Tigre tales
p1 to story 53.txt
File Type: tigre tales p1 to story 53.txt: Non-ISO extended-ASCII English text,
with CRLF line terminators
Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia.
Enno littmann Leyden 1910
Vol II
1. THE TALE OF THE TWO DONKEY-OWNERS.
Two men met each other on the road; and each of them had a donkey. Then the men
greeted each other: the donkeys,also, putting their mouths together sniffed at
each other. And the one man asked his fellow saying: We have gtected each other.
Why have the donkeys also put their heads together?" The other man answered him:
'Doest thou not know this? The donkeys have sent a strong donkey to the Lord to
enter their plaint before him, that is to say, that the Lord should free them
from under [the tyranny] of men. Now they ask each other saying: Has the
messenger-donkey returned or not'?" And it is said that all donkeys ask each
other about this matter putting their mouths together. By this tale it is seen
that every creature longs for liberty.
2.
THE TALE OF THE BOAR AND THE ELEPHANTS.
Once upon a time a boar, who had got into the middle of a herd of elephants, dug
into the ground and ate. And there came to the elephants a hunter, and he
pointed his gun at one [of the] male[s]. When he shot, the bullet missed the
elephant, but struck the boar. And the elephants said to him: 'Art thou struck,
boar!" He said: 'If it were not an accident why should, of all these, [the
bulletl have struck me?" The herd fled, but the boar died on the spot. And men
say as a proverb when they encounter something (evil) while in the midst of many
Iconipanions]: "It is an accident, said the boar; in the midst of a herd of
elephants he was struck."
3 THE TALE OF THE SCHOLAR AND THE I GUENON.
. A scholar was writing in a solitary place, and all the mistakes that he made,
he scratched out with his knife. And while he was writing in this way, a guenon
looked at him. And the scholar arose a little for some reason. But the guenon
came down from his place and trying to write like the scholar, smeared what the
scholar had written.
Thereupon when the scholar returned he found his book smeared, and he was very
sad. But he said to the guenon: "All right, if thou doest the same that I do."
And he took the knife and whetted it well. And when it had become sharp, he
rubbed the blunt [back], while the guenon was looking, against his throat, put
the knife into its place and went away as before. Thereupon came the guenon; and
taking the knife and wishing to do the same as the scholar had done, he rubbed
the sharp edge against his throat, cut his throat and died. In this way the
guenon met [his] fate, wishing to do the same as the scholar. [This is what]
they say. This is told by the people of Kabasa
4 THE TALE OF A HEN.
A family had a chicken. Now (once), when guests came to them, they wished to
kill the chicken, that is to say, in ,order to give a meal to the guests. But
they did not find the knife with which to kill it; then they set the chicken
free. When the chicken was free, it scratched the ground with its feet, and
uncarthed the knife. When its masters saw the knife, they killed the chicken
with the knife which it had found itself, and they gave a meal to their guests.
And they say,as a proverb: "The chicken scraped out the instrument that killed
it."
5 THE TALE OF THE PURE-HEARTED ONE AND THE ONE WITH THE BLACK SOUL.
Two men, who, were called "light" and 'dark", were on the road together; and
when it grew evening, they spent the night at the same place. The dark one
thought in his heart: "If 'I sleep in a good place and the light one on the
edge, [of the road], if then the lion comes, he will take him, but I shall be
safe." And the dark one slept in a good,place, as he had planned; but the light
one slept on the side next to the road. And when they were sleeping, the lion
came to them: the lion took the dark one and killed him; then he ate [him]. But
the light one woke up safe in the morning. And until the, present day the place
is called 'the resting place of the light and the dark." And men say as a
proverb: 'Be pure-hearted and sleep on the road!"
According to another version the place is called: "the resting place of the wise
and the stupid" (labeb wa-geul)and the proverb: "God protects the stupid"
('egel agelul räbbi 'aqqebbo). The place is on the direct road from Gäläb to
Asmara, between Comarat and Qeruh, a large bowlder of granit on the left of the
road, as one travels southward (see fig. i).
6 THE TALE OF THE ELEPHANT AND THE LEOPARD AND HIS SON.
The leopard had left his son in a certain place. And to the son of the leopard
there came the elephant:
he trod on him with his foot, crushed him and killed him. And a lamenter
informed the leopard saying: "Thy son is dead!" The leopard asked the lamenter
saying: 'Who has killed my son?" He replied: 'The elephant has killed thy son."
The leopard, however, said: 'The elephant has not killed my son, the goats have
killed him.
" The messenger replied : 'No, the elephant has killed thy son." The leopard:
No, no, no! It is nobody but the goats who killed my son. This is the deed of
the goats" Then the leopard went and made a slaughter among the goats in order
to avenge his son. Although, the leopard knew that the elephant had killed his
son, he took:, - because he was not so strong as the elephant, - the goats as a
pretext for his revenge and killed them.
And until the present day it is like this: if a man is wronged by some one.who
is stronger than he, and,he finds no means to overpower him, he rises against
him who is weaker than he. And they say as a proverb: 'The goats do this, said
the,leopard."
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