The Woodcutter of Gura
A folktale from Ethiopia


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A man from the village of Gura went out one day with his ax to get firewood for his
house. The trees nearby had been cut away, so he walked across the plain and down
to the Adi Gulgul riverbed, which he followed for several miles until he came to a
large dead olive tree at the edge of the running water. His eyes lighted up with
pleasure, for it was a tree that would make many fires in his house.
So he climbed up into its branches and sat upon the largest and most comfortable of
them. Then he began to chop upon the very limb on which he was sitting. While he
worked, a priest from a nearby village came along. He looked up into the tree and
saw the woodcutter from Gura there.
"Neighbor," the priest asked, "what are you trying to do up there?"
"Chopping wood for my fire" the man said. "What else could it be?"
"That's a poor way to chop wood," the priest said with great concern.
"It's the only way to chop wood," the woodcutter said. "You take your ax and you
chop."
"Why don't you chop the tree down first," the priest suggested. "If you sit there on
the same branch you are cutting off you are going to fall down and be killed."
"That's very silly," the man said. "When you want wood you chop."
The priest shook his head and went away. The man chopped and chopped, thinking
about the stupidity of the priest. And suddenly, without warning, the branch broke
off and the man fell to the ground. He lay on the ground with the branch lying across
his chest, and as he lay there he thought about what the priest had said.
"He said that the branch would break and I would fall and be killed. The branch
really did break, the way he said it would. He knew what he was talking about! Yes,
he really did! So that must mean that I am dead too! Yes, yes, I must really be
dead!"
So, thinking he was dead, the woodcutter didn't try to get up at all, but just lay
there without moving.
After a while some of his friends came along, and finding him stretched out on his
back under the broken branch, they set up a great clamor. They shook him and
talked to him and rubbed his head, but he didn't move or speak, because he had
decided he was dead. They picked him up and set him on his feet, but he fell down
again, because whoever heard of a dead man standing up?
So his friends also decided that he was dead, and they picked him up to carry him
back to Gura.
"Don't forget the ax," the woodcutter said as they started off, so someone went
back and picked it up. All the way along the trail they talked about the misfortune of
their friend.
When they came to a fork in the trail they stopped, not knowing which way to go.
Some of them said they should go along the river trail, while others thought they
should go over the hill. They argued hotly about it, still holding their friend on their
shoulders like a corpse. Finally, he sat up impatiently and pointed to the hill trail.
"That's the best way, it's the way I came," he said.
Then he lay down and closed his eyes. His friends stopped arguing and carried him
over the hill trail, still lamenting the accident that had occurred. They passed over
the hill and there, sure enough, was the village.
"He spoke the truth," his friends said. "It really was the shortest route. He always
was an honest man."
As they passed before the church the priests came out to see what had happened,
and they put him on the ground to look at him.
"We found him lying dead under an olive tree," one of them explained. "A branch fell
on him and killed him."
"That's not the way it happened," the woodcutter said, opening his eyes for a
minute. "I was sitting on the branch and it broke." Then he closed his eyes.
The priests shook their heads sadly, and the man's friends picked him up again and
carried him to his house. But when they arrived there was no one home. So they put
him on the ground and began to argue about what they should do. Everything was
very confused. And while they argued a dog wandered in, and he came over to the
woodcutter and licked his face.
"Take him away!" the woodcutter shouted. "Is there no respect for the dead?"
So they drove the dog out of the house and began to argue again. At last, since
nothing seemed to be happening, he sat up and said angrily:
"Send for my wife! She's probably gossiping down by the spring!"
Then he lay down again and closed his eyes, while his friends sent for his wife. In a
little while she came running to the house, crying in grief, with the other women of
the village behind her. Many villagers crowded into the house until it was full, and
then the men told once more how they had found him.
"A branch from an olive tree fell on him and killed him," they said.
"Oh!" the man groaned. "I told you before, I was sitting on the branch and it broke!
How many times do I have to tell you?"
"Ah, yes, he was sitting on the branch and it broke," they all repeated together. "He
fell from the olive tree and was killed!"
"But if he talks, how can he be dead?" his wife asked.
"Alas, as you see, he is dead," the others replied.
"Perhaps he isn't dead at all," his wife suggested.
The woodcutter sat up and said with irritation: "The priest from Mai Nebri passed
while I was in the tree. He said I would surely fall and be killed. I fell. The priest
was right. He has spoken only the truth. Therefore, I must be dead."
"Perhaps he was mistaken. He didn't see you after you fell, only before."
"Argue, argue, argue!" the man said, getting up from the ground in disgust. "Will
there be no end to it?" And he picked up his ax and went out of the house.
"Where are you going?" his wife called after him.
"To get some wood for the fire," he said, disappearing down the hill.
"What a fine man," the villagers said. "Even at a time like this he thinks only of his
wife's comfort!"