run away.”
The second time the people came again and they didn’t see any lion, any hyena, or anything except the fox.
“Why are we afraid? There’s only the fox,” they all said. “Let’s go and steal all the cattle.”
So they came from here and from here and here and robbed all the cattle and ran away. The fox saw that they had stolen all the cattle and she thought for a while and took many things to make a noise and tied them on her body. Then she ran, and as she ran the things went chellalum, chellalam, chellalum, chellalam like a horse. Collalum, callalum chum, collalim, callalum, chum. [The narrator makes sound effects like the horse’s hooves.]
“You Ali! You Omer! Your horse is too near to me. Move away! Your horse has become too close and there is no room where it can put its feet. Turn there and there and there!” she’s shouting and the noise goes collalum callalum pssht, collalum callalum pssht.
But the people looked and saw that the fox was alone and again they came and this time they took all her property.
So this story shows that you can’t survive alone, and if you take everything for yourself and kill your brothers and sisters you will be alone.
The Cannibal Woman
Once there was a cannibal woman in a village and people in the village were afraid of her in case she came to eat them.
There was a family in the village, and the husband had to travel away, and he said to his wife, “Please don’t open the door at night. There is a cannibal woman around who eats people. So be careful.”
So off he went.
In the evening the cannibal woman came and knocked on the door. The woman was alone.
“Who are you?”
She said she was the woman’s husband, so the woman opened the door. As soon as the cannibal came in, she ate the woman and put on her dress.
Then the woman’s husband came home. He had gone (because he was a nomad) to find grass and water. He had found a good place with other men of the village and they wanted to move to the place they had surveyed and selected. So all the families started to pack up their houses and go to the new place.
When the man came home he thought the woman was his wife, because she was wearing her clothes. He ordered her to pack.
His wife had been pregnant. The cannibal woman had put the remains of the woman and the baby into a hole. And she made an artificial pregnancy.
Soon all was packed and they went on their way. The family had one dog, one hen, one cat, one camel, one cow, one goat and one sheep. When she tried to milk the camel, it ran away. When she got near to any of the animals they ran away. The man wondered why.
Then at last he saw that this woman was not his wife but a cannibal woman. He killed her. He had suspected because of the animals, then he looked and found his wife’s body and his child’s.
That is the story.
The Girl and the Lion
Once upon a time there was a man who was engaged to a girl. He had an appointment with the girl’s family to bring the dowry. But on the way to go to the village, taking the dowry cows and oxen, one of the cows was caught by a lion. Then the cow was bellowing.
“What caught my cow?” said the man.
“A real man caught it,” answered the lion.
“What?” answered the man, “Are you more of a man than me? How can you eat my cow? I’m not going to let you get away with this.”
So they fought. The lion was down and the man was on top.
The lion said, “The only reason you got me down was because you have a right hand. It’s not fair. I don’t have one. Cut your right hand and we’ll try again.”
So the man cut his right hand and they fought again. Again the lion was under the man.
The lion said, “Oh, the reason is, you have a left hand. Cut your left hand.”
So the man cut his left hand and tried again, but this time he fell down and the lion ate him.
Then the lion put on his clothes and took the cattle to the village.
The bride’s family was waiting and they sang and ululated, “Oh the man has come with the dowry!”
So they took him into a room and he sat down there. Then the girl, her name was Fatima and she was the only girl, entered the house and they sat together. And food was cooked and meat, and they took the meat to the lion, who was dressed as the bridegroom. The lion refused it.
“This is not for me,” he said.
So they fried the meat and made a spicy dish.
“No,” said the lion, “This is not mine.”
“What is it that you want?”
“Uncooked meat is mine.”
“OK, give him uncooked.”
They were shy, because he was new to the village, so they gave him the uncooked meat.
When they wanted to sleep, he said, “This bed isn’t mine.”
“What do we have to do?
He said, “Please change the bed.”
She changed it to sticks. When they slept together, he showed his fur.
“Oh! The fur! You have fur!” said the bride.
“This is my fur,” he said.
Then she jumped up and went to her father and said, (in a song),
“My father
You have given me to a wild animal.
This is not a man!
I have seen his fur.”
The father was very angry.
“This is not possible. Go back to your husband.”
“But Father, it’s true!”
“Very well, we’ll test him. Tomorrow, the whole village must move in search of grass and water. Everyone will start when they hear the shout, ‘The time has come!’ If he doesn’t make the shout, I will know he’s a wild animal. But now it’s shameful. I can’t go and check inside my daughter’s house. But if he can’t say, ‘The time has come!’ I will act.”
Now the lion had followed the girl and was listening outside the house, but the girl didn’t see him. She went to her husband’s house quietly.
Early in the morning, while everyone was still asleep, the lion shouted,
“Why is the village not moving?
Why is the village asleep?
The time has come.”
So the father heard him and thought, “Oh, what a stupid girl is my daughter! This is a real man, not a wild animal. She is telling a lie.”
The whole village was preparing to move from here to another place.
The lion said, “Where are you moving to?”
“To another place.”
“No,” said the lion, “I am moving my family to my relatives in a separate place.”
“OK,” they said, “You are free. It’s your right. Go to your family’s place.”
So the lion said, “You, girl, we don’t both guide the camel. One rides on it and one guides it. So do you want to ride or guide?”
“No, I will guide.” she said. “If you are tired, you go up.”
So he goes up there on the camel. But when he was on the camel, he bit the camel’s hump.
“Aaargh!” says the camel.
“What happened to the camel?” says the girl.
“He’s shocked. He doesn’t like your black scarf.”
“Is that right? I’ll take it off.”
So she took it off. Again the lion bit the hump.
“Aaargh!”
“What happened to the camel?”
“Oh, he hated your bracelets and necklace.”
She took them off. Again he bit.
“What happened to the camel?”
“He doesn’t like your dress.”
So she took off her dress and became bare. So they went on and reached a bare, empty place. No one was there.
“We will settle here,” he said.
So she put up her Somali nomadic house and they slept there.
He said, “I go to my relatives and check where they are. Please stay here. I will come back. When I am coming back, if you hear ‘gogobuk, gogbuk’, I have brought camels. If you hear ‘chackaka, chackaka’, I have brought goats. If you hear ‘chomp, chomp”, I have brought cows.”
“OK, I will wait,” she said, and he went away.
She was alone. She thought, “This is not a man. He is a wild animal. And maybe he will bring other wild animals who will eat me. I can’t live with wild animals. What can I do? I can’t go back to my family because they will not believe me and they will feel ashamed.”
So she cut her little finger and put it in the mortar and ran away. She ran and ran and ran and ran, and found a dead tree inside a lake. At one side the water was very deep. She took a rope and climbed up and into the tree. When she climbed up the lion brought all the wild animals, the snake, the hyena and all of them to the house. But they found Fatima wasn’t there. Only her finger was in the mortar.
“Fatima! Fatima!” called the lion.
No, she wasn’t there.
The lion was very angry. All the animals were with him. He broke the door.
The little finger shouted, “Fatima is not here! She ran away!”
The lion ate the finger.
The rat (begele) said, “I know where she went.”
“You, begele, you know?”
“Yes, I have seen where she went. There is a tree in the lake.”
“Can you show us?”
“Yes.”
All the animals followed the begele, an animal which looks like a rat.
“Oh, look, Fatima is there, in the tree.”
“Oh! You, Fatima! Please come down.”
“I will not. You will have to come up to me.”
“How can we go up?”
“You must take the rope and I’ll pull you.”
“So who’ll come first?
“I’m her husband,” said the lion. “She’ll take me first.”
“OK, take the rope.”
So the lion took the rope but when he was half way up, the girl cut the rope and he fell into the water and drowned.
Another said, “She is my ‘demashi’ – my brother’s wife. She’ll take me up. She won’t cut the rope for me.”
But she cut.
One by one, all the animals tried to climb, but she cut and cut. She became alone.
Then a bird has come. She had only one wing. She was hungry.
She said, “Please, girl, can you give me a date from the tree to eat?”
“I will give you a date if you will go to my family and give them a message.”
“All right. What message?”
“Say, ‘Your daughter Fatima is crying on that tree.’”
Then she gave the date to the bird, who had only one wing. The bird flew to the village on one wing and she found Fatima’s mother making butter.
She sang, “You woman, churning the butter, your daughter is in the dead tree on the lake and crying, saying ‘Ohe o byo. Hoge o bayo’ (what women say when they cry). What kind of butter are you making, bad woman, while your daughter is crying?”
“What did you say?”
“This bird has only one wing, she doesn’t know anything, but I will say, what kind of woman are you, making your butter when your daughter needs help?”
“What’s this bird doing?” said the wife.
The bird went to the father. He was sewing shoes.
“What bad thing are you doing when your daughter is crying in that tree on the lake, saying ‘Hoge o bayo’? Why you don’t give help? The bird has only one wing. She doesn’t know anything, but why don’t you give help to your daughter?”
“What is this stupid bird?” he said.
Then the bird went to a brother who was herding cattle.
“What bad cattle you are herding! Your sister needs help. She is in the dead tree in the lake. The bird with one wing doesn’t know anything, but I will tell you that your sister needs you.”
Then the brothers, father and mother all come together and say, “What was the bird telling us? That tree on the lake. Let’s go and check.”
So they all went to check that tree to see if it was true. And they found the daughter, who was their only daughter.
The mother called, “My only daughter, she told us, her husband was an animal and not a man. Maybe she has got a problem. I will check.”
So they went under the tree and shouted, “You, Fatima, come down.”
“I will not. You gave me to a wild animal. I am angry with you. I am helpless. I will die. I will not go down.”
“Why not?” each one begged.
“No. No. I will not go down.”
Then the mother said, “You are my only daughter. Please come down. I will help you. We were mistaken.”
“No.”
Lastly they say, “What do we do?”
The youngest brother, the little boy said, “I will pray to Allah.”
So he prayed and said, “Allah, this tree has to fall down and my sister must fall down. And may she lose only the little finger from her right hand, no other damage.”
So he begged Allah, and the tree fell down and she had only lost her little finger. So she forgave them and they took her back to the village.
When they got there, the mother said, “Fatima, please help me and make the butter.”
“Where must I do it? Inside the house?”
“No, it’s not possible.”
“In the cattle’s house?”
“No, it’s not possible. Where do you want to do it?”
“I want to do it on the roof of the house. Is that possible?”
“Yes.”
“That’s the only place for me.”
“OK, if you have to do it, go there.”
So she took the butter churn up to the roof of the house. The milk was in the churn, and while she was churning a big wind came, and it snatched up the girl and the butter churn and they flew up into the sky. The father and mother saw.
The mother shouted, “Wind, take the girl, but leave my butter churn!”
The father shouted, “Wind, take the churn but leave the girl!”
The wind left the churn but took the girl and dropped her down in the bush. She became two carved sticks. A boy who was herding camels found them.
“Oh, a good stick,” he said, and picked one up and tried to beat the camel.
As soon as he tried to beat the camel, the stick entered the camel. Again he took the other stick and tried to beat the camel, but at once the stick went inside the camel.
When he took the camels to the village, he told his father he had found two beautiful sticks and had beaten the camel and now they are in the camel.
The father said, “Are you telling the truth?”
“Yes.”
“If you are telling a lie, I will kill you.”
“OK, kill me.”
The father said, “I will find the stick.”
He cut the camel’s throat and opened it up, but the sticks darted about in the camel’s body, hiding from him and the man couldn’t find them. In a furious rage he killed his boy, who was his only son.
At once the two sticks flew out of the camel and up the tree calling, “I made you have no boy and no milk (that camel was the only one with milk). I made you have no milk and no boy.”
The Cracked Land of Drought
Once there was a boy and his mother. She wanted to go to her married daughter, far away from her village. So the mother and son started to walk early in the morning and they walked all day. They took some water and some food to eat and they finished the food on the way. While they were walking, the boy saw that the earth was dry and cracked.
“Why, Mother, is the land cracked?”
She said, “It is thirsty.”
“Oh! We have water. Let’s give it water.”
“But if you give it water, what will you drink when you’re thirsty?”
“No, I’m not thirsty.”
“But you will be thirsty later.”
“But the land is thirsty now,” he said, and he poured all his water on the ground.
They walked and walked and the child became thirsty.
“Mother, please, give me water.”
“What water? I told you, you will have thirst if you pour your water on the cracked earth.”
“But I wasn’t thirsty then and I am thirsty now.”
“But we have no more water in our bottle, and there is none around here.”
They were very hungry also.
Then they saw a house and they said, “Please let us ask at the house to give us water and food.”
The house belonged to a cannibal woman. When they tried to go in, in front of it they found the daughter of the cannibal.
She said, “You, what do you want?”
“We want water. We’re thirsty and hungry. Do you have water?”
“No, we don’t have any water. Please, go far away from here. My mother is a cannibal. Go away because I cannot save you.”
“But please, give us water.”
“No, I have no water.”
But the cannibal’s daughter had been making injera1 and over the injera batter was a little water.
“Please, give us that to drink. We are very thirsty.”
“OK. Take it.”
She poured it for them and they drank it. Then they started to go. But when they were away from the house the mother came out.
“My daughter, who were you talking to?”
“No one.”
“I think you were talking to someone. And where is the water from the injera?”
“It’s in the batter.”
“But look, this cup is used. You put some of the water from the batter into the cup and you gave it to someone. Tell me the truth.”
“OK. They were a mother and a small boy and they were thirsty and I gave them.”
“Where did they go?”
“They followed the road of the lion.”
The cannibal ran and ran and looked and looked and she climbed a tree and saw nothing.
She ran back and said to her daughter, “You are telling a lie. Tell me the truth or I will eat you.”
“OK. Go to the cattle’s road.”
The same thing happened. The mother ran back furious.
“Why are you telling a lie? Tell the truth.”
So the daughter finally pointed out the real way’s road and said, “The people, they went over there.”
The cannibal ran and ran and she saw them ahead. The woman looked back and saw the cannibal.
She said, “Oh, my son, that is the cannibal woman. What can we do? She is chasing us. Let’s run.”
“No, we will wait, she won’t hurt us.”
The woman caught them up.
“Listen,” she said to them, “you must choose. Shall I eat this arli (a corn – sweet and ripe) or shall I eat k’eren (barley – not so sweet)?”
By arli she meant the boy. By k’eren she meant the woman.
The boy said, “Eat arli, the sweet wheat,” not understanding, but his mother said, “No, no, don’t eat the arli (my son), eat the k’eren (me).”
Then the cannibal ran at the woman and cut off her breasts and the breasts flew up into the sky like birds. And the mother died and the cannibal ate her, but the boy she did not eat. He escaped and he went, he went, he went. He reached to a place near a village and he saw children herding goats.
He said, “You, do you know Anina? She is my sister.”
“We’ll tell you. First you have to find my goat who has run away.”
So he did.
And they said, “Go and ask that cattle herder.”
“You, cattle herder, do you know Anina in the village?”
“I will tell you where Anina is. First bring me back my straying cows.”
So he did.
The man said, “That camel herder will tell you.”
He went to the camel herder.
“You, camel herder, do you know a girl called Anina in this village?”
“First bring back my camel.”
He brought back the camel.
“OK, now ask that farmer.”
So he said to the farmer, “Do you know a girl called Anina?”
“I will tell you. First, work in my field.”
So he worked all day, and when the sun was setting the farmer tapped a sugar tree and syrup poured from it.
“Eat this sweet gum,” he said to the boy.
So the boy put it in his mouth and his teeth stuck together.
“Humph! Hum!” the boy said.
He took the boy to his own house. Now he was the husband of Anina, but he hadn’t wanted to say so because he was suspicious of the boy.
He said to his wife, “This boy has worked for me today. I found him. He can’t talk. Just make him your servant.”
The boy didn’t know that this was her sister, and she didn’t know this was her brother.
She said, “Oh, you boy, go to the well and bring the water in a sieve.”
But he tried and all the water fell out.
Then she gave him a needle and showed him the mortar and said, “Now pound the grain.”
“How can I? It is impossible.”
“Do it!”
He tried.
Then there was a third one which is impossible (I can’t remember).
Then the birds which were his mother’s breasts fly to the village.
They sing:
“You, Ali, your sister didn’t understand you.
If she knew who you were,
She wouldn’t give you things which cannot hold the water,
She cannot say, use the needle to pound the grain,
She cannot ask the third thing (like cut the meat with a feather).”
Then everyone heard and said, “Every day the birds talk to this boy.”
They told Anina, and said, “Every day birds talk with this boy and say this.”
When she heard this, Anina went to her brother and he told her his mother had died and become birds. And he told how he had asked Anina’s husband, and he had deceived her. And she became very angry with her husband. When he came at night she dug a hole and put fire in it. Then she covered the hole.
“What is this heat?” her husband said.
“I made heat so we don’t feel the cold.”
But he dropped in the fire and he burned, and she killed him and she recognised her brother and the story was finished.
