The authors collected the stories when they were employed by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education working with the major different ethnic groups: Amhara, Oromo (Galla), Tigray, Somali, Beta Israel (Falasha), and others.
The wonderful illustrations are by Helen Siegl; here is the illustration for the story of the Hyena-Man:
You can find out more about Helen Siegl at her website (the website is still there, although she died in 2009), and you might remember her from an earlier post here: The Dancing Palm Tree and Other Nigerian Folktales.
The book has an odd publication history; it was published in 1959 with 31 stories, and then was reissued again in 1997, but with only 16 stories, the ones that the surviving author, Brent Ashabranner, thought had the widest appeal. I am pleased to say that BOTH editions are available at Internet Archive; here's a link to the older, more complete 1959 edition, which has a slightly different title: The Lion's Whiskers; Tales of High Africa.
This edition has illustrations by James Teason in a quite different, more straightforward style; here is his illustration of the Hyena-Man story:
So, I'll recommend the 1997 edition for the beautiful illustrations, but I'll recommend the 1959 edition for more stories, and they are both just a click away at the Internet Archive:
by Russell Davis and Brent Ashabranner
by Russell Davis and Brent Ashabranner
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