Hyena was hunting one night when she walked by a hut. Inside, a sick man was groaning. “He’ll die soon,” another man said. “Then we can bury him.”
“Lucky me!” Hyena thought. “I don’t need to hunt. I’ll just dig up the grave and enjoy a nice fresh corpse.”
Hyena waited all night, but the man didn’t die.
At dawn, Hyena began to howl. “Liars! They’re all liars! Liars and drunken fools! The man didn’t die, and I didn’t get any food. Liars! All liars!”
Hyena is still complaining even now. “Liars!” she howls. “They’re all liars!”
She’s not laughing.
[a Banyoro story from Uganda]
Inspired by: "The Hyena's Cry" in The Uganda Protectorate, volume 2 by Harry Johnston, 1904.
Notes: You can read the original story online. This is a Bantu story from Uganda. Mwengi is a fermented drink made from plantains.
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