FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

**A distinguished collection of folk stories and legends of the peoples of Ethiopia, flavored with the wisdom, cynical humor and the primitive freshness of the ancient agrarian civilization. Because the stories concern simple elements most familiar to a farming, sheep-herding society -- animals, village characters, and the fields and mountains with some of eternity about them -- these highly sophisticated tales make delightful reading for children who are as yet unable to place the tales and legends in the perspective of the culture from which they came. (An adult will enjoy the social satire in the tales.) Animals talk with an ancient wisdom and suavity; the idiots, wise men and clowns move against the color of hot Ethiopian skies; and each story has an implicit moral. Indeed these stories, retold from actual tales heard by the authors in Ethiopia, may be read on a great number of appreciation levels.