The Honey Hunter – The Lost Soul !
~ story from Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia ~
Compiled, revised and presented
by Hénock Gugsa ( ሄኖክ ጉግሣ )
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Once there was a man who made his living by collecting honey from forests and caves and selling it at the market place. In those olden times, there were no hives, but bees made use of certain hollow places on trees and crevices on cave walls. He was helped by a friendly bird who gave him directions to where honey may be found.
One day, he saw some bees buzzing around a tree, and naturally, he concluded that there was some honey to be had. So he gathered a bunch of kindling and lit a small fire to create smoke to distract the bees. Having directed the smoke inside the hollow tree, he was able to garner large swaths of honey. As it happened, he had not had the foresight to bring a goatskin sack which could accommodate a big haul. So, he left what amount of honey he had collected on the ground at the bottom of the tree, and he went off to look for a sack.
Upon his return with a sack, he discovered that all the honey was gone. What had happened was that a porcupine, a 'jart' (ጃርት), had taken the honey and hidden it in a nearby cave. She was planning to call all her friends and throw a party where they would engorge their tummies with the godsend honey!
The unfortunate victim of the dastardly theft began scouring the surrounding area for a possible cache of the stolen honey. As the man approached the entrance of the thief's cave, he heard a noise.
“Someone who took my honey is in there,” he thought.
He entered the cave and saw an evil spirit, a 'zar' (ዛር), disguised as a woman. She was baking and fermenting cereals to prepare t’ala (ጠላ).
The 'zar' snarled, “What do you want?”
The hunter said, “I had gathered some honey and went to look for a sack. When I came back, all the honey was gone. At first, I thought the thief was a man, but then I decided it was a porcupine because I saw her footprints near this cave. Porcupines are my enemies and I want to destroy them.”
The 'zar' frowned and hissed. “These porcupines are food for us zars. They are like sheep and goats to us. So if you harm them, a bad spell will fall upon you. Look elsewhere for others who might have stolen your honey. Leave the porcupines alone!”
She gave him some hard unleavened bread, k’it’a (ቂጣ). As soon as he went out the door, he was immediately turned into a porcupine. Instead of two legs he now had four and the thorns of the porcupine stood up all over his body!
There was nothing to do but seek some of his men friends for help with his predicament. As it happened, on his way he found himself in the middle of a big fire that had broken out of nowhere. He got very badly burnt but managed to flee. He ran and ran and jumped into the sea. When he came back out of the sea, he was changed back into a man.
Having then learned his lesson, he began to live in the bushes, eating berries and natural foods from trees. He was now neither like a porcupine nor like a human being. And so he was lost and unapproachable ... to all living things!
He lived like a savage hermit. It is believed he still lives to this day!
