Long ago, there was a hardworking honey hunter who spent his days deep in the forest, climbing tall trees and exploring caves to collect honey. When he found a hive, he carefully harvested the honey and brought it back to the village market to sell, making a living from his work. A small bird often helped him by flying through the forest, finding hives, and calling him to the location so he could gather the honey more efficiently.
One day, the little bird led the honey hunter to a giant tree filled with honey. Seeing the abundance, the hunter decided to light a fire at the base of the tree, letting the smoke rise to scare the bees away. The bees fled, and the honey fell to the ground, ready to be collected.
When the honey hunter looked at the pile of honey, he realized he could not carry it all by himself. He thought of the goatskin bag at home and decided to return to fetch it. Meanwhile, a forest porcupine arrived at the tree and saw the honey. It decided to hide the honey for itself and call its friends to share it. The porcupine secretly carried the honey away and ran to gather its companions.
When the hunter returned with his bag, he discovered the honey was gone. Furious, he asked himself, “Where did my honey go? Who took it?” He examined the tracks in the soil and realized they were not human footprints, so he concluded that the porcupine had taken it. Determined, he followed the porcupine’s trail through the forest.
Finally, he reached a cave and heard sounds from inside. Convinced the porcupine had hidden the honey there, he approached carefully. Suddenly, the porcupine transformed. It jumped into the river, vanished in the water, and then emerged as a man. He was no longer entirely human or entirely a porcupine. Half of his soul remained that of the porcupine, and the other half took human form. He lived in the forest, eating fruits and leaves, neither speaking like a human nor behaving entirely like an animal.
The story ends with the image of this lost soul, a being caught between two worlds, living an unusual life in the forest, neither fully human nor fully animal.
This folktale teaches that nature and the supernatural are closely intertwined in Ethiopian culture. It highlights the mysteries of the forest and the thin line between human and animal, encouraging respect for the natural world and the unseen forces that dwell within it.