Of Paivapo Once Upon A Time

Paivapo (Once upon a time) that’s how the storyteller began every tale to which the audience replied Dzepfunde (I don’t know if it meant anything else, apart from serving as an interactive prompt to let the storyteller know that people were ready to listen, waiting to hear what came next)

The ngano or fables usually featured Tsuro Magen’a the hare as the resourcefully clever protagonist outsmarting everyone else. Sometimes the stories carried with them profound meanings and life lessons, other times, well, you could be left to wonder if you were being had, such as in the following story of Tsuro and Dovi.

Once upon a time Tsuro the hare said to Dovi the peanut butter “Lets play a game.“ “What sort of game?” Dovi asked. Tsuro suggested that they play a variation of the tickling game whereby instead of taking turns to tickle each other, they would instead lick each other. Dovi agreed.

“You will go first and then I will go next” Tsuro announced.

Tsuro licked Dovi until all the peanut butter was finished, and that was the end of Dovi.