In the town of Nebri lived a man who once carved a beautiful gebeta board for his son. He used the wood from an olive tree to make the board. Then, he taught his son how to play games upon it. The son was delighted to have the beautiful board. In the morning, when he took his cattle out into the valley for grazing, he took his gebeta board along. One day, while following the cattle, he came upon a group of wandering Somalis with their camels. They had gathered around a small fire in a dry riverbed. The Somalis asked him where they could get the wood from. “Why, here is the wood,” the boy said. And he gave them the fine gebeta board, which they put into the fire to burn. As the board burnt, the boy started crying, “Oh, now where is my fine gebeta board that my father has carved for me?”
The Knife
“Do not make this disturbance,” the Somalis said. Then, they gave him a fine new knife in place of the game board. The boy took the knife and went away with his cattle. While he was wandering, he came to a place where a man was digging a well in the sand of the riverbed so that his goats might drink. The ground was hard so the man asked the boy to lend him his knife. The boy gave his knife but the man dug so strongly with it that it broke. The boy looked at his broken knife and started wailing. “Quiet,” the man said. He gave the boy a spear in place of the knife. It was a beautiful spear trimmed with silver and copper. The boy took the spear and went away with his cattle. Soon, he met a group of hunters. One of the hunters said, “Lend me your spear so that we may kill the lion we are hunting.”
The Hunters
The boy gave him the spear, and the hunters went out and killed the lion. But while hunting, the shaft of the spear split into two. “See what you have done with my spear!” the boy cried. The hunter asked him to stop crying. “Take this horse in place of your spear.” The hunter gave him a horse with fine leather trappings, and he started back towards the village. On the way, he met a group of workmen who were repairing the highway. While working, they caused a landslide, and earth and rocks came down the mountain with a loud noise. The horse was frightened and ran away. “Where is my horse?” the boy cried, “You have made him run away!” “Don’t weep,” the workman said, “Here is an axe.” And he gave the boy a common iron axe. The boy took the axe and continued on his way.
The boy came across a woodcutter who asked him for his axe. “Lend me your large axe. My axe is too small.” He gave the woodcutter the axe, and the woodcutter chopped the tree but the axe broke. The boy cried, and the woodcutter said, “Never mind; here is a branch of a tree.” The boy took the branch upon his back and as he came near the village a woman said, “I need wood for my fire. Can you give me this branch?” The boy gave the branch to her, and she put it in the fire. As it started burning, he said, “Where is my wood?” “Here,” the woman said as she gave him a fine gebeta board. He took the gebeta board under his arm and went home with the cattle. As he stepped inside the house, his father smiled and said, “What is better than a gebeta game board to keep a small boy out of trouble?”
