“Come to my house for beer,” Baboon told Tortoise.
But Baboon lived in a tall tree. “I can’t climb up there,” Tortoise protested.
“I drink up here,” Baboon said, “not on the ground. Too bad for you.”
“Come to my house for beer tomorrow!” Tortoise replied.
Tortoise burned the grass around his house, so when Baboon arrived, he was covered with ashes.
“You’re dirty!” Tortoise said. “Go wash in the river!”
Baboon washed in the river but got dirty walking back across the ashes.
And again. And again.
“I drink beer with clean hands,” Tortoise said. “Too bad for you.”
[a Chewa story from Malawi]
Inspired by: "The Tortoise and the Baboon" in Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja by R. S. Rattray, 1907.
Notes: You can read the original story online. and you can learn about Nyanja, or Chewa, language at Wikipedia. This is a story from Malawi.
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