Hyena had many sheep, and he employed a man to herd them.
When Hyena attended the Animal Council, the man decided to steal the sheep.
Hyena returned and howled when he saw the sheep were missing. He went back to the Council. "I've been robbed!" he shouted.
The animals cried, "We will avenge you!"
On the way, the animals came to a pool. "We will drink," they said. "But not you, Dik-Dik!"
Dik-Dik was angry and threw sand into the pool until the water was gone, so the animals died of thirst on the way.
The man kept Hyena's sheep.
Inspired by: "The Hyena's Flocks" in Specimens of Somali Tales (published in Folklore) by J. W. C. Kirk, 1904.
Notes: You can read the original story online. Kirk heard this story from "Ismail, Habr Toljaala: Ahmed Farah, professional poet, aged about 24." More about the Habr Toljaala clan. The Dik-Dik is a tiny antelope; find out more at Wikipedia. The story does not explain just what the conflict is between the Dik-Dik and the rest of the animals; it looks like a variation on the standard idea of the trickster not deserving to drink the water but insisting on the right to drink and/or spoiling the water for the other animals.
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