As far as one can trace the history of Ethiopia back, they can find ancient folk stories designed to teach morals and paint in the minds of youth a sense of belonging. These stories were passed orally from generation to generation. Often the folk stories are traceable to a point in history that provides the country of Ethiopia its identity and cultural significance. Other stories were for the sake of entertaining guests and/or children. One such story is The Cunning Fox.
The story tells of an ostrich who had a cow and a lion who had a bull. The lion suggested to the ostrich that the bull and cow should stay together so they both could split the herdsmen duties. The ostrich agreed. One day the cow became pregnant and suddenly the lion wanted to be in charge of watching the cow and lion. The cow delivered and the lion ran to the ostrich and informed him that his cow had given birth to a grindstone while his bull had given birth to a calf.
The ostrich thought that was a pretty stupid lie to tell. Bulls can't give birth! the ostrich shouted. The lion stood firm and demanded that a meeting should be called with all the animals and they would decide whether or not a bull could actually give birth to a calf. All of the animals agreed that the ostrich was correct, but were too scared to speak against the lion. Then it was noticed that one animal was missing...the fox! The lion found the fox and told him to decide the matter - once and for all!
The fox agreed, but stated that he was in a hurry to be somewhere and could only run past the animal meeting and on his way shout the correct answer. The animals agreed. The fox ran past the animals and shouted, "Sorry I do not have time to answer, my father is giving birth to a baby fox and I don't want to miss it!" The lion shouted angrily - "Liar! You think we will believe that your father is giving birth! Nonsense!" Then the fox replied as he dashed away, "...and you expect me to believe that your bull gave birth to a calf! Nonsense!" The lion chased after him and the calf was left with the ostrich.
The theme of wisdom in this story echoes back to the wisdom of the mother and father of Ethiopia's ruling dynasty - the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, both of which were renown for their wisdom and telling of parables.
The fox agreed, but stated that he was in a hurry to be somewhere and could only run past the animal meeting and on his way shout the correct answer. The animals agreed. The fox ran past the animals and shouted, "Sorry I do not have time to answer, my father is giving birth to a baby fox and I don't want to miss it!" The lion shouted angrily - "Liar! You think we will believe that your father is giving birth! Nonsense!" Then the fox replied as he dashed away, "...and you expect me to believe that your bull gave birth to a calf! Nonsense!" The lion chased after him and the calf was left with the ostrich.
The theme of wisdom in this story echoes back to the wisdom of the mother and father of Ethiopia's ruling dynasty - the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, both of which were renown for their wisdom and telling of parables.
No comments:
Post a Comment