What might you do if you very much wanted to sleep with a married man or woman but were either unwilling to commit adultery or were afraid of the revenge of the wife or husband. The unknown Galla poet (or poets, which might be the case with Homer) has solved the problem in a highly imaginative way; he or she doesn’t seem to care that it would involve their death.

If I might be an ox,

An ox, a beautiful ox,

Beautiful but stubborn;

The merchant would buy me,

Would buy me and slaughter me,

Would spread my skin,

Would bring me to the market,

The coarse woman would bargain for me,

The beautiful girl would buy me.

She would crush perfumes for me,

I would spend the night rolled up round her,

I would spend the afternoon rolled up round her.

Her husband would say: “it’s a dead skin.”

But I would have her love.

Anon

A song from the Galla tribe in Ethiopia

(translator unknown)