{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_73413/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_73413","id":"gutenberg_73413","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73413","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fables, African","Fables, Khoikhoi","Khoikhoi (African people) -- Folklore"],"text":"REYNARD THE FOX\n IN\n SOUTH AFRICA;\n\n OR,\n Hottentot Fables and Tales.\n\n CHIEFLY TRANSLATED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS\n IN THE\n LIBRARY\n OF\n HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B.\n\n\n W. H. I. BLEEK, Ph.D.\n\n\n LONDON:\n TR\u00dcBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n 1864.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n THIS BOOK BELONGS TO\n CHILDREN IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE,\n AND TO THEIR FRIEND\n SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B.,\n NOW IN NEW ZEALAND.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nI. Jackal Fables.\n\n PAGE\n 1. The Lion\u2019s Defeat 1\n 2. The Hunt of the Lion and Jackal 3\n 3. The Lion\u2019s Share 5\n 4. The Jackal\u2019s Bride 9\n 5. The White Man and the Snake 11\n 6. Another Version of the same Fable 13\n 7. Cloud-Eating 14\n 8. Fish-Stealing 16\n 9. Which was the Thief? 18\n 10. The Lion\u2019s Illness 19\n 11. The Dove and the Heron 21\n 12. The Cock 23\n 13. The Leopard and the Ram 24\n\n\nII. Tortoise Fables.\n\n 14. The Elephant and the Tortoise 27\n 15. The Giraffe and the Tortoise 30\n 16. The Tortoises Hunting the Ostriches 32\n\n\nIII. Baboon Fables.\n\n 17. The Judgment of the Baboon 33\n 18. The Lion and the Baboon 37\n 19. The Zebra Stallion 39\n 20. The Lost Child (a Tale) 42\n 21. The Baboon Shepherd (a Tale) 44\n\n\nIV. Lion Fables.\n\n 22. The Flying Lion 45\n 23. The Lion who thought himself Wiser than his Mother 47\n 24. The Lion who took a Woman\u2019s Shape 50\n 25. A Woman transformed into a Lion (a Tale) 57\n 26. The Lion and the Bushman (a Tale) 59\n\n\nV. Various Fables.\n\n 27. How a Nama Woman outwitted the Elephants 61\n 28. A Bad Sister 65\n\n\nVI. Sun and Moon Fables.\n\n 29. Why has the Jackal a long black Stripe on his Back? 67\n 30. The Horse cursed by the Sun 68\n 31. The Origin of Death 69\n 32. Another Version of the same Fable 71\n 33. A Third Version of the same Fable 72\n 34. A Fourth Version of the same Fable 73\n 35. A Zulu Version of the Legend of the \u201cOrigin\n of Death\u201d 74\n\n\nVII. Heitsi Eibip and other Legends.\n\n 36. Heitsi Eibip 75\n 37. The Victory of Heitsi Eibip 77\n 38. Another Version of the same Legend 78\n 39. The Raisin-Eater 80\n 40. Origin of the Difference in Modes of Life between\n Hottentots and Bushmen 83\n\n\nVIII. Household Tales.\n\n 41. The Little Wise Woman 85\n 42. The Unreasonable Child to whom the Dog gave its\n Deserts; or, a Receipt for getting any one to Sleep 90\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nMy dear Sir George,\n\nIn inscribing to you this little book, I do no more than offer that\nwhich is your due, as its appearance is mainly owing to you. It was by\nyour desire that I wrote, in 1861, to different Missionaries in South\nAfrica, requesting them to make collections of Native Literature,\nsimilar in nature to those which, through your instrumentality, had\nbeen so abundantly rescued from oblivion in New Zealand. I then wrote,\namong others, to the Rev. G. Kr\u00f6nlein, Rhenish Missionary at Beerseba,\nGreat Namaqualand; but it was not till after you had left us, on a new\nmission of honour and duty, that I received from him (at five different\nperiods) the original manuscripts from which most of the Fables given\nhere are translated. He sent us, altogether, twenty-four Fables, Tales,\nand Legends, besides twelve Songs of Praise, thirty-two Proverbs, and\ntwelve Riddles; all in Hottentot (as taken down by him from the mouth\nof the Natives) and German, partly accompanied by explanatory notes,\nincluding fragments of the \u01c0N\u016bsa [1] Bushman language. Mr. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s\nmanuscripts fill sixty-five pages, mostly in quarto, with double\ncolumns.\n\nYou are aware that the existence of Fables among the Hottentots was\nalready known to us through Sir James Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of\nDiscovery into the Interior of Africa\u201d (8vo., two vols., London, 1838),\nand that some interesting specimens of their literature had been given\nby him in that work; but that Fables form so extensive a mass of\ntraditionary Native literature amongst the Namaqua, has first been\nbrought to light by Mr. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s communications. The fact of such a\nliterary capacity existing among a nation whose mental qualifications\nit has been usual to estimate at the lowest standard, is of the\ngreatest importance; and that their literary activity (in\ncontradistinction to the general character of Native literature among\nNegro nations) has been employed almost in the same direction as that\nwhich had been taken by our own earliest literature, is in itself of\ngreat significance.\n\nSome questions of no trifling importance and interest are raised by the\nappearance of such an unlooked-for mine of literary lore, particularly\nas to the originality of these Fables. Whether they are indeed the real\noffspring of the desert, and can be considered as truly indigenous\nNative literature, or whether they have been either purloined from the\nsuperior white race, or at least brought into existence by the stimulus\nwhich contact with the latter gave to the Native mind (like that\nresulting in the invention of the Tshiroki and Vei alphabets) may be\nmatters of dispute for some time to come, and it may require as much\nresearch as was expended upon the solving of the riddle of the\noriginality of the Ossianic poems.\n\nBut whatever may be the ultimate result of such inquiries, whether it\nwill confirm our idea of the originality and antiquity of the main\nportion of these Hottentot Fables, and consequently stamp them with the\ncharacter of the oldest and most primitive literary remains of the old\nmother tongue of the Sexdenoting nations, or whether they have only\nsprung up recently among the Hottentots from foreign seed\u2014in either\ncase the disposition of the Hottentots to the enjoyment of such Fables,\nand their easy growth on this arid soil, be it their native or adopted\none\u2014shows a much greater congeniality between the Hottentot and\nEuropean mind than we find between the latter and any of the black\nraces of Africa.\n\nThis similarity in the disposition of nations can in itself indeed\nhardly be considered as a valid proof of common ancestry; but if there\nbe other grounds to make us believe that the nations in question, or at\nleast their languages, are of common origin, it may render us more\ninclined to assume that such a similarity in their literary taste is\nderived also from the same source.\n\nThe great ethnological difference between the Hottentots and the black\nnations of South Africa has been a marked fact from almost the earliest\nacquaintance of Europeans with these parts, and occasional stray\nguesses (for example, in R. Moffat\u2019s \u201cMissionary Labours and Scenes in\nSouthern Africa,\u201d 1842, p. 6), have already for some time pointed to a\nNorth African origin for the Hottentots.\n\nIt is, however, only within the last dozen years that this has been\nestablished as a proved, and, I believe to most observers, an, at\nfirst, astonishing fact. I well remember still the feeling of most\ncurious interest with which I regarded Knudsen\u2019s translation of Luke\u2019s\nGospel (vol. i., No. 15 of your Library), when, in April 1850, it was\nsent me by the then Inspector of the Rhenish Mission House, the Rev J.\nC. Wallmann, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the language was\nin any way akin to those of the surrounding black nations, and whether,\non that account, an already acquired acquaintance with any of the\nHottentot dialects would render it easier for a Missionary to master\none of the Negro or Kafir tongues. [2]\n\nI had, however, at that time not the least idea of the results to which\na knowledge of this language would lead me; and being then mostly\noccupied with the study of the Setshu\u00e2na and kindred languages\u2014which\nseemed to me of paramount interest for comparative philology\u2014I did not\nat first give undivided attention to the perusal of this curious\nvolume. I remarked very soon, however, a striking similarity between\nthe Hottentot signs of gender and those of the Coptic language; but for\nsome time I considered it as purely accidental, which may be seen from\na letter of mine regarding this subject, published by Mr. Wallmann, in\n\u201cBerichten der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft\u201d (Reports of the\nRhenish Missionary Society, 1850, No. 24, if I am not mistaken in the\nnumber).\n\nSoon, however, what were at first mere isolated facts, became links, in\na chain of evidence, showing that all those Sexdenoting Languages which\nwere then known to us in Africa, Asia, and Europe, are members of one\nlarge family, of which the primitive type has, in most respects, been\nbest preserved to us in the Hottentot language.\n\nIt was even as early as the end of 1850 that I could write to Mr.\nWallmann\u2014\u201cThis language (the Hottentot) is to me at this moment of\ngreater interest than any other. The facts, of which once before I have\ngiven you some account, have now so increased upon me, and offer such\nstrong analogies, that there is no further doubt in my own mind that\nnot only the Coptic but also the Semitic, and all other languages of\nAfrica (as Berber, the Galla dialect, &c., &c.) in which the\ndistinction of the masculine and feminine gender pervades the whole\ngrammar, are of common origin.\u201d\n\nPart of the result of these researches was then published in my\ndissertation, \u201cDe Nominum Generibus Linguarum Afric\u00e6, Australis,\nCoptic\u00e6, Semiticarum aliarumque Sexualium\u201d (8vo., Bonn, 6th August,\n1851, vol. i., No. 1 of your Library).\n\nI was at that time not aware\u2014nor has it come to my knowledge till\nwithin the last few weeks\u2014that on the 10th June, 1851, Dr. J. C.\nAdamson, in communicating to the Syro-Egyptian Society some\nobservations on the analysis of languages, with a special reference to\nthose of South Africa, had stated \u201cThat the signs of gender were almost\nidentical in the Namaqua and the Egyptian, and the feminine affix might\nbe considered as being the same in all three\u201d [3] (Namaqua, Galla, and\nOld Egyptian).\n\nAnother curious agreement on this point, by an apparently independent\nobserver (Mr. J. R. Logan), [4] was pointed out to me by your\nExcellency. You also suggested this name of \u201cSexdenoting Languages.\u201d\nBut it is superfluous for me to say any thing of what you have done for\nthe advancement of African, as well as Australian and Polynesian,\nphilology.\n\nIt has been justly remarked by our learned friend, Mr. Justice\nWatermeyer, that the natural propensities of animals in all parts of\nthe world being so much alike, Fables intended to portray them must\nalso be expected to resemble each other greatly, even to their very\ndetails.\n\nBut we may well ask why it is that, so far as we know, the Kafir\nimagination seems not at all inclined to the formation of this class of\nfictitious tales, though they have otherwise a prolific Native\nliterature of a more or less historic and legendary character. This\ncontrast to what we find among the Hottentots appears not to be\naccidental, but merely a natural consequence of that difference of\nstructure which distinguishes these two classes of languages, embracing\nrespectively the dialects of the Hottentots on the one hand, and those\nof the Kafirs and their kindred nations on the other; in the former\n(the Hottentot), as in all other really Sexdenoting Languages, the\ngrammatical divisions of the nouns into genders, which do not tally\nexactly with any distinction observed in nature, has been brought into\na certain reference to the difference of sex; and on that account this\ndistinction of sex seems in some way to extend even to inanimate\nbeings, whereby a tendency to the personification of impersonal objects\nis produced, which in itself is likely to lead the mind towards\nascribing reason and other human attributes to irrational beings. This\nis the real origin of almost all those poetical conceptions which we\ncall Fables and Myths. Both are based on the personification of\nimpersonal beings\u2014the former by ascribing speech and reason to the\nlower animals, whilst the latter substitute human-like agencies in\nexplanation of celestial and other elementary phenomena in place of\ntheir real cause.\n\nMythology is, in its origin, most generally either a mere figure of\nspeech or a poetical explanation suggested by the grammatical form or\netymological meaning of words, indicating certain striking natural\nphenomena. In the primary stage of their production, Myths may be\nsupposed to have been always understood in their true original\ncharacter; and it is only when in the course of generations their real\norigin has been obscured, and they have become merely the petrified\nexcrescences of a traditionary creed, that their apparent absurdity\nmakes them at first sight almost inexplicable, particularly when found\namong nations of a high intelligence.\n\nThe humbler sisters of the Myths, the Fables based on the natural\npropensities of animals, are not obscured in their real character so\neasily as the former, and have, on that account, more generally\nretained their simple usefulness as moral teachers; so, though they may\nhave preceded even Myths as to the date of their first conception, they\nyet outlive them as real and salutary elements of the best national\nliteratures: not that Myths had not their own beneficial sphere in the\neducation of mankind, as leading them on to higher abstract ideas, and\neven deeper religious thoughts, but their very power of exerting a much\ndeeper influence on the destinies of our race, made it essential that\nthey should have a more transitory existence in the civilizing process\nof the Sexdenoting nations\u2014who have to give up mythologies so soon as\nthrough them they have gained higher religious ideas\u2014while Fables,\nwhich never claim so high a place among the elements of furthering the\neliminating process of our species, remain always welcome to most\nclasses of readers at certain periods of their intellectual\ndevelopment.\n\nChildren, and also simple-minded grown-up people, whose taste has not\nbeen spoiled by the poison of over-exciting reading, will always be\namused by the quaintly expressed moral lessons which they receive\nthrough every good Fable; and the more thorough student of literature\nwill also regard with pleasure these first innocent plays of awakening\nhuman imagination. To all these the Hottentot Fables offered here may\nnot be unwelcome as a fresh store of original compositions, or even as\nold acquaintances who gain a new interest in different clothing and\nscenery.\n\nTo make these Hottentot Fables readable for the general public, a few\nslight omissions and alterations of what would otherwise have been too\nnaked for the English eye were necessary, but they do not in any\nessential way affect the spirit of the Fables. Otherwise, the\ntranslation is faithful to the original, though not exactly literal.\n\nIt would of course be presumptuous to believe that we could here\ndiscuss fully the originality or date of composition of these Fables,\nand all the many questions involved therein.\n\nThe modern origin of some of the Fables, as, for instance, that of The\nCock (12), Fish-Stealing (8), The Judgment of the Baboon (17), and The\nCurse of the Horse (30), is very evident; others, e.g., The White Man\nand the Snake (5 & 6), indicate clearly a European origin. Others,\nhowever, have strong claims to be regarded not merely as genuine\nproducts of the Hottentot mind, but even as portions of a traditionary\nNative literature, anterior in its origin to the advent of Europeans.\n\nThat the latter is a true view of the subject becomes perhaps the more\nconclusive by the intimate relations in which, among the Hottentots,\nMyths still stand to Fables; in fact, a true mythology can hardly be\nsaid to exist among them; for Myths (as that of The Origin of Death)\nare in reality as much Fables as Myths; but we may consider these as\nanalogous to the first germs whence sprung those splendid mythologies\nwhich have filled with deep devotional feelings the hearts of many\nmillions among the most intelligent races of the earth.\n\nThis higher flight of the imaginative faculty which the Sexdenoting\nnations possess (through the stimulus of this personification of\nimpersonal things, consequent upon the grammatical structure of their\nlanguages), and what it had been to them, becomes the more evident if\nwe compare their literature with that of the Kafirs and other black\ntribes of South Africa.\n\nAs the grammatical structure of languages spoken by the latter does not\nin itself suggest personification, these nations are almost, as a\nmatter of course, destitute of Myths as well as Fables. Their literary\nefforts are, as a general rule, restricted to narrating the doings of\nmen in a more or less historical manner\u2014whence we have a number of\nhousehold tales, and portions of a fabulous history of these tribes and\nnations; or their ancestor worship and belief in the supernatural give\nrise to horrible ghost stories and tales of witchcraft, which would be\nexciting if they were not generally told in such a long-winded, prosy\nmanner, as must make the best story lose its interest.\n\nOf course for the comparative philologist, and for any one who takes an\ninterest in observing the working of the human mind in its most\nprimitive stages, these pieces of Kafir and Negro native literature\nwill also have their own interest; it is therefore to be hoped that\ntime and circumstances may soon allow us to publish also the other\nportions of South African native literature extant in manuscript in\nyour library.\n\nAmong these we have principally to mention, as new contributions\n(received after your departure), twenty-three pieces in o Tyi-herer\u00f3,\nor the Damara language, as written down by natives themselves, copied\nby the Rev. J. Rath (Rhenish Missionary, formerly in Damara Land, now\nat Sarepta Knils River), and accompanied with a German translation by\nhim. [5]\n\nAmong these pieces there are seven ghost stories, four accounts of\ntransformation of men or animals, eleven other household tales, one\nlegend, and one fable. This last piece (No. 11, pp. 27, 29) is probably\nof Hottentot origin. I have therefore thought it best to give it a\nplace in this little book (No. 14), where it precedes that Hottentot\nFable, to which its concluding portions bear such a striking\nresemblance. It is not unlikely that the beginning of this Hottentot\nFable of The Giraffe and the Tortoise is missing. It may have been\nsimilar to the beginning of the corresponding one in Damara. As far as\nit goes the Hottentot Fable is however evidently more original than the\no Tyi-herer\u00f3 text. As a specimen of o Tyi-herer\u00f3 household tales, I\nhave given Rath\u2019s fifteenth piece, the story of The Unreasonable Child\nto whom the Dog gave its Deserts.\n\nYou will also approve of my having added the Zulu legend of the Origin\nof Death, which in its mixture of Fable and Myth, and even in several\ndetails of its composition, shows a great analogy to the Hottentot\ntreatment of the same subject, of which I am able to give here four\ndifferent versions.\n\nA second version of two or three other fables, and of one legend, has\nalso been given from one of the two important manuscripts in German,\nregarding the Hottentots and their language, prepared for you by Mr.\nKnudsen. [6] The same manuscript supplied also a legend of The Origin\nof Difference in Modes of Life between Hottentots and Bushmen, which we\ndo not yet possess in the Hottentot language.\n\nTo make our available stock of Nama Hottentot literature quite\ncomplete, three fables and four tales have been taken from Sir James\nAlexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition,\u201d &c., and inserted here, with only few\ninsignificant verbal alterations.\n\nThe \u201cSongs of Praise,\u201d given as notes to some of the Fables in this\nvolume, are merely intended as specimens of Hottentot poetry. They can\nhardly be expected to amuse or interest the general reader\u2014at least,\nnot in the form in which they appear here, though a Longfellow might be\nable to render some of them in a way that would make them attractive.\n\nIn the same manner the materials contained in these Hottentot Fables\nmight be worked out similarly to Goethe\u2019s \u201cReinecke Fuchs;\u201d and we\nshould hereby probably gain an epical composition, which, though not\nranking so high as the latter poem, would yet, as regards the interest\nof its subject-matter, far exceed Longfellow\u2019s \u201cHiawatha\u201d in adaptation\nto the general taste.\n\nHow much Native productions gain when represented skilfully and\nproperly, your admirable work on \u201cPolynesian Mythology\u201d has shown. But\nyou had sterner and more important work on hand, and so I have had to\ndo this without you. That it does not appear in a still more imperfect\nform, I owe mainly to the help of one who naturally takes the greatest\ninterest in all my pursuits.\n\nIn writing the last lines of this Preface, the interest which I feel\nfor these Hottentot Fables is almost fading away before those rich\ntreasures of your library which have just arrived from England; and as\nall our present efforts are of course given to the proper settling of\nthese jewels of our library, I can merely send, with grateful\nacknowledgments, our most fervent wishes for your well-doing, and our\nsincere hope of seeing you, at no distant day, again in the midst of\nus.\n\n\n Believe me,\n My dear Sir George,\n Yours most faithfully,\n W. H. I. BLEEK.\n\n Capetown, April, 1863.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nJACKAL FABLES.\n\n\n1. THE LION\u2019S DEFEAT.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 19, 20.)\n\n\n\nThe wild animals, it is said, were once assembled at the Lion\u2019s. When\nthe Lion was asleep, the Jackal persuaded the little Fox [7] to twist a\nrope of ostrich sinews, in order to play the Lion a trick. They took\nostrich sinews, twisted them, and fastened the rope to the Lion\u2019s tail,\nand the other end of the rope they tied to a shrub. When the Lion\nawoke, and saw that he was tied up, he became angry, and called the\nanimals together. When they had assembled, he said (using this form of\nconjuration)\u2014\n\n\n \u201cWhat child of his mother and father\u2019s love,\n Whose mother and father\u2019s love has tied me?\u201d\n\n\nThen answered the animal to whom the question was first put\u2014\n\n\n \u201cI, child of my mother and father\u2019s love,\n I, mother and father\u2019s love, I have not done it.\u201d\n\n\nAll answered the same; but when he asked the little Fox, the little Fox\nsaid\u2014\n\n\n \u201cI, child of my mother and father\u2019s love,\n I, mother and father\u2019s love, have tied thee!\u201d\n\n\nThen the Lion tore the rope made of sinews, and ran after the little\nFox. But the Jackal said\u2014\n\n\u201cMy boy, thou son of the lean Mrs. Fox, thou wilt never be caught.\u201d\n\nTruly the Lion was thus beaten in running by the little Fox.\n\n\n\n\n\n2. THE HUNT OF THE LION AND JACKAL.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 18, 19.)\n\n\n\nThe Lion and the Jackal, it is said, were one day lying in wait for\nelands. The Lion shot (with the bow) and missed, but the Jackal hit and\nsang out, \u201cHah! Hah!\u201d The Lion said, \u201cNo, you did not shoot anything.\nIt was I who hit.\u201d The Jackal answered, \u201cYea, my father, thou hast\nhit.\u201d Then they went home in order to return when the eland was dead,\nand cut it up. The Jackal, however, turned back, unknown to the Lion,\nhit his nose so that the blood ran on the spoor of the elands, and\nfollowed their track thus, in order to cheat the Lion. When he had gone\nsome distance, he returned by another way to the dead eland, and\ncreeping into its carcase, cut out all the fat.\n\nMeanwhile the Lion followed the bloodstained spoor of the Jackal,\nthinking that it was elands\u2019 blood, and only when he had gone some\ndistance did he find out that he had been deceived. He then returned on\nthe Jackal\u2019s spoor, and reached the dead eland, where, finding the\nJackal in its carcase, he seized him by his tail and drew him out with\na swing.\n\nThe Lion upbraided the Jackal with these words: \u201cWhy do you cheat me?\u201d\nThe Jackal answered: \u201cNo, my father, I do not cheat you; you may know\nit, I think. I prepared this fat for you, father.\u201d The Lion said: \u201cThen\ntake the fat and bring it to your mother\u201d (the Lioness); and he gave\nhim the lungs to take to his own wife and children.\n\nWhen the Jackal arrived, he did not give the fat to the Lion\u2019s wife,\nbut to his own wife and children; he gave, however, the lungs to the\nLion\u2019s wife, and he pelted the Lion\u2019s little children with the lungs,\nsaying:\n\n\n \u201cYou children of the big-pawed one!\n You big-pawed ones!\u201d\n\n\nHe said to the Lioness, \u201cI go to help my father\u201d (the Lion); but he\nwent quite away with his wife and children.\n\n\n\n\n\n3. THE LION\u2019S SHARE.\n\n\n (From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, viz.,\n H. C. Knudsen\u2019s \u201cNotes on the Hottentots,\u201d pp. 11, 12.)\n\n\n\nThe Lion and the Jackal went together a-hunting. They shot with arrows.\nThe Lion shot first, but his arrow fell short of its aim; but the\nJackal hit the game, and joyfully cried out, \u201cIt has hit.\u201d The Lion\nlooked at him with his two large eyes; the Jackal, however, did not\nlose his countenance, but said, \u201cNo, Uncle, I mean to say that you have\nhit.\u201d Then they followed the game, and the Jackal passed the arrow of\nthe Lion without drawing the latter\u2019s attention to it. When they\narrived at a cross-way, the Jackal said, \u201cDear Uncle, you are old and\ntired; stay here.\u201d The Jackal went then on a wrong track, beat his\nnose, and, in returning, let the blood drop from it like traces of\ngame. \u201cI could not find anything,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I met with traces of\nblood. You had better go yourself to look for it. In the meantime I\nshall go this other way.\u201d The Jackal soon found the killed animal,\ncrept inside of it, and devoured the best portion; but his tail\nremained outside, and when the Lion arrived, he got hold of it, pulled\nthe Jackal out, and threw him on the ground with these words: \u201cYou\nrascal!\u201d The Jackal rose quickly again, complained of the rough\nhandling, and asked, \u201cWhat have I then now done, dear Uncle? I was busy\ncutting out the best part.\u201d \u201cNow let us go and fetch our wives,\u201d said\nthe Lion; but the Jackal entreated his dear Uncle to remain at the\nplace because he was old. The Jackal went then away, taking with him\ntwo portions of the flesh, one for his own wife, but the best part for\nthe wife of the Lion. When the Jackal arrived with the flesh, the\nchildren of the Lion saw him, began to jump, and clapping their hands,\ncried out, \u201cThere comes Uncle with flesh!\u201d The Jackal threw, grumbling,\nthe worst portion to them, and said, \u201cThere, you brood of the big-eyed\none!\u201d Then he went to his own house and told his wife immediately to\nbreak up the house, and to go where the killed game was. The Lioness\nwished to do the same, but he forbade her, and said that the Lion would\nhimself come to fetch her.\n\nWhen the Jackal, with his wife and children, had arrived in the\nneighbourhood of the killed animal, he ran into a thorn bush, scratched\nhis face so that it bled, and thus made his appearance before the Lion,\nto whom he said, \u201cAh! what a wife you have got. Look here, how she\nscratched my face when I told her that she should come with us. You\nmust fetch her yourself; I cannot bring her.\u201d The Lion went home very\nangry. Then the Jackal said, \u201cQuick, let us build a tower.\u201d They heaped\nstone upon stone, stone upon stone, stone upon stone; and when it was\nhigh enough, everything was carried to the top of it. When the Jackal\nsaw the Lion approaching with his wife and children, he cried out to\nhim, \u201cUncle, whilst you were away we have built a tower, in order to be\nbetter able to see game.\u201d \u201cAll right,\u201d said the Lion; \u201cbut let me come\nup to you.\u201d \u201cCertainly, dear Uncle; but how will you manage to come up?\nWe must let down a thong for you.\u201d The Lion ties himself to the thong,\nand is drawn up; but when he is nearly at the top the thong is cut by\nthe Jackal, who exclaims, as if frightened, \u201cOh, how heavy you are,\nUncle! Go, wife, fetch me a new thong.\u201d (\u201cAn old one,\u201d he said aside to\nher.) The Lion is again drawn up, but comes of course down in the same\nmanner. \u201cNo,\u201d said the Jackal, \u201cthat will never do; you must, however,\nmanage to come up high enough, so that you may get a mouthful at\nleast.\u201d Then aloud he orders his wife to prepare a good piece, but\naside he tells her to make a stone hot, and to cover it with fat. Then\nhe drew up the Lion once more, and, complaining that he is very heavy\nto hold, he tells him to open his mouth, whereupon he throws the hot\nstone down his throat. When the Lion has devoured it, he entreats and\nrequests him to run as quickly as possible to the water.\n\n\n\n\n\n4. THE JACKAL\u2019S BRIDE.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 7, 8.)\n\n\n\nThe Jackal, it is said, married the Hyena, and carried off a cow\nbelonging to ants, to slaughter her for the wedding; and when he had\nslaughtered her, he put the cow-skin over his bride; and when he had\nfixed a pole (on which to hang the flesh), he placed on the top of the\npole (which was forked) the hearth for cooking, in order to cook upon\nit all sorts of delicious food. There came also the Lion to the spot,\nand wished to go up. The Jackal, therefore, asked his little daughter\nfor a thong with which he could pull the Lion up, and he began to pull\nhim up; and when his face came near to the cooking-pot, he cut the\nthong in two, so that the Lion tumbled down. Then the Jackal upbraided\nhis little daughter with these words: \u201cWhy do you give me such an old\nthong?\u201d And he added, \u201cGive me a fresh thong.\u201d She gave him a new\nthong, and he pulled the Lion up again, and when his face came near the\npot, which stood on the fire, he said, \u201cOpen your mouth.\u201d Then he put\ninto his mouth a hot piece of quartz which had been boiled together\nwith the fat, and the stone went down, burning his throat. Thus died\nthe Lion.\n\nThere came also the ants running after the cow, and when the Jackal saw\nthem he fled. Then they beat the bride in her brookaross dress. The\nHyena, believing that it was the Jackal, said\u2014\n\n\n \u201cYou tawny rogue! have you not played at beating long enough?\n Have you no more loving game than this?\u201d\n\n\nBut when she had bitten a hole through the cow-skin, she saw that they\nwere other people; then she fled, falling here and there, yet she made\nher escape.\n\n\n\n\n\n5. THE WHITE MAN AND THE SNAKE.\n\n\n(The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library,\nG. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 5, 6.)\n\n\nA White Man, it is said, met a Snake upon whom a large stone had fallen\nand covered her, so that she could not rise. The White Man lifted the\nstone off the Snake, but when he had done so, she wanted to bite him.\nThe White Man said, \u201cStop! let us both go first to some wise people.\u201d\nThey went to the Hyena, and the White Man asked him, \u201cIs it right that\nthe Snake should want to bite me, though I helped her, when she lay\nunder a stone and could not rise?\u201d\n\nThe Hyena (who thought he would get his share of the White Man\u2019s body)\nsaid: \u201cIf you were bitten what would it matter?\u201d\n\nThen the Snake wanted to bite him, but the White Man said again: \u201cWait\na little, and let us go to other wise people, that I may hear whether\nthis is right.\u201d\n\nThey went and met the Jackal. The White Man said to the Jackal: \u201cIs it\nright that the Snake wants to bite me, though I lifted up the stone\nwhich lay upon her?\u201d\n\nThe Jackal replied: \u201cI do not believe that the Snake could be covered\nby a stone and could not rise. Unless I saw it with my two eyes, I\nwould not believe it. Therefore, come let us go and see at the place\nwhere you say it happened whether it can be true.\u201d\n\nThey went, and arrived at the place where it had happened. The Jackal\nsaid: \u201cSnake, lie down, and let thyself be covered.\u201d\n\nThe Snake did so, and the White Man covered her with the stone; but\nalthough she exerted herself very much, she could not rise. Then the\nWhite Man wanted again to release the Snake, but the Jackal interfered,\nand said: \u201cDo not lift the stone. She wanted to bite you; therefore she\nmay rise by herself.\u201d\n\nThen they both went away and left the Snake under the stone.\n\n\n\n\n\n6. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME FABLE.\n\n\n (From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, H. C.\n Knudsen\u2019s \u201cNotes on the Hottentots,\u201d p. 11.)\n\n\nA Dutchman was walking by himself, and saw a Snake lying under a large\nstone. The Snake implored his help; but when she had become free, she\nsaid, \u201cNow I shall eat you.\u201d\n\nThe Man answered, \u201cThat is not right. Let us first go to the Hare.\u201d\n\nWhen the Hare had heard the affair, he said, \u201cIt is right.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d said\nthe Man, \u201clet us ask the Hyena.\u201d\n\nThe Hyena declared the same, saying, \u201cIt is right.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow let us at last ask the Jackal,\u201d said the Man in his despair.\n\nThe Jackal answered very slowly and considerately, doubting the whole\naffair, and demanding to see first the place, and whether the Man was\nable to lift the stone. The Snake lay down, and the Man, to prove the\ntruth of his account, put the stone again over her.\n\nWhen she was fast, the Jackal said, \u201cNow let her lie there.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n7. CLOUD-EATING.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 30, 31.)\n\n\n\n THE HYENA.\n\n Thou who makest thy escape from the tumult!\n Thou wide, roomy tree!\n Thou who gettest thy share (though with trouble!)\n Thou cow who art strained at the hocks! [8]\n Thou who hast a plump round knee!\n Thou the nape of whose neck is clothed with hair!\n Thou with the skin dripping as if half-tanned!\n Thou who hast a round, distended neck!\n Thou eater of the Namaqua,\n Thou big-toothed one!\n\n\n\nThe Jackal and the Hyena were together, it is said, when a white cloud\nrose. The Jackal ascended upon it, and ate of the cloud as if it were\nfat.\n\nWhen he wanted to come down, he said to the Hyena, \u201cMy sister, as I am\ngoing to divide with thee, catch me well.\u201d So she caught him, and broke\nhis fall. Then she also went up and ate there, high up on the top of\nthe cloud.\n\nWhen she was satisfied, she said, \u201cMy greyish brother, now catch me\nwell.\u201d The greyish rogue said to his friend, \u201cMy sister, I shall catch\nthee well. Come therefore down.\u201d\n\nHe held up his hands, and she came down from the cloud, and when she\nwas near, the Jackal cried out (painfully jumping to one side), \u201cMy\nsister, do not take it ill. Oh me! oh me! A thorn has pricked me, and\nsticks in me.\u201d Thus she fell down from above, and was sadly hurt.\n\nSince that day, it is said, that the Hyena\u2019s left hind foot is shorter\nand smaller than the right one.\n\n\n\n\n\n8. FISH-STEALING.\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. pp. 246, 247.)\n\n\n\n THE HYENA.\n\n (Addressing her young ones, on her return from a marauding\n expedition, with regard to the perils she had encountered).\n\n The fire threatens,\n The stone threatens,\n The assegais threaten,\n The guns threaten,\n Yet you seek food from me.\n My children,\n Do I get anything easily?\n\n\n\nOnce upon a time a Jackal, who lived on the borders of the colony, saw\na waggon returning from the seaside laden with fish. He tried to get\ninto the waggon from behind, but he could not; he then ran on before,\nand lay in the road as if dead. The waggon came up to him, and the\nleader cried to the driver, \u201cHere is a fine kaross for your wife!\u201d\n\n\u201cThrow it into the waggon,\u201d said the driver, and the Jackal was thrown\nin.\n\nThe waggon travelled on through a moonlight night, and all the while\nthe Jackal was throwing the fish out into the road; he then jumped out\nhimself, and secured a great prize. But a stupid old Hyena coming by,\nate more than her share, for which the Jackal owed her a grudge; so he\nsaid to her, \u201cYou can get plenty of fish, too, if you lie in the way of\na waggon as I did, and keep quite still whatever happens.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo!\u201d mumbled the Hyena.\n\nAccordingly, when the next waggon came from the sea, the Hyena\nstretched herself out in the road.\n\n\u201cWhat ugly thing is this?\u201d cried the leader, and kicked the Hyena. He\nthen took a stick and thrashed her within an inch of her life. The\nHyena, according to the directions of the Jackal, lay quiet as long as\nshe could; she then got up and hobbled off to tell her misfortune to\nthe Jackal, who pretended to comfort her.\n\n\u201cWhat a pity,\u201d said the Hyena, \u201cthat I have not such a handsome skin as\nyou!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n9. WHICH WAS THE THIEF?\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. p. 250.)\n\n\n\nA Jackal and a Hyena went and hired themselves to a man to be his\nservants. In the middle of the night the Jackal rose and smeared the\nHyena\u2019s tail with some fat, and then ate all the rest of it which was\nin the house. In the morning the man missed his fat, and he immediately\naccused the Jackal of having eaten it.\n\n\u201cLook at the Hyena\u2019s tail,\u201d said the rogue, \u201cand you will see who is\nthe thief.\u201d The man did so, and then thrashed the Hyena till she was\nnearly dead.\n\n\n\n\n\n10. THE LION\u2019S ILLNESS.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 29, 30.)\n\n\n\nThe Lion, it is said, was ill, and they all went to see him in his\nsuffering. But the Jackal did not go, because the traces of the people\nwho went to see him did not turn back. Thereupon, he was accused by the\nHyena, who said, \u201cThough I go to look, yet the Jackal does not want to\ncome and look at the man\u2019s sufferings.\u201d\n\nThen the Lion let the Hyena go, in order that she might catch the\nJackal; and she did so, and brought him.\n\nThe Lion asked the Jackal: \u201cWhy did you not come here to see me?\u201d The\nJackal said, \u201cOh no! when I heard that my uncle was so very ill, I went\nto the witch (doctor), to consult him, whether and what medicine would\nbe good for my uncle against the pain. The doctor said to me, \u2018Go and\ntell your uncle to take hold of the Hyena and draw off her skin, and\nput it on while it is still warm. Then he will recover.\u2019 The Hyena is\none who does not care for my uncle\u2019s sufferings.\u201d\n\nThe Lion followed his advice, got hold of the Hyena, drew the skin over\nher ears, whilst she howled with all her might, and put it on.\n\n\n\n\n\n11. THE DOVE AND THE HERON.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 13, 14.)\n\n\n\nThe Jackal, it is said, came once to the Dove, who lived on the top of\na rock, and said, \u201cGive me one of your little children.\u201d The Dove\nanswered: \u201cI shall not do anything of the kind.\u201d The Jackal said, \u201cGive\nit me at once! Otherwise, I shall fly up to you.\u201d Then she threw one\ndown to him.\n\nHe came back another day, and demanded another little child, and she\ngave it to him. After the Jackal had gone, the Heron came, and asked,\n\u201cDove, why do you cry?\u201d The dove answered him: \u201cThe Jackal has taken\naway my little children; it is for this that I cry.\u201d He asked her, \u201cIn\nwhat manner can he take them?\u201d She answered him: \u201cWhen he asked me I\nrefused him; but when he said, \u2018I shall at once fly up, therefore give\nit me,\u2019 I threw it down to him.\u201d The Heron said, \u201cAre you such a fool\nas to give your children to the Jackals, who cannot fly?\u201d Then, with\nthe admonition to give no more, he went away.\n\nThe Jackal came again, and said, \u201cDove, give me a little child.\u201d The\nDove refused, and told him that the Heron had told her that he could\nnot fly up. The Jackal said, \u201cI shall catch him.\u201d\n\nSo when the Heron came to the banks of the water, the Jackal asked him:\n\u201cBrother Heron, when the wind comes from this side, how will you\nstand?\u201d He turned his neck towards him and said, \u201cI stand thus, bending\nmy neck on one side.\u201d The Jackal asked him again, \u201cWhen a storm comes\nand when it rains, how do you stand?\u201d He said to him: \u201cI stand thus,\nindeed, bending my neck down.\u201d\n\nThen the Jackal beat him on his neck, and broke his neck in the middle.\n\nSince that day the Heron\u2019s neck is bent.\n\n\n\n\n\n12. THE COCK.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 29.)\n\n\n\nThe Cock, it is said, was once overtaken by the Jackal and caught. The\nCock said to the Jackal, \u201cPlease, pray first (before you kill me) as\nthe white man does.\u201d The Jackal asked, \u201cIn what manner does he pray?\nTell me.\u201d \u201cHe folds his hands in praying,\u201d said the Cock. The Jackal\nfolded his hands and prayed. Then the Cock spoke again: \u201cYou ought not\nto look about you as you do. You had better shut your eyes.\u201d He did so;\nand the Cock flew away, upbraiding at the same time the Jackal with\nthese words: \u201cYou rogue! do you also pray?\u201d\n\nThere sat the Jackal, speechless, because he had been outdone.\n\n\n\n\n\n13. THE LEOPARD AND THE RAM.\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. pp. 247, 250.)\n\n\n\nA Leopard was returning home from hunting on one occasion, when he\nlighted on the kraal of a Ram. Now the Leopard had never seen a Ram\nbefore, and accordingly, approaching submissively, he said, \u201cGood day,\nfriend! what may your name be?\u201d\n\nThe other, in his gruff voice, and striking his breast with his\nforefoot, said, \u201cI am a Ram. Who are you?\u201d\n\n\u201cA Leopard,\u201d answered the other, more dead than alive; and then, taking\nleave of the Ram, he ran home as fast as he could.\n\nA Jackal lived at the same place as the Leopard did, and the latter\ngoing to him, said, \u201cFriend Jackal, I am quite out of breath, and am\nhalf dead with fright, for I have just seen a terrible-looking fellow,\nwith a large and thick head, and, on my asking him what his name was,\nhe answered roughly, \u201cI am a Ram!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat a foolish Leopard you are!\u201d cried the Jackal, to let such a nice\npiece of flesh stand! \u201cWhy did you do so? But we shall go to-morrow and\neat it together!\u201d\n\nNext day the two set off for the kraal of the Ram, and as they appeared\nover a hill, the Ram, who had turned out to look about him, and was\ncalculating where he should that day crop a tender salad, saw them, and\nhe immediately went to his wife, and said, \u201cI fear this is our last\nday, for the Jackal and Leopard are both coming against us. What shall\nwe do?\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid,\u201d said the wife, \u201cbut take up the child in your arms;\ngo out with it, and pinch it to make it cry as if it were hungry.\u201d The\nRam did so as the confederates came on.\n\nNo sooner did the Leopard cast his eyes on the Ram, than fear again\ntook possession of him, and he wished to turn back. The Jackal had\nprovided against this, and made the Leopard fast to himself with a\nleathern thong, and said, \u201cCome on!\u201d when the Ram cried in a loud\nvoice, and pinching his child at the same time, \u201cYou have done well,\nfriend Jackal, to have brought us the Leopard to eat, for you hear how\nmy child is crying for food!\u201d\n\nOn hearing these dreadful words, the Leopard, notwithstanding the\nentreaties of the Jackal to let him loose, set off in the greatest\nalarm, dragging the Jackal after him over hill and valley, through\nbushes and over rocks, and never stopped to look behind him till he\nbrought back himself and the half-dead Jackal to his place again. And\nso the Ram escaped.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nTORTOISE FABLES.\n\n\n THE SPRINGBOK (GAZELLE).\n\n Woe is me! He is one who goes\n Where his mother would not let him!\n Who rolls off (the rocks),\n Rolling himself together like a book.\n\n\n\n\n\n14. THE ELEPHANT AND THE TORTOISE.\n\n\n (The original, in the o Tyi-herer\u00f3 or Damara language, is in the\n Library of Sir G. Grey, J. Rath\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 27, 29.)\n\n\n\nTwo things, the Elephant and the Rain, had a dispute. The Elephant\nsaid, \u201cIf you say that you nourish me, in what way is it that you do\nso?\u201d The Rain answered, \u201cIf you say that I do not nourish you, when I\ngo away, will you not die?\u201d And the Rain then departed.\n\nThe Elephant said, \u201cVulture! cast lots to make rain for me?\u201d The\nVulture said, \u201cI will not cast lots.\u201d\n\nThen the Elephant said to the Crow, \u201cCast lots!\u201d who answered, \u201cGive\nthe things with which I may cast lots.\u201d The Crow cast lots and rain\nfell. It rained at the lagoons, but they dried up, and only one lagoon\nremained.\n\nThe Elephant went a-hunting. There was, however, the Tortoise, to whom\nthe Elephant said, \u201cTortoise, remain at the water!\u201d Thus the Tortoise\nwas left behind when the Elephant went a-hunting.\n\nThere came the Giraffe, and said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The\nTortoise answered, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Zebra, who said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The\nTortoise answered, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Gemsbok, and said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The\nTortoise answered, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Wildebeest, and said, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The Tortoise\nsaid, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Roodebok, and said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The\nTortoise answered, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Springbok, and said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d\nThe Tortoise said, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Jackal, and said to the Tortoise, \u201cGive me water!\u201d The\nTortoise said, \u201cThe water belongs to the Elephant.\u201d\n\nThere came the Lion, and said, \u201cLittle Tortoise, give me water!\u201d When\nthe little Tortoise was about to say something, the Lion got hold of it\nand beat it; the Lion drank of the water, and since then the animals\ndrink water.\n\nWhen the Elephant came back from the hunting, he said, \u201cLittle\nTortoise, is there water?\u201d The Tortoise answered, \u201cThe animals have\ndrunk the water.\u201d The Elephant asked, \u201cLittle Tortoise, shall I chew\nyou or swallow you down?\u201d The little Tortoise said, \u201cSwallow me, if you\nplease;\u201d and the Elephant swallowed it whole.\n\nAfter the Elephant had swallowed the little Tortoise, and it had\nentered his body, it tore off his liver, heart, and kidneys. The\nElephant said, \u201cLittle Tortoise, you kill me.\u201d\n\nSo the Elephant died; but the little Tortoise came out of his dead\nbody, and went wherever it liked.\n\n\n\n\n\n15. THE GIRAFFE AND THE TORTOISE.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 5.)\n\n\n THE GIRAFFE.\n\n Thou who descendest river by river,\n Thou burnt thornbush (\u01c2aro)!\n Thou blue one, [9]\n Who appearest like a distant thornhill full of people sitting down.\n\n\n\nThe Giraffe and the Tortoise, they say, met one day. The Giraffe said\nto the Tortoise, \u201cAt once I could trample you to death.\u201d The Tortoise,\nbeing afraid, remained silent. Then the Giraffe said, \u201cAt once I could\nswallow you.\u201d The Tortoise said, in answer to this, \u201cWell, I just\nbelong to the family of those whom it has always been customary to\nswallow.\u201d Then the Giraffe swallowed the Tortoise; but when the latter\nwas being gulped down, it stuck in the Giraffe\u2019s throat, and as the\nlatter could not get it down, he was choked to death.\n\nWhen the Giraffe was dead, the Tortoise crawled out and went to the\nCrab (who is considered as the mother of the Tortoise), and told her\nwhat had happened. Then the Crab said\u2014\n\n\n \u201cThe little Crab! I could sprinkle it under its arm with boochoo,\n [10]\n The crooked-legged little one, I could sprinkle under its arm.\u201d\n\n\nThe Tortoise answered its mother and said\u2014\n\n\n \u201cHave you not always sprinkled me,\n That you want to sprinkle me now?\u201d\n\n\nThen they went and fed for a whole year on the remains of the Giraffe.\n\n\n\n\n\n16. THE TORTOISES HUNTING THE OSTRICHES.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 8.)\n\n\n\nOne day, it is said, the Tortoises held a council how they might hunt\nOstriches, and they said, \u201cLet us, on both sides, stand in rows near\neach other, and let one go to hunt the Ostriches, so that they must\nflee along through the midst of us.\u201d They did so, and as they were\nmany, the Ostriches were obliged to run along through the midst of\nthem. During this they did not move, but, remaining always in the same\nplaces, called each to the other, \u201cAre you there?\u201d and each one\nanswered, \u201cI am here.\u201d The Ostriches hearing this, ran so tremendously\nthat they quite exhausted their strength, and fell down. Then the\nTortoises assembled by-and-by at the place where the Ostriches had\nfallen, and devoured them.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nBABOON FABLES.\n\n\n Heretse!\n Heretse!\n Thou thin-armed one,\n Who hast thin hands!\n Thou smooth bulrush mat,\n Thou whose neck is bent.\n Thou who art made so as to be lifted up (upon a tree),\n Who liftest thyself up.\n Thou who wilt not die even behind that hill\n Which is yet beyond those hills,\n That lie on the other side of this far-distant hill. [11]\n\n\n\n\n\n17. THE JUDGMENT OF THE BABOON.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, of this little\n Namaqualand Fable, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s\n Manuscript, pp. 33, 35.)\n\n\n\nOne day, it is said, the following story happened. The Mouse had torn\nthe clothes of Itkler (the tailor), who then went to the Baboon, and\naccused the Mouse with these words:\u2014\n\n\u201cIn this manner I come to thee:\u2014The Mouse has torn my clothes, but will\nnot know anything of it, and accuses the Cat; the Cat protests likewise\nher innocence, and says the Dog must have done it; but the Dog denies\nit also, and declares the Wood has done it; and the Wood throws the\nblame on the Fire, and says, \u2018The Fire did it;\u2019 the Fire says, \u2018I have\nnot, the Water did it;\u2019 the Water says, \u2018The Elephant tore the\nclothes;\u2019 and the Elephant says, \u2018The Ant tore them.\u2019 Thus a dispute\nhas arisen among them. Therefore I, Itkler, come to thee with this\nproposition: Assemble the people and try them, in order that I may get\nsatisfaction.\u201d\n\nThus he spake, and the Baboon assembled them for trial. Then they made\nthe same excuses which had been mentioned by Itkler, each one putting\nthe blame upon the other.\n\nSo the Baboon did not see any other way of punishing them, save through\nmaking them punish each other; he therefore said\u2014\n\n\u201cMouse, give Itkler satisfaction.\u201d\n\nThe Mouse, however, pleaded not guilty. But the Baboon said, \u201cCat, bite\nthe Mouse.\u201d She did so.\n\nHe then put the same question to the Cat, and when she exculpated\nherself, the Baboon called to the Dog, \u201cHere, bite the Cat.\u201d\n\nIn this manner the Baboon questioned them all, one after the other, but\nthey each denied the charge. Then he addressed the following words to\nthem, and said\u2014\n\n\n \u201cWood, beat the Dog.\n Fire, burn the Wood.\n Water, quench the Fire.\n Elephant, drink the Water.\n\n\n\u201cAnt, bite the Elephant in his most tender parts.\u201d\n\nThey did so, and since that day they cannot any longer agree with each\nother.\n\nThe Ant enters into the Elephant\u2019s most tender parts, and bites him.\n\n\n The Elephant swallows the Water.\n The Water quenches the Fire.\n The Fire consumes the Wood.\n The Wood beats the Dog.\n The Dog bites the Cat.\n And the Cat the Mouse.\n\n\nThrough this judgment Itkler got satisfaction, and addressed the Baboon\nin the following manner:\u2014 \u201cYes! Now I am content, since I have received\nsatisfaction, and with all my heart I thank thee, Baboon, because thou\nhast exercised justice on my behalf, and given me redress.\u201d\n\nThen the Baboon said, \u201cFrom to-day I will not any longer be called Jan,\nbut Baboon shall be my name.\u201d\n\nSince that time the Baboon walks on all fours, having probably lost the\nprivilege of walking erect through this foolish judgment.(?)\n\n\n\n\n\n18. THE LION AND THE BABOON.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 14, 15.)\n\n\n\n THE BABOON.\n\n Thou hollow-cheeked son\n Of a hollow-cheeked one,\n My hollow-cheeked one!\n Who hast two hip-bones,\n High hip-bones,\n With which thou sittest on the edge of the rock,\n Thou whose face appears like the edge of a rock.\n\n\nThe Baboon, it is said, once worked bamboos, sitting on the edge of a\nprecipice, and the Lion stole upon him. The Baboon, however, had fixed\nsome round, glistening, eye-like plates on the back of his head. When,\ntherefore, the Lion crept upon him, he thought, when the Baboon was\nlooking at him, that he sat with his back towards him, and crept with\nall his might upon him. When, however, the Baboon turned his back\ntowards him, the Lion thought that he was seen, and hid himself. Thus,\nwhen the Baboon looked at him, he crept upon him. Whilst the Baboon did\nthis, the Lion came close upon him. When he was near him the Baboon\nlooked up, and the Lion continued to creep upon him. The Baboon said\n(aside), \u201cWhilst I am looking at him he steals upon me, whilst my\nhollow eyes are on him.\u201d\n\nWhen at last the Lion sprung at him, he lay (quickly) down upon his\nface, and the Lion jumped over him, falling down the precipice, and was\ndashed to pieces.\n\n\n\n\n\n19. THE ZEBRA STALLION.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 17.)\n\n\n\n THE ZEBRA.\n\n Thou who art thrown at by the great (shepherd) boys,\n Thou whose head the (kirrie\u2019s) throw misses!\n Thou dappled fly,\n Thou party-coloured one,\n Who spiest for those,\n That spy for thee!\n Thou who, womanlike,\n Art full of jealousy.\n\n\nThe Baboons, it is said, used to disturb the Zebra Mares in drinking.\nBut one of the Mares became the mother of a foal. The others then\nhelped her to suckle (the young stallion), that he might soon grow up.\n\nWhen he was grown up, and they were in want of water, they brought him\nto the water. The Baboons, seeing this, came, as they formerly were\nused to do, into their way, and kept them from the water.\n\nWhile the Mares stood thus, the Stallion stepped forward, and spoke to\none of the Baboons, \u201cThou gum-eater\u2019s child!\u201d\n\nThe Baboon said to the Stallion, \u201cPlease open thy mouth, that I may see\nwhat thou livest on.\u201d The Stallion opened his mouth, and it was milky.\n\nThen the Stallion said to the Baboon, \u201cPlease open thy mouth also, that\nI may see.\u201d The Baboon did so, and there was some gum in it. But the\nBaboon quickly licked some milk off the Stallion\u2019s tongue. The Stallion\non this became angry, took the Baboon by his shoulders, and pressed him\nupon a hot, flat rock. Since that day the Baboon has a bald place on\nhis back.\n\nThe Baboon said, lamenting, \u201cI, my mother\u2019s child, I, the gum-eater, am\noutdone by this milk-eater!\u201d\n\n\n\n THE ZEBRA.\n\n Thou \u01c1ari shrub (i.e., tough shrub, Dutch, \u201ccritdorn\u201d),\n Thou who art of strong smell,\n Thou who rollest always in soft ground,\n Whose body retains the dust,\n Thou split kirrie of the shepherd boys,\n Thou split knob of a kirrie.\n Thou who drivest away by thy neighing\n The hunter who seeketh thee.\n Thou who crossest all rivers\n As if they were but one.\n\n\n\n\n\n20. THE LOST CHILD.\u2014[A Tale.]\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. pp. 234, 235.)\n\n\n\nThe children belonging to a kraal were playing at some little distance\nfrom the huts with bows and arrows; in the evening they all returned\nhome, save one, a boy of five or six years old, who lingered behind,\nand was soon surrounded by a troop of baboons, who carried him up a\nmountain.\n\nThe people turned out to recover the boy, and for days they hunted\nafter him in vain; he was nowhere to be seen; the baboons also had left\nthe neighbourhood.\n\nA year after this had occurred, a mounted hunter came to the kraal from\na distance, and told the people that he had crossed at such a place the\nspoor of baboons, along with the footmarks of a child. The people went\nto the place which the hunter had indicated, and they soon saw what\nthey were in search of, viz., the boy, sitting on a pinnacle of rock,\nin company with a large baboon. The moment the people approached, the\nbaboon took up the boy, and scampered off with him; but, after a close\npursuit, the boy was recovered. He seemed quite wild, and tried to run\naway to the baboons again; however, he was brought back to the kraal,\nand when he recovered his speech, he said that the baboons had been\nvery kind to him; that they ate scorpions and spiders themselves, but\nbrought him roots, gum, and wild raisins, seeing that he did not touch\nthe two first-named delicacies, and that they always allowed him to\ndrink first at the waters.\n\n\n\n\n\n21. THE BABOON SHEPHERD.\u2014[A Tale.]\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. pp. 229, 230.)\n\n\n\nThe Namaquas say that, not long ago, a man had brought up a young\nBaboon, and had made it his shepherd. It remained by the flock all day\nin the field, and at night drove them home to the kraal, riding on the\nback of one of the goats, which brought up the rear. The Baboon had the\nmilk of one goat allowed to it, and it sucked that one only, and\nguarded the milk of the others from the children. It also got a little\nmeat from its master. It held the office of shepherd for twelve moons,\nand then was unfortunately killed in a tree by a Leopard.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nLION FABLES.\n\n\n22. THE FLYING LION.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 3, 4.)\n\n\n\nThe Lion, it is said, used once to fly, and at that time nothing could\nlive before him. As he was unwilling that the bones of what he caught\nshould be broken into pieces, he made a pair of White Crows watch the\nbones, leaving them behind at the kraal whilst he went a-hunting. But\none day the great Frog came there, broke the bones in pieces, and said,\n\u201cWhy can men and animals live no longer?\u201d And he added these words,\n\u201cWhen he comes, tell him that I live at yonder pool; if he wishes to\nsee me, he must come there.\u201d\n\nThe Lion, lying in wait (for game), wanted to fly up, but found he\ncould not fly. Then he got angry, thinking that at the kraal something\nwas wrong, and returned home. When he arrived, he asked, \u201cWhat have you\ndone that I cannot fly?\u201d Then they answered and said, \u201cSome one came\nhere, broke the bones into pieces, and said, \u2018If he wants me, he may\nlook for me at yonder pool!\u2019\u201d The Lion went, and arrived while the Frog\nwas sitting at the water\u2019s edge, and he tried to creep stealthily upon\nhim. When he was about to get hold of him, the Frog said, \u201cHo!\u201d and,\ndiving, went to the other side of the pool, and sat there. The Lion\npursued him; but as he could not catch him he returned home.\n\nFrom that day, it is said, the Lion walked on his feet, and also began\nto creep upon (his game); and the White Crows became entirely dumb\nsince the day that they said, \u201cNothing can be said of that matter.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n23. THE LION WHO THOUGHT HIMSELF WISER THAN HIS MOTHER.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 31, 33.)\n\n\n\nIt is said that when the Lion and \u01c0gurikhoisip [12] (the Only man),\ntogether with the Baboon, the Buffalo, and other friends, were playing\none day at a certain game, there was a thunderstorm and rain at\n\u01c2aro\u03c7aams. [13] The Lion and \u01c0gurikhoisip began to quarrel. \u201cI shall\nrun to the rain-field,\u201d said the Lion. \u01c0Gurikhoisip said also, \u201cI shall\nrun to the rain-field.\u201d As neither would concede this to the other,\nthey separated (angrily). After they had parted, the Lion went to tell\nhis Mother those things which they had both said.\n\nHis Mother said to him, \u201cMy Father! that Man whose head is in a line\nwith his shoulders and breast, who has pinching weapons, who keeps\nwhite dogs, who goes about wearing the tuft of a tiger\u2019s tail, beware\nof him!\u201d The Lion, however, said, \u201cWhy need I be on my guard against\nthose whom I know?\u201d The Lioness answered, \u201cMy Son, take care of him who\nhas pinching weapons!\u201d But the Lion would not follow his Mother\u2019s\nadvice, and the same morning, when it was still pitch dark, he went to\n\u01c2aro\u03c7aams, and laid himself in ambush. \u01c0Gurikhoisip went also that\nmorning to the same place. When he had arrived he let his dogs drink,\nand then bathe. After they had finished they wallowed. Then also the\nman drank; and, when he had done drinking, the Lion came out of the\nbush. The dogs surrounded him, as his mother had foretold, and he was\nspeared by \u01c0gurikhoisip. Just as he became aware that he was speared,\nthe dogs drew him down again. In this manner he grew faint. While he\nwas in this state, \u01c0gurikhoisip said to the dogs, \u201cLet him alone now,\nthat he may go and be taught by his Mother.\u201d So the dogs let him go.\nThey left him, and went home as he lay there. The same night he walked\ntowards home, but whilst he was on the way his strength failed him, and\nhe lamented:\n\n\n \u201cMother! take me up!\n Grandmother! take me up! Oh me! Alas!\u201d\n\n\nAt the dawn of day his Mother heard his wailing, and said\u2014\n\n\u201cMy Son, this is the thing which I have told thee:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cBeware of the one who has pinching weapons,\n Who wears a tuft of tiger\u2019s tail,\n Of him who has white dogs!\n Alas! Thou son of her who is short-eared,\n Thou, my short-eared child!\n Son of her who eats raw flesh,\n Thou flesh-devourer;\n Son of her whose nostrils are red from the prey,\n Thou with blood-stained nostrils!\n Son of her who drinks pit-water,\n Thou water-drinker!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n24. THE LION WHO TOOK A WOMAN\u2019S SHAPE.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 60, 65.)\n\n\n\nSome women, it is said, went out to seek roots and herbs and other wild\nfood. On their way home they sat down and said, \u201cLet us taste the food\nof the field.\u201d Now they found that the food picked by one of them was\nsweet, while that of the others was bitter. The latter said to each\nother, \u201cLook here! this woman\u2019s herbs are sweet.\u201d Then they said to the\nowner of the sweet food, \u201cThrow it away and seek for\nother\u201d\u2014(sweet-tasted herbs being apparently unpalatable to the\nHottentot). So she threw away the food, and went to gather more. When\nshe had collected a sufficient supply, she returned to join the other\nwomen, but could not find them. She went therefore down to the river,\nwhere the Hare sat lading water, and said to him, \u201cHare, give me some\nwater that I may drink.\u201d But he replied, \u201cThis is the cup out of which\nmy uncle (the Lion) and I alone may drink.\u201d\n\nShe asked again: \u201cHare, draw water for me that I may drink.\u201d But the\nHare made the same reply. Then she snatched the cup from him and drank,\nbut he ran home to tell his uncle of the outrage which had been\ncommitted.\n\nThe Woman meanwhile replaced the cup and went away. After she had\ndeparted the Lion came down, and, seeing her in the distance, pursued\nher on the road. When she turned round and saw him coming, she sang in\nthe following manner:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cMy mother, she would not let me seek herbs,\n Herbs of the field, food from the field. Hoo!\u201d\n\n\nWhen the Lion at last came up with the Woman, they hunted each other\nround a shrub. She wore many beads and arm-rings, and the Lion said,\n\u201cLet me put them on!\u201d So she lent them to him, but he afterwards\nrefused to return them to her.\n\nThey then hunted each other again round the shrub, till the Lion fell\ndown, and the Woman jumped upon him, and kept him there. The Lion\n(uttering a form of conjuration) said:\n\n\n \u201cMy Aunt! it is morning, and time to rise;\n Pray, rise from me!\u201d\n\n\nShe then rose from him, and they hunted again after each other round\nthe shrub, till the Woman fell down, and the Lion jumped upon her. She\nthen addressed him:\n\n\n \u201cMy Uncle! it is morning, and time to rise;\n Pray, rise from me!\u201d\n\n\nHe rose, of course, and they hunted each other again, till the Lion\nfell a second time. When she jumped upon him, he said:\n\n\n \u201cMy Aunt! it is morning, and time to rise;\n Pray, rise from me!\u201d\n\n\nThey rose again and hunted after each other. The Woman at last fell\ndown. But this time, when she repeated the above conjuration, the Lion\nsaid:\n\n\n \u201cH\u00e8 Kha! Is it morning, and time to rise?\u201d\n\n\nHe then ate her, taking care, however, to leave her skin whole, which\nhe put on, together with her dress and ornaments, so that he looked\nquite like a woman, and then went home to her kraal.\n\nWhen this counterfeit woman arrived, her little sister, crying, said,\n\u201cMy sister, pour some milk out for me.\u201d She answered, \u201cI shall not pour\nyou out any.\u201d Then the child addressed their Mother: \u201cMama, do pour out\nsome for me.\u201d The Mother of the kraal said, \u201cGo to your sister, and let\nher give it to you!\u201d The little child said again to her sister,\n\u201cPlease, pour out for me!\u201d She, however, repeated her refusal, saying,\n\u201cI will not do it.\u201d Then the Mother of the kraal said to the little\none, \u201cI refused to let her (the elder sister) seek herbs in the field,\nand I do not know what may have happened; go therefore to the Hare, and\nask him to pour out for you.\u201d\n\nSo the Hare gave her some milk; but her elder sister said, \u201cCome and\nshare it with me.\u201d The little child then went to her sister with her\nbamboo (cup), and they both sucked the milk out of it. Whilst they were\ndoing this, some milk was spilt on the little one\u2019s hand, and the elder\nsister licked it up with her tongue, the roughness of which drew blood;\nthis, too, the Woman licked up.\n\nThe little child complained to her Mother: \u201cMama, sister pricks holes\nin me, and sucks the blood.\u201d The Mother said, \u201cWith what lion\u2019s nature\nyour sister went the way that I forbade her, and returned, I do not\nknow.\u201d\n\nNow the cows arrived, and the elder sister cleansed the pails in order\nto milk them. But when she approached the cows with a thong (in order\nto tie their fore-legs), they all refused to be milked by her.\n\nThe Hare said, \u201cWhy do not you stand before the cow?\u201d She replied,\n\u201cHare, call your brother, and do you two stand before the cow.\u201d Her\nhusband said, \u201cWhat has come over her that the cows refuse her? These\nare the same cows she always milks.\u201d The Mother (of the kraal) said,\n\u201cWhat has happened this evening? These are cows which she always milks\nwithout assistance. What can have affected her that she comes home as a\nwoman with a lion\u2019s nature?\u201d\n\nThe elder daughter then said to her Mother, \u201cI shall not milk the\ncows.\u201d With these words she sat down. The Mother said therefore to the\nHare, \u201cBring me the bamboos, that I may milk. I do not know what has\ncome over the girl.\u201d\n\nSo the Mother herself milked the cows, and when she had done so, the\nHare brought the bamboos to the young wife\u2019s house, where her husband\nwas, but she (the wife) did not give him (her husband) anything to eat.\nBut when at night time she fell asleep, they saw some of the Lion\u2019s\nhair, which was hanging out where he had slipped on the woman\u2019s skin,\nand they cried, \u201cVerily! this is quite another being. It is for this\nreason that the cows refused to be milked.\u201d\n\nThen the people of the kraal began to break up the hut in which the\nLion lay asleep. When they took off the mats, they said (conjuring\nthem), \u201cIf thou art favourably inclined to me, O mat, give the sound\n\u2018sawa\u2019\u201d (meaning, making no noise).\n\nTo the poles (on which the hut rested) they said, \u201cIf thou art\nfavourably inclined to me, O pole, thou must give the sound \u01c2gara.\u201d\n[14]\n\nThey addressed also the bamboos and the bed-skins in a similar manner.\n\nThus gradually and noiselessly they removed the hut and all its\ncontents. Then they took bunches of grass, put them over the Lion, and\nlighting them, said, \u201cIf thou art favourably inclined to me, O fire,\nthou must flare up, \u2018boo boo,\u2019 before thou comest to the heart.\u201d\n\nSo the fire flared up when it came towards the heart, and the heart of\nthe Woman jumped upon the ground. The Mother (of the kraal) picked it\nup, and put it into a calabash.\n\nThe Lion, from his place in the fire, said to the Mother (of the\nkraal), \u201cHow nicely I have eaten your daughter.\u201d The Woman answered,\n\u201cYou have also now a comfortable place!\u201d *\u00a0*\u00a0*\n\nNow the Woman took the first milk of as many cows as calved, and put it\ninto the calabash where her daughter\u2019s heart was; the calabash\nincreased in size, and in proportion to this the girl grew again inside\nit.\n\nOne day, when the Mother (of the kraal) went out to fetch wood, she\nsaid to the Hare, \u201cBy the time that I come back you must have\neverything nice and clean.\u201d But during her Mother\u2019s absence, the girl\ncrept out of the calabash, and put the hut in good order, as she had\nbeen used to do in former days, and said to the Hare, \u201cWhen mother\ncomes back and asks, \u2018Who has done these things?\u2019 you must say, \u2018I, the\nHare, did them.\u2019\u201d After she had done all, she hid herself on the stage.\n[15]\n\nWhen the Mother (of the kraal) came home, she said, \u201cHare, who has done\nthese things? They look just as they used when my daughter did them.\u201d\nThe Hare said, \u201cI did the things.\u201d But the Mother would not believe it,\nand looked at the calabash. Seeing it was empty, she searched the stage\nand found her daughter. Then she embraced and kissed her, and from that\nday the girl stayed with her mother, and did everything as she was wont\nin former times; but she now remained unmarried.\n\n\n\n\n\n25. A WOMAN TRANSFORMED INTO A LION.\n\n[A Tale.]\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. pp. 197, 198.)\n\n\n\nOnce upon a time a certain Hottentot was travelling in company with a\nBushwoman, carrying a child on her back. They had proceeded some\ndistance on their journey, when a troop of wild horses appeared, and\nthe Man said to the Woman, \u201cI am hungry; and as I know you can turn\nyourself into a Lion, do so now, and catch us a wild horse, that we may\neat.\u201d\n\nThe Woman answered, \u201cYou will be afraid.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, no,\u201d said the Man; \u201cI am afraid of dying of hunger, but not of\nyou.\u201d\n\nWhilst he was yet speaking, hair began to appear at the back of the\nWoman\u2019s neck; her nails gradually assumed the appearance of claws, and\nher features altered. She sat down the child.\n\nThe Man, alarmed at the change, climbed a tree close by. The Woman\nglared at him fearfully, and going to one side, she threw off her skin\npetticoat, when a perfect Lion rushed into the plain. It bounded and\ncrept among the bushes towards the wild horses, and springing on one of\nthem, it fell, and the Lion lapped its blood. The Lion then came back\nto where the child was crying, and the man called from the tree,\n\u201cEnough, enough! don\u2019t hurt me. Put off your lion\u2019s shape, I\u2019ll never\nask to see this again.\u201d\n\nThe Lion looked at him and growled. \u201cI\u2019ll remain here till I die,\u201d said\nthe Man, \u201cif you don\u2019t become a woman again.\u201d The mane and tail then\nbegan to disappear, the Lion went towards the bush where the skin\npetticoat lay; it was slipped on, and the woman, in her proper shape,\ntook up the child. The Man descended and partook of the horse\u2019s flesh,\nbut never again asked the Woman to catch game for him.\n\n\n\n\n\n26. THE LION AND THE BUSHMAN.\n\n[A Tale.]\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. p. 51.)\n\n\n\nA Bushman was, on one occasion, following a troop of zebras, and had\njust succeeded in wounding one with his arrows, when a Lion sprang out\nfrom a thicket opposite, and showed every inclination to dispute the\nprize with him. The Bushman being near a convenient tree, threw down\nhis arms, and climbed for safety to an upper branch. The Lion, allowing\nthe wounded zebra to pass on, now turned his whole attention towards\nthe Bushman, and walking round and round the tree, he ever and anon\ngrowled and looked up at him. At length the Lion lay down at the foot\nof the tree, and kept watch all night. Towards morning sleep overcame\nthe hitherto wakeful Bushman, and he dreamt that he had fallen into the\nLion\u2019s mouth. Starting from the effects of his dream, he lost his hold,\nand, falling from the branch, he alighted heavily on the Lion; on which\nthe monster, thus unexpectedly saluted, ran off with a loud roar, and\nthe Bushman, also taking to his heels in a different direction, escaped\nin safety.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nVARIOUS FABLES.\n\n\n THE ELEPHANT.\n\n Thou tall acacia full of branches,\n Thou ebony tree with leaves spread round about.\n\n\n\n\n\n27. HOW A NAMA WOMAN OUTWITTED THE ELEPHANTS.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 1, 3.)\n\n\n\nAn Elephant, it is said, was married to a Nama Hottentot woman, whose\ntwo brothers came to her secretly, because they were afraid of her\nhusband. Then she went out as if to fetch wood, and putting them within\nthe wood, she laid them on the stage. [16] Then she said, \u201cSince I\nmarried into this kraal, has a wether been slaughtered also for me?\u201d\nAnd her blind mother-in-law answered, \u201cUmph! things are said by the\nwife of my eldest son, which she never said before.\u201d\n\nThereupon the Elephant, who had been in the field, arrived, and\nsmelling something, rubbed against the house. \u201cHa,\u201d said his wife,\n\u201cwhat I should not have done formerly, I do now. On what day did you\nslaughter a wether for me?\u201d Then the mother-in-law said to him: \u201cAs she\nsays things which she did not say (before), do it now.\u201d\n\nIn this manner a wether was slaughtered (for her), which she roasted\nwhole, and then, in the same night (after supper), asked her\nmother-in-law the following questions:\u2014\u201cHow do you breathe when you\nsleep the sleep of life? (light sleep, half-conscious.) And how when\nyou sleep the sleep of death?\u201d (deep sleep.)\n\nThen the mother-in-law said, \u201cUmph, an evening full of conversation!\nWhen we sleep the sleep of death, we breathe thus: \u2018s\u0169i s\u0169i!\u2019 and when\nwe sleep the sleep of life we breathe thus: \u2018\u03a7ou \u01c3\u00e1waba! \u03a7ou \u01c3\u00e1waba!\u2019\u201d\n[17]\n\nThus the wife made everything right whilst they fell asleep. Then she\nlistened to their snoring, and when they slept thus, s\u0169i s\u0169i, she rose\nand said to her two brothers, \u201cThe sleep of death is over them, let us\nmake ready.\u201d They rose and went out, and she broke up the hut [18] (to\ncarry away all that she could), and took the necessary things, and\nsaid, \u201cThat thing which makes any noise wills my death.\u201d So they kept\naltogether quiet.\n\nWhen her two brothers had packed up, she went with them between the\ncattle, but she left at home one cow, one ewe, and one goat, and\ndirected them, saying to the cow, \u201cYou must not low as if you were by\nyourself alone, if you do not wish for my death;\u201d and she taught the\newe and the goat the same.\n\nThen they departed with all the other cattle, and those who were left\nbehind lowed during the night as if they were many, and as they lowed\nas if they were still all there, the Elephant thought, \u201cThey are all\nthere.\u201d But when he rose in the morning, he saw that his wife and all\nthe cattle were gone. Taking his stick into his hands, he said to his\nmother, \u201cIf I fall the earth will tremble.\u201d With these words he\nfollowed them. When they saw him approaching, they ran fast to the\nside, against a piece of rock (at a narrow spot), and she said, \u201cWe are\npeople, behind whom a large (travelling) party comes. Stone of my\nancestors! divide thyself for us.\u201d Then the rock divided itself, and\nwhen they had passed through it, it closed again (behind them).\n\nThen came the Elephant, and said to the rock, \u201cStone of my ancestors!\ndivide thyself also for me.\u201d The rock divided itself again, but when he\nhad entered, it closed upon him. Thus died the Elephant, and the earth\ntrembled. The mother at her hut said then, \u201cAs my eldest son said, it\nhas happened. The earth shakes.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n28. A BAD SISTER.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 15, 16.)\n\n\n\nCopper and Weather, it is said, were man and wife, and begat a\ndaughter, who married amongst other people.\n\nHer three brothers came to visit her; and she did not know them (as\nsuch), though the people said, \u201cDo not you see they are your brothers?\u201d\nShe determined to kill them at night. They had, however, a Guinea-fowl\nto watch them.\n\nWhen the Copper-Weather relative crept near, in order to kill the men,\nthe Guinea-fowl made a noise to put them on their guard. They were thus\nwarned of the danger; but afterwards they fell asleep again. Then she\nstole again upon them. The Guinea-fowl made a noise, but broke the rope\nby which it had been fastened, and ran home. She then killed her\nbrothers. When the Guinea-fowl came near home it wept:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cThe Copper-Weather relative has killed her brothers!\n Alas! she has killed her brothers!\u201d\n\n\nThe wife heard it, and said to her husband\u2014\n\n\n \u201cDo not you hear what the bird weeps for?\n You who sit here upon the ground working bamboos.\u201d\n\n\nThe man said, \u201cCome and turn yourself into a mighty thunderstorm, and I\nwill be a strong wind.\u201d\n\nSo they transformed themselves accordingly, and when they came near to\nthe kraal (where their sons had been killed), they combined and became\na fire, and as a fiery rain they burnt the kraal and all its\ninhabitants.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nSUN AND MOON FABLES.\n\n\n29. WHY HAS THE JACKAL A LONG BLACK STRIPE ON HIS BACK?\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 16.)\n\n\n\nThe Sun, it is said, was one day on earth, and the men who were\ntravelling saw him sitting by the wayside, but passed him without\nnotice. The Jackal, however, who came after them, and saw him also\nsitting, went to him and said, \u201cSuch a fine little child is left behind\nby the men.\u201d He then took the Sun up, and put it into his awa-skin (on\nhis back). When it burnt him, he said, \u201cGet down,\u201d and shook himself;\nbut the Sun stuck fast to his back, and burnt the Jackal\u2019s back black\nfrom that day.\n\n\n\n\n\n30. THE HORSE CURSED BY THE SUN.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, of this little\n Namaqualand Fable, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s\n Manuscript, p. 53.)\n\n\n\nIt is said that once the Sun was on earth, and caught the Horse to ride\nit. But it was unable to bear his weight, and therefore the Ox took the\nplace of the Horse, and carried the Sun on its back. Since that time\nthe Horse is cursed in these words, because it could not carry the\nSun\u2019s weight:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cFrom to-day thou shalt have a (certain) time of dying.\n This is thy curse, that thou hast a (certain) time of dying.\n And day and night shalt thou eat,\n But the desire of thy heart shall not be at rest,\n Though thou grazest till morning and again until sunset.\n Behold, this is the judgment which I pass upon thee,\u201d said the Sun.\n\n\nSince that day the Horse\u2019s (certain) time of dying commenced.\n\n\n\n\n\n31. THE ORIGIN OF DEATH.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 33, 34.)\n\n\n\nThe Moon, it is said, sent once an Insect to Men, saying, \u201cGo thou to\nMen, and tell them, \u2018As I die, and dying live, so ye shall also die,\nand dying live.\u2019\u201d The Insect started with the message, but whilst on\nhis way was overtaken by the Hare, who asked: \u201cOn what errand art thou\nbound?\u201d The Insect answered: \u201cI am sent by the Moon to Men, to tell\nthem that as she dies, and dying lives, they also shall die, and dying\nlive.\u201d The Hare said, \u201cAs thou art an awkward runner, let me go\u201d (to\ntake the message). With these words he ran off, and when he reached\nMen, he said, \u201cI am sent by the Moon to tell you, \u2018As I die, and dying\nperish, in the same manner ye shall also die and come wholly to an\nend.\u2019\u201d Then the Hare returned to the Moon, and told her what he had\nsaid to Men. The Moon reproached him angrily, saying, \u201cDarest thou tell\nthe people a thing which I have not said?\u201d With these words she took up\na piece of wood, and struck him on the nose. Since that day the Hare\u2019s\nnose is slit.\n\n\n\n\n\n32. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME FABLE.\n\n\n (From H. C. Knudsen\u2019s \u201cGross-Namaqualand,\u201d 12mo., Barmen, 1848, pp.\n 27, 28.)\n\n\n\nThe Moon dies, and rises to life again. The Moon said to the Hare, \u201cGo\nthou to Men, and tell them, \u2018Like as I die and rise to life again, so\nyou also shall die and rise to life again.\u2019\u201d The Hare went to the Men,\nand said, \u201cLike as I die and do not rise to life again, so you shall\nalso die, and not rise to life again.\u201d When he returned, the Moon asked\nhim, \u201cWhat hast thou said?\u201d \u201cI have told them, \u2018Like as I die and do\nnot rise to life again, so you shall also die and not rise to life\nagain.\u2019\u201d \u201cWhat,\u201d said the Moon, \u201chast thou said that?\u201d And she took a\nstick and beat the Hare on his mouth, which was slit by the blow. The\nHare fled, and is still fleeing. [19]\n\n\n\n\n\n33. A THIRD VERSION OF THE SAME FABLE.\n\n\n (From an original Manuscript in English, by Mr. John Priestley, in\n Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library.)\n\n\n\nThe Moon, on one occasion, sent the Hare to the earth to inform Men\nthat as she (the Moon) died away and rose again, so mankind should die\nand rise again. Instead, however, of delivering this message as given,\nthe Hare, either out of forgetfulness or malice, told mankind that as\nthe Moon rose and died away, so Man should die and rise no more. The\nHare, having returned to the Moon, was questioned as to the message\ndelivered, and the Moon, having heard the true state of the case,\nbecame so enraged with him that she took up a hatchet to split his\nhead; falling short, however, of that, the hatchet fell upon the upper\nlip of the Hare, and cut it severely. Hence it is that we see the\n\u201cHare-lip.\u201d The Hare, being duly incensed at having received such\ntreatment, raised his claws, and scratched the Moon\u2019s face; and the\ndark parts which we now see on the surface of the Moon are the scars\nwhich she received on that occasion.\n\n\n\n\n\n34. A FOURTH VERSION OF THE SAME FABLE.\n\n\n (From Sir James E. Alexander\u2019s \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\n Interior of Africa,\u201d vol. i. p. 169.)\n\n\n\nThe Moon, they say, wished to send a message to Men, and the Hare said\nthat he would take it. \u201cRun, then,\u201d said the Moon, \u201cand tell Men that\nas I die and am renewed, so shall they also be renewed.\u201d But the Hare\ndeceived Men, and said, \u201cAs I die and perish, so shall you also.\u201d [20]\n\n\n\n\n\n35. A ZULU VERSION OF THE LEGEND OF THE \u201cORIGIN OF DEATH.\u201d\n\n\n (From Manuscript, \u201cZulu Legends,\u201d No. 214 of Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library,\n vol. i. part i. p. 107.)\n\n\n\nGod (Unknlunkuln) arose from beneath (the seat of the spiritual world,\naccording to the Zulu idea), and created in the beginning [21] men,\nanimals, and all things. He then sent for the Chameleon, and said, \u201cGo,\nChameleon, and tell Men that they shall not die.\u201d The Chameleon went,\nbut it walked slowly, and loitered on the way, eating of a shrub called\nBukwebezane.\n\nWhen it had been away some time, God sent the Salamander after it,\nordering him to make haste and tell Men that they should die. The\nSalamander went on his way with this message, outran the Chameleon,\nand, arriving first where the Men were, told them that they must die.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nHEITSI EIBIP AND OTHER LEGENDS.\n\n\n36. HEITSI EIBIP.\n\n\n (From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, H. C.\n Knudsen\u2019s \u201cNotes on the Hottentots,\u201d p. 7.)\n\n\n\nHeitsi Eibip, or Kabip, was a great and celebrated sorcerer among the\nNamaqua. He could tell secret things, and prophesy what was to happen\nafterwards.\n\nOnce he was travelling with a great number of people, and an enemy\npursued them. On arriving at some water he said, \u201cMy grandfather\u2019s\nfather, open thyself that I may pass through, and close thyself\nafterwards.\u201d So it took place as he had said, and they went safely\nthrough. Then their enemies tried to pass through the opening also, but\nwhen they were in the midst of it, it closed again upon them, and they\nperished. [22]\n\nHeitsi Kabip died several times, and came to life again. When the\nHottentots pass one of his graves they throw a stone on it for good\nluck. [23]\n\nHeitsi Eibip could take many different forms. Sometimes he appeared\nhandsome, very handsome, or his hair grew long down to his shoulders;\nat other times it was again short.\n\n\n\n\n\n37. THE VICTORY OF HEITSI EIBIP.\n\n\n (From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, H. C.\n Knudsen\u2019s \u201cNotes on the Hottentots,\u201d p. 7.)\n\n\n\nAt first they were two. One had made a large hole in the ground, and\nsat by it, and told passers-by to throw a stone at his forehead. The\nstone, however, rebounded and killed the person who had thrown it, so\nthat he fell into the hole. At last Heitsi Eibip was told that in this\nmanner many people died. So he arose and went to the man, who\nchallenged Heitsi Eibip to throw (a stone) at him. The latter, however,\ndeclined, for he was too prudent; but he drew the man\u2019s attention to\nsomething on one side, and while he turned round to look at it, Heitsi\nEibip hit him behind the ear, so that he died and fell into his own\nhole. After that there was peace, and people lived happily. [24]\n\n\n\n\n\n38. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME LEGEND.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 36.)\n\n\n\nAll men who came near to that hole were, it is said, pushed down into\nit by the \u01c2G\u00e3 \u01c2gorip [25] (the pusher into the hole), as he knew well\nwhere it lay. Whilst he was thus employed, there came the Heitsi Eibip,\ncalled also Heigeip, and saw how the \u01c2G\u00e3 \u01c2gorip treated the people.\n\nThen these two began to hunt each other round the hole, saying\u2014\n\n\n \u201cPush the Heigeip down!\u201d\n \u201cPush the \u01c2G\u00e3 \u01c2gorip down!\u201d\n \u201cPush the Heigeip down!\u201d\n \u201cPush the \u01c2G\u00e3 \u01c2gorip down!\u201d\n\n\nWith these words they hunted each other round for some time; but at\nlast the Heigeip was pushed down. Then he said to the hole, \u201cSupport me\na little,\u201d and it did. Thus, being supported, he came out; and they\nhunted each other again with the same words:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cPush the Heigeip down!\u201d\n \u201cPush the \u01c2G\u00e3 \u01c2gorip down!\u201d\n\n\nA second time the Heigeip was pushed down, and he spoke the same words:\n\u201cSupport me a little,\u201d and thus got out again.\n\nOnce more these two hunted after each other, till at last the \u01c2G\u00e3\n\u01c2gorip was pushed down, and he came not up again. Since that day men\nbreathed freely and had rest from their enemy, because he was\nvanquished.\n\n\n\n\n\n39. THE RAISIN-EATER.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 34, 35.)\n\n\n\nIt is said that when Heitsi Eibip was travelling about with his family,\nthey came to a valley in which the raisin-tree was ripe, and he was\nthere attacked by a severe illness. Then his young (second) wife said,\n\u201cThis brave one is taken ill on account of these raisins; death is here\nat the place.\u201d The old man (Heitsi Eibip), however, told his son\n\u01c3Urisip [26] (the whitish one), \u201cI shall not live, I feel it; thou\nmust, therefore, cover me when I am dead with soft stones.\u201d And he\nspoke further, \u201cThis is the thing which I order you to do:\u2014\u2018Of the\nraisin-trees of this valley ye shall not eat. For if ye eat of them I\nshall infect you, and ye will surely die in a similar way.\u2019\u201d\n\nHis young wife said, \u201cHe is taken ill on account of the raisins of this\nvalley. Let us bury him quickly, and let us go.\u201d\n\nSo he died there, and was covered flatly with soft stones according as\nhe had commanded. Then they went away from him.\n\nWhen they had moved to another place, and were unpacking there, they\nheard always from the side whence they came a noise as of people eating\nraisins and singing. In this manner the eating and singing ran:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cI, father of \u01c3Urisip,\n Father of this unclean one,\n I, who had to eat these raisins, and died,\n And dying live.\u201d\n\n\nThe young wife perceived that the noise came from the side where the\nold man\u2019s grave was, and said, \u201c\u01c3Urisip! Go and look!\u201d Then the son\nwent to the old man\u2019s grave, where he saw traces which he recognised to\nbe his father\u2019s footmarks, and returned home. Then the young wife said,\n\u201cIt is he alone; therefore act thus:\u2014\n\n\n \u201cDo so to the man who ate raisins on the windward side,\n Take care of the wind that thou creepest upon him from the leeward;\n Then intercept him on his way to the grave,\n And when thou hast caught him, do not let him go.\u201d\n\n\nHe did accordingly, and they came between the grave and Heitsi Eibip\nwho, when he saw this, jumped down from the raisin-trees, and ran\nquickly, but was caught at the grave. Then he said:\n\n\u201cLet me go! For I am a man who has been dead that I may not infect\nyou!\u201d But the young wife said, \u201cKeep hold of the rogue!\u201d So they\nbrought him home, and from that day he was fresh and hale.\n\n\n\n\n\n40. ORIGIN OF THE DIFFERENCE IN MODES OF LIFE BETWEEN HOTTENTOTS AND\nBUSHMEN.\n\n\n (From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey\u2019s Library, H. C.\n Knudsen\u2019s \u201cNotes on the Hottentots,\u201d pp. 7, 8.)\n\n\n\nIn the beginning there were two. One was blind, the other was always\nhunting. This hunter found at last a hole in the earth, from which game\nproceeded, and killed the young. The blind man, feeling and smelling\nthem, said, \u201cThey are not game, but cattle.\u201d\n\nThe blind man afterwards recovered his sight, and going with the hunter\nto this hole, saw that they were cows with their calves. He then\nquickly built a kraal (fence made of thorns) round them, and anointed\nhimself, just as Hottentots (in their native state) are still wont to\ndo.\n\nWhen the other, who now with great trouble had to seek his game, came\nand saw this, he wanted to anoint himself also. \u201cLook here!\u201d said the\nother, \u201cyou must throw the ointment into the fire, and afterwards use\nit.\u201d He followed this advice, and the flames flaring up into his face,\nburnt him most miserably; so that he was glad to make his escape. The\nother, however, called to him: \u201cHere, take the kirri (a knobstick), and\nrun to the hills, to hunt there for honey.\u201d\n\nHence sprung the race of Bushmen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nHOUSEHOLD TALES.\n\n\n41. THE LITTLE WISE WOMAN.\n\n\n (The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey\u2019s\n Library, G. Kr\u00f6nlein\u2019s Manuscript, p. 53.)\n\n\n\nA girl, it is said, went to seek for onions. As she arrived at the\nplace where they grew, she met with some men, one of whom was blind\n(i.e., half-blind, having only one eye). As she dug (for the onions)\nthe men helped her, digging also. When her sack was full, they said to\nher, \u201cGo, tell the other girls, that many of you may come.\u201d So she went\nhome and told her companions, and early the next morning they started.\nBut a little girl followed them. The other girls said, \u201cLet the little\ngirl go back.\u201d But her elder sister protested against this, saying,\n\u201cShe runs by herself, you need not put her into your awa-skin.\u201d\n\nSo they went all together, and having reached the onion-ground, began\nto dig. Now the little girl saw traces of feet, and said to the one who\nhad guided them thither, \u201cWonderful! whence so many traces? Were you\nnot alone here?\u201d The other replied, \u201cI walked about and looked out;\ntherefore they must of course be many.\u201d The child, however, did not\nbelieve that if the other girl had been alone the traces could be many,\nand felt uneasy; for she was a wise little woman. From time to time she\nrose (from her work) and peeped about, and once, while doing this,\nfound by chance an ant-eater\u2019s hole. Still further spying about, she\nperceived some men, but they did not see her. She then returned and\ncontinued digging with the other girls, without, however, saying\nanything. But in the midst of their work she always rose and looked\nabout her. So the others asked her, \u201cWhy do you always spy about you,\nand leave off digging? What a girl!\u201d But she continued her work in\nsilence. When she rose from it again, she saw the men approaching. As\nthey drew near the One-eyed blew through a reed pipe the following\nair:\u2014\n\n\u201cTo-day there shall blood flow, blood flow, blood flow!\u201d\n\nThe little girl understood what was blown on the reed. She said to the\nelder ones, whilst they were dancing, \u201cDo you also understand the tune\nthat is blown on the reed?\u201d But they only said, \u201cWhat a child she is!\u201d\nSo she mixed in the dance with the others; but managed while so doing\nto tie her sister\u2019s caross-cloak to her own, and in this manner they\ndanced on, till it became very noisy, and then they found an\nopportunity to slip away.\n\nOn their way out the little sister asked, \u201cDo you understand the reed\u2014I\nmean what is blown on it?\u201d She answered, \u201cI do not understand it.\u201d Then\nthe little girl explained to her that the tune on the reed said,\n\u201cTo-day blood shall flow!\u201d When they walked along, the little girl let\nher elder sister go first, and herself followed, walking backwards, and\ncarefully stepping in her sister\u2019s traces, so that they thus left only\none set of footmarks, and these going in a contrary direction. In this\nmanner they arrived at the ant-eater\u2019s hole.\n\nBut the men killed all those girls who had remained dancing with them.\nWhen the eldest of those who had escaped heard their wailing, she said,\n\u201cAlas, my sisters!\u201d But the younger one answered her, \u201cDo you think you\nwould have lived if you had remained there?\u201d\n\nNow \u201cOne-eye\u201d was the first to miss the sisters, and said to the other\nmen, \u201cWhere may the two handsome girls be who danced with me?\u201d The\nothers replied, \u201cHe lies. He has seen with his eye\u201d (satirically\nmeaning he had seen wrongly). But \u201cOne-eye\u201d insisted that \u201ctwo girls\nwere truly missing.\u201d Then they went to find their spoor, but the traces\nhad been rendered indistinct enough to puzzle them.\n\nWhen the men arrived at the ant-eater\u2019s hole, they could not see that\nthe footmarks went further, so they spied into the hole, but saw\nnothing. Then \u201cOne-eye\u201d looked also, and he saw the girls, and cried,\n\u201cThere they sit.\u201d The others now looked again, but still saw nothing;\nfor the girls had covered themselves with cobwebs.\n\nOne of the men then took an assegai, and piercing through the upper\npart of the hole, hit the heel of the larger girl. But the little wise\nwoman took hold of the assegai, and wiped off the blood. The elder\nsister was about to cry, but the little one warned her not.\n\nWhen \u201cOne-eye\u201d spied again, the little girl made big eyes at him. He\nsaid, \u201cThere she sits.\u201d The others looked too, but as they could see\nnothing they said (satirically), \u201cHe has only seen with his eye.\u201d\n\nAt last the men got thirsty, and said to \u201cOne-eye,\u201d \u201cStay you here, and\nlet us go to drink, and when we have returned you may go also.\u201d\n\nWhen \u201cOne-eye\u201d was left alone there, the little girl said (conjuring\nhim):\n\n\n \u201cYou dirty son of your father,\n Are you there? Are you alone not thirsty?\n Oh, you dirty child of your father!\n Dirty child of your father!\u201d\n\n\n\u201cI am indeed thirsty,\u201d said \u201cOne-eye,\u201d and went away.\n\nThen the two girls came out of the hole, and the younger one took her\nelder sister on her back, and walked on. As they were going over the\nbare, treeless plain, the men saw them, and said, \u201cThere they are, far\noff,\u201d and ran after them.\n\nWhen they came near, the two girls turned themselves into thorn trees,\ncalled \u201cWait-a-bit,\u201d and the beads which they wore became gum on the\ntrees. The men then ate of the gum and fell asleep. Whilst they slept,\nthe girls smeared gum over the men\u2019s eyes and went away, leaving them\nlying in the sun.\n\nThe girls were already near their kraal, when \u201cOne-eye\u201d awoke, and\nsaid:\n\n\n \u201cOh, the disgrace! fie on thee!\n Our eyes are smeared over; fie on thee, my brother!\u201d\n\n\nThen they removed the gum from their eyes, and hunted after the girls;\nbut the latter reached home in safety, and told their parents what had\nhappened.\n\nThen all lamented greatly, but they remained quietly at home, and did\nnot search for the other girls.\n\n\n\n\n\n42. THE UNREASONABLE CHILD TO WHOM THE DOG GAVE ITS DESERTS;\nOR, A RECEIPT FOR PUTTING ANY ONE TO SLEEP.\n\n\n (The original, in the o Tyi-herer\u00f3 or D\u00e1mara language, is in Sir G.\n Grey\u2019s Library, J. Rath\u2019s Manuscript, pp. 39, 43.)\n\n\n\nThere was a little girl who had an e\u00efngi (pronounced a-inghi, some kind\nof fruit). She said to her Mother, \u201cMother, why is it that you do not\nsay, \u2018My first-born, give me the e\u00efngi?\u2019 Do I refuse it?\u201d\n\nHer Mother said, \u201cMy first-born, give me the e\u00efngi.\u201d She gave it to her\nand went away, and her Mother ate the e\u00efngi.\n\nWhen the child came back, she said, \u201cMother, give me my e\u00efngi?\u201d but her\nMother answered, \u201cI have eaten the e\u00efngi!\u201d\n\nThe child said, \u201cMother, how is it that you have eaten my e\u00efngi, which\nI plucked from our tree?\u201d The Mother then (to appease her) gave her a\nneedle.\n\nThe little girl went away and found her Father sewing thongs with\nthorns; so she said, \u201cFather, how is it that you sew with thorns? Why\ndo not you say, \u2018My first-born, give me your needle?\u2019 Do I refuse?\u201d So\nher Father said, \u201cMy first-born, give me your needle.\u201d She gave it to\nhim and went away for a while. Her Father commenced sewing, but the\nneedle broke; when, therefore, the child came back and said, \u201cFather,\ngive me my needle,\u201d he answered, \u201cThe needle is broken;\u201d but she\ncomplained about it, saying, \u201cFather, how is it that you break my\nneedle, which I got from Mother, who ate my e\u00efngi, which I had plucked\nfrom our tree?\u201d Her Father then gave her an axe.\n\nGoing farther on she met the lads who were in charge of the cattle.\nThey were busy taking out honey, and in order to get at it they were\nobliged to cut down the trees with stones. She addressed them: \u201cOur\nsons, how is it that you use stones in order to get at the honey? Why\ndo not you say, \u2018Our first-born, give us the axe?\u2019 Do I refuse, or what\ndo I?\u201d They said, \u201cOur first-born, give us the axe.\u201d So she gave it\nthem, and went away for some time. The axe broke entirely. When she\ncame back she asked, \u201cWhere is the axe? Please give it me.\u201d They\nanswered, \u201cThe axe is broken.\u201d She then said, \u201cHow is it that you break\nmy axe, which I had received from Father who had broken my needle,\nwhich I got from Mother who had eaten my e\u00efngi, which I had plucked\nfrom our tree?\u201d But they gave her some honey (to comfort her).\n\nShe went her way again, and met a little old woman, eating insects, to\nwhom she said, \u201cLittle old woman, how is it that you eat insects? Why\ndon\u2019t you say, \u2018My first-born, give me honey?\u2019 Do I refuse or not?\u201d\nThen the little old woman asked, \u201cMy first-born, give me honey.\u201d She\ngave it her and went away; but presently returning, said, \u201cLittle old\nwoman, let me have my honey!\u201d Now the old woman had managed to eat it\nall during her absence, so she answered, \u201cOh! I have eaten the honey!\u201d\nSo the child complained, saying, \u201cHow is it that you eat my honey,\nwhich I received from the lads of our cattle, from our children who had\nbroken my axe, which had been given me by Father who had broken my\nneedle, which was a present from my Mother who had eaten up my e\u00efngi,\nthat I had plucked from our tree?\u201d\n\nThe little old woman gave her food, and she went away. This time she\ncame to the pheasants, who scratched the ground; and she said,\n\u201cPheasants! how is it that you scratch the ground? Why do not you say,\n\u2018First-born, give us food?\u2019 Do I refuse, or what do I?\u201d They said,\n\u201cFirst-born, give.\u201d So she gave to them, and went away. When she came\nback and demanded her food again, they said, \u201cWe have eaten the food.\u201d\nShe asked, \u201cHow is it that you eat my food, which I had received from a\nlittle old woman who had eaten up my honey, that I had got from the\nlads of our cattle who had broken my axe, which had been given me by my\nFather who had broken my needle, which was a present from my Mother who\nhad eaten my e\u00efngi, which I had plucked from our tree?\u201d The pheasants,\nflying up, pulled out each one a feather and threw them down to the\nlittle girl.\n\nShe then, walking along, met the children who watched the sheep. They\nwere plucking out hairs from the sheep-skins. So she asked them, \u201cHow\nis it that you pull at these skins? Why do not you say, \u2018First-born,\ngive us the feathers?\u2019 Do I refuse, or what do I?\u201d They said,\n\u201cFirst-born, give us the feathers.\u201d She gave them and went away, but\nall the feathers broke. When she returned and said, \u201cGive me my\nfeathers,\u201d they answered, \u201cThe feathers are broken.\u201d Then she\ncomplained, \u201cDo you break my feathers which I received from the\npheasants who had eaten my food, which had been given me by a little\nold woman?\u201d They gave her some milk.\n\nShe went again on her way, and found their own handsome dog gnawing\nbones. She said, \u201cOur dog, how is it that you gnaw these bones?\u201d The\ndog answered, \u201cGive me milk.\u201d She gave it him, and he drank it all.\nThen she said to the dog, \u201cGive me back my milk.\u201d He said, \u201cI drank\nit.\u201d She then repeated the same words which she had spoken so often\nbefore; but the dog ran away, and when she pursued him, he scampered up\na tree. She climbed up after him, but the dog jumped down again on the\nother side. She wanted to do the same, but could not. Then she said,\n\u201cOur dog, please help me down.\u201d He answered, \u201cWhy did you pursue me?\u201d\nand ran away leaving her up the tree.\n\n\u201cThat is enough,\u201d say the Damara.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] Cisgariepian, from the Nama point of view, i.e., to the North of\nthe Orange River.\n\n[2] I give here some extracts from Mr. Wallmann\u2019s letter, dated Barmen,\n13th April, 1850, which was the only help of a grammatical or lexical\nnature then available for me in my study of this Nama translation of\nLuke\u2019s Gospel:\u2014\n\n\u201cI transmit hereby Luke\u2019s Gospel in Namaqua, ... which I can lend you,\nhowever, only for four weeks, as I have already previously promised it\nto some one else.\n\n\u201cShould your labours permit it, I wish to request you to make a little\ntrial whether the Namaqua is somewhat related to the South African\nfamily of Languages. For the present a mere negative decision on this\npoint is all that is wanted, and I should like to have very soon the\nopinion of some good philologist regarding it. Moffat states that when\nhe gave specimens of Namaqua to a Syrian who came from Egypt, he was\ntold that he (the Syrian) had seen slaves in the market of Cairo who\nwere of lighter colour than other Africans, and whose language\nresembled that of the Namaqua. Moffat also says that some ancient\nauthors have mentioned a nation in the interior of Africa who were very\nsimilar to the Hottentots. Moffat seems himself, however, to ascribe\nlittle value to these accounts, for his guesses fall at once upon the\nChinese. According to communications from our Missionary Knudsen, the\nNamaqua language seems well formed. He mentions as personal pronouns:\u2014\n\n\n Tita saaz \u03c7yb sada sako \u03c7yku\n I thou (s\u0101ts) he (\u01c1\u1ebdip) we you they (\u01c1\u0115iku)\n\n\nbut to show the modifications which the pronouns undergo according to\nthe gender, and whether the person (spoken to) is included or excluded\n(in the first person plural), the following examples of inclusive or\nexclusive forms are given:\u2014\n\n\n\u201cWe are captains.\u201d\n\n (incl.) Sake ke kauauke } mascul.\n (excl.) Sike ke kauauke }\n\n (incl.) Sase ke kautase } fem.\n (excl.) Sise ke kautase }\n\n (incl.) Sada ke tana-khoida } com.\n (excl.) Sida ke tana-khoida }\n\n (incl.) Sakhom ke kauaukhoma } dual. mascul.\n (excl.) Sikhom ke kauaukhoma }\n\n (incl.) Saam he kautama } dual. fem.\n (excl.) Siim ke kautama }\n\n (incl.) Saam ke tana-khoima } dual. com.\n (excl.) Siim ke tana-khoima }\n\n\n\u201cThe second person of the plural is said to have not more than half as\nmany distinctions; and the third person plural has only the following:\u2014\n\n\n \u03c7yku ke kauauga\u2014mascul.\n \u03c7yte ke kautate\u2014fem.\n \u03c7yn ke tana-khoina\u2014com.\n \u03c7ykha ke kauaukha\u2014dual. mascul.\n \u03c7yra ke kautara\u2014dual. fem.\n \u03c7yra ke tana-khoira\u2014dual. com.\n\n\n\u201cYou will therefore oblige me by looking into the Namaqua Luke, and by\nhaving the kindness to write me your opinion regarding it.\u201d\n\n[3] Report of the Correspondence and Paper read at the General Meeting\nof the Syro-Egyptian Society, Session of 1851 and 1852. Read at the\nAnniversary Meeting, held April 20th, 1852, 8vo. pp. 6, 8.\n\n[4] \u201cEthnology of the Indo-Pacific Islands.\u201d By J. R. Logan, Esq., Hon.\nFellow of the Ethnological Society. Language, Part ii. \u201cThe Races and\nLanguages of S.E. Asia, considered in relation to those of the\nIndo-Pacific Islands,\u201d Chapter v., sections i. to vi. [From the Journal\nof the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, June and December, 1853, to\nDecember, 1854.] Singapore: Printed by Jakob Baptist, 8vo., pp. 229,\n294, sec. 6. The Semitico-African Languages, viz.:\u20141. General\nCharacters, p. 229; 2. Egyptian, p. 248; 3. Hottentot, p. 248; 4.\nShemo-Hamitic, or Assyro-Berber, p. 259.\n\n[5] Mr. Rath\u2019s Manuscript consists of sixty-one pages, with double\ncolumns, foolscap folio. It contains the following pieces:\u2014\n\n 1. The Spectre Sweethearts, pp. 1, 2.\n 2. The Lion Husbands, pp. 2, 5.\n 3. Tenacity of a Loving Mother\u2019s Care, pp. 5, 6.\n 4. The Girl who ran after her Father\u2019s Bird, pp. 6, 12.\n 5. The Handsome Girl, pp. 12, 15.\n 6. The Little Bushman Woman, pp. 17, 18.\n 7. Punishment of Imposition, pp. 19, 21.\n 8. The Spectre who Fell in Love with his Son\u2019s Wife, pp. 22, 23.\n 9. The Lunatic, p. 23.\n 10. The Girls who Escaped from the Hill Damaras, pp. 24, 26.\n 11. The Elephant and the Tortoise, pp. 27, 29.\n 12. The Two Wives, pp. 29, 33.\n 13. The Lion who took different Shapes, pp. 34, 35.\n 14. The Little Girl left in the Well by her wicked Companions, pp.\n 35, 38.\n 15. The Unreasonable Child to whom the Dog gave its Deserts, pp.\n 39, 43\n 16. Rutanga, p. 44.\n 17. The Ghost of the Man who was Killed by a Rhinoceros in\n consequence of his Father\u2019s Curse, pp. 45, 47.\n 18. The Trials of Hambeka, a Spirit risen from the Dead, pp. 47,\n 50.\n 19. The Little Girl who was teased by an Insect, p. 51.\n 20. The same as 16 (Rutanga) p. 52.\n 21. Conjugal Love after Death, p. 53.\n 22. The Bad Katjungu and the Good Kahavundye, pp. 54, 57.\n 23. The Wife who went after her Husband, pp. 57, 59.\n 24. The Little Girl Murdered by the Hill Damara, pp. 59, 61.\n\n[6] The title of Mr. Knudsen\u2019s first Manuscript is, \u201cS\u00fcdafrica: Das\nHottentot-Volk; Notizzen (Manuscript) H. C. Knudsen.\u201d 4to., p. 12. Its\ncontents are, Bushman Land, p. 3; the different kinds of Rain, p. 3;\nBethany (in Great Namaqualand), p. 3; the Damara, p. 4; the Grassy\nPlain, p. 4; the Diseases, pp. 4, 5; Birdsnests, p. 5; Marriage and\nWedding among the Namaqua, p. 5; Extent of Authority among the Namaqua,\np. 5; Similarity with the Jewish manner of Thinking, Counting, Eating,\nDrinking, Praying, Mode of Speech, and manner of Reckoning\nRelationship, p. 6; Heitsi Eibip or Kabip, p. 7; Origin of the Modes of\nLife of the Namaqua and Bushmen, pp. 7, 8; Coming of Age among the\nHottentots, p. 8; Names of Hottentot Tribes and their probable\nEtymology, pp. 8, 9; Are the Hottentots of Egyptian or Ph\u0153nician\nOrigin? p. 9; Are the Hottentots of Jewish or Moabitic Origin? pp. 9,\n10; Appendix, pp. 11, 12.\n\nMr. Knudsen\u2019s second Manuscript has the following title, \u201cStoff zu\neiner Grammatik in der Namaquasprache (Manuscript), H. C. Knudsen.\u201d\n4to. pp. 29. After a few general introductory remarks, and a short\nexplanation of the Hottentot Alphabet, Mr. Knudsen treats of the\ndifferent Parts of Speech:\u2014I. Nouns, pp. 3, 4; II. Adjectives, pp. 4,\n5; III. Pronouns, pp. 5, 10; IV. Numerals, p. 11; V. Verbs, pp. 12, 24;\nInterrogative Sentences, pp. 25, 26; Concluding Remarks, pp. 26, 29.\n\n[7] The little Fox, in Nama the \u01c3Kamap, a small kind of Jackal, who is\na swift runner. The Jackal\u2019s name is \u01c0Girip. (The \u01c0 is the dental and\nthe \u01c3 the cerebral click; vide Notes to Fables 23 and 27, pp. 47, 62.)\n\n[8] \u201cWhen the Hyena first starts, it appears to be lame on the hind\nlegs, or gone in the loins, as one would say of a horse.\u201d\u2014L. Layard.\n\n[9] \u201cBecause the Giraffe is said to give blue ashes when\nburnt.\u201d\u2014Kr\u00f6nlein.\n\n[10] In token of approval, according to a Hottentot custom.\n\n[11] With reference to the Baboon\u2019s great power of distancing his\npursuers.\n\n[12] The \u01c0 is the dental click, which is \u201csounded by pressing the tip\nof the tongue against the front teeth of the upper jaw, and then\nsuddenly and forcibly withdrawing it.\u201d\u2014Tindall.\n\n[13] The \u01c2 is the palatal click, described in note to Fable 24. p. 55,\nand \u03c7 is the German ch.\n\n[14] \u01c2 Indicates the palatal click, which is sounded by pressing the\ntip of the tongue, with as flat a surface as possible, against the\ntermination of the palate at the gums, and withdrawing it suddenly and\nforcibly.\n\n[15] The stage is that apparatus in the background of the hut (built of\nmats) opposite the door, upon which the Hottentots hang their bamboos,\nbags of skins, and other things, and under which the women generally\nkeep their mats.\n\n[16] Vide Note to Fable 24, p. 56.\n\n[17] \u03a7 is the German ch, and \u01c3 the cerebral click of the Hottentot\nlanguage, which is \u201csounded by sending up the tip of the tongue against\nthe roof of the palate, and withdrawing it forcibly and\nsuddenly.\u201d\u2014Tindall.\n\n[18] Hottentot huts being merely made of skins stretched over a frame,\nare carried about by the people in their wanderings.\n\n[19] \u201cWe are now angry with the Hare,\u201d say the old Namaqua, \u201cbecause he\nbrought such a bad message, and therefore we dislike to eat his\nflesh.\u201d\u2014Knudsen.\n\n[20] Old Namaquas will not therefore touch Hare\u2019s flesh; but the young\nmen may partake of it; that is, before the ceremony of making them men\nis performed, which merely consists in slaughtering and eating an ox or\na couple of sheep.\u2014Alexander.\n\n[21] Ohlangeni. Vide Colenso\u2019s \u201cZulu-English Dictionary,\u201d p. 179.\n\n[22] Knudsen, who heard this legend from the Hottentot Petrus Friedrik,\nwas afterwards informed that Heitsi Eibip was not the person meant in\nthis tale. It looks very much like the end of our 27th Fable, of the\nWoman who outwitted the Elephants.\n\n[23] Sir James E. Alexander, in his \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\nInterior of Africa,\u201d vol. i. p. 166, speaking of the people at Warm\nBath, or Nisbett Bath, says:\u2014\u201cThese Namaquas thought that they came\nfrom the East. In the country there is occasionally found (besides the\ncommon graves covered with a heap of stones) large heaps of stones, on\nwhich had been thrown a few bushes; and if the Namaquas are asked what\nthese are, they say that Heije Eibib, their Great Father, is below the\nheap; they do not know what he is like, or what he does; they only\nimagine that he also came from the East, and had plenty of sheep and\ngoats; and when they add a stone or branch to the heap, they mutter,\n\u2018Give us plenty of cattle.\u2019\u201d\n\n[24] Sir James Alexander, in his \u201cExpedition of Discovery into the\nInterior of Africa,\u201d vol. ii. p. 250, states:\u2014\u201cOn the 3rd of August the\nwaggon went on to Aneip, or Wet Foot, and I went out of the way with\nJan Buys, and two or three men, to see a hole, which was supposed to be\ninhabited by Heije Eibib, and was the wonder of the country.\u201d\n\n[25] The \u01c2 is the palatal click, described in Note to Fable 24, p. 55;\nand indicates the nasal pronunciation of a syllable.\n\n[26] The \u01c3 is the cerebral click described in Note to Fable 27, p. 62.","title":"Reynard the fox in South Africa : $b or, Hottentot Fables and Tales, chiefly translated from original manuscripts in the Library of His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B.","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":19833}