For my son, Mohamed-Amiin:

Egal Shidad is one of the best known characters in Somali story circles. He was a coward who never liked wild animals. He never took risks anyway. In fact one of the stories about him is about his fear of his own son who was teething. The son had four teeth and crowled towards his father, but the father yelled in fear and told the mother to keep him safe by taking the baby away.

Egal Shidad's beloved she-camel was killed by a lion. He swore that he would take risks at this time and kill the lion at all costs. He took a gun with him and went to the bush in the evening searching for the lion. Soon after leaving home, it was dark and Egal saw a small dark tree. He thought that it was the lion and his heart raced. He could not shoot because he knew that if the shot missed its target, the lion would not spare him. He therefore sat down and waited for the lion with the intention of killing it when the lion comes close enough. He sat there through the night waiting for a movement. Finally the day broke and Egal saw that it was in fact a tree that he was hunting the whole night. He spoke to the tree in the following phrases:

What I thought! What You are! and What I will never do!

1. what I thought: I thought you were a lion o poor tree!

2. what you are: You are just a small tree which cannot harm me.

3. What I will never do: I will never go to the bush again at night even if my camel is missing.