AFRICAN FAIRY TALES
A very long time ago before man came along and upset the natural balance, all animals lived together peacefully. But in those days, none of animals had heads of their own except their king elephant, so whenever they want to travel outside the village, they borrow elephant´s head and return it after. Some of them became angry and dissatisfied that they had to waste their time to ask elephant´s head and return it again.
Elephant agreed and they decided to meet and be given heads of their own. Tho the king started making agreement with his secretary crab and when all was ready and all the heads were lined up in the village square, he sent out the cockerel, who had been given a head for this purpose, to announce that all animals should come to the square so that the King could give them a head.
​
The cockerel went round the whole of the village and every body who heard the message rushed to the square. When he thought he had informed every body, and was just making his way back to the square, the cockerel spotted the crab, without his head, meandering down a track on his way to the river bank. The cockerel advised him to make his way back to the square quickly, but crab just shrugged. “I am the secretary of the King”, he said, “the King will keep a head for me, I am sure of it. I need to have a quick bath.”. And he sauntered on his way.
At the village square where all the other animals had gathered, the elephant started giving out heads. He tried to make sure that each animal received a head that suited it. So the hippopotamus got a very large, fat head; the rhinoceros got a head with fierce looking eyes; the giraffe got a long head to go with his long neck. Nobody liked the hyena very much, so he got the ugliest head there was, but the antelope, who all thought was the most graceful of the animals, got the most beautiful head. This went on all morning until all the animals had their own head. Just as the King thanked the cockerel for his work, and was about to return to his palace, the crab came sauntering back. “Where have you been hiding out”, asked the King. “I’m afraid all the heads have been given out, and there is not a single one left for you!”
However much the crab protested, there was nothing to be done, and that is the reason why to this day the crab goes through life without a head.
Why the crab has no head
The wisdom of the Eagle and the treachery or the Hyena
Once upon a time a hyena was out foraging in a bush. It was a fine sunny day and he was looking forward to catching some morsels to eat. But as he was sniffing around he fell into a hidden trap set by a hunter. He found himself at the bottom of a hole, with the trap catch closed over him. He tried to push it open but it just would not budge.
​
So he started shouting ¨Help!, help! somebody get me out of here¨ A lion passed by, looked to see who was in the trap. When he saw it was a hyena, he just moved on, Help me! but lion didn´t mind him. You should know most animals don´t like hyenas very much. He was always stealing food belonging to others and laughing at them behind their backs, so it was no surprise the lion moved on.
​
So the day passed, but every time an animal passed, he begged and promised to be nice in the future but none stopped to help him. At last a monkey came by, ¨Help me please monkey, get me out of this trap¨I´ve been here all day and the hunter will soon be back and kill me.
​
“Well now”, monkey said, “ I would help you, but as soon as I pull you out of there, you will only kill me.” Hyena protested, “monkey, I promise I will be good, I will not touch a hair on your head. If you let me out I will go straight home. I promise!” Now this monkey was very kind, so he agreed to help hyena. He removed the trap and threw down a branch so hyena could pull himself out of the trap. But then as soon as he was out, hyena realized he’s been in this trap all day long and had not eaten anything, at all! So, instead of going home, as he had promised, hyena attacked the kind monkey.
​
Just then an eagle was flying over the bush, and saw the hyena attacking monkey. So he swooped down, landed on the hyena’s back, and with his powerful claws pulled the animal of poor monkey, who was screeching in pain. After he’d separated the two, hyena wanted to know what was going on. Monkey explained what had happened: that he had helped hyena escape from the trap because he had promised not to attack him!
​
Eagle said: “In order for me to understand exactly how this happened, I would like you to show me exactly what you two were doing. So, Mr Hyena, you get back into the trap, and then we will start again.” Hyena realized he did not have much choice but to do as he was told, so he jumped back into the trap. Eagle the covered it again with the trap, and made sure it was secure. “Now, Mr Hyena”, said eagle, “you can stay there and die, for all I care. You don’t deserve the kindness of other animals if you cannot keep a simple promise”. With that, he advised the monkey to go home to his family, and he himself flew off to continue his journey, leaving the hyena to his fate.