The Mantis turned into a hartebeest

The Mantis turned into a hartebeest

Wilhelm Bleek notebooks

||kabbo (Jantje) (II)

|kaggen (the Mantis) deceives the young girl-children by becoming a hartebeest and feigning death. The children are delighted to find meat and make knives to cut it up. Then they skin and cut up |kaggen's flesh, which moves around. They place it on a bush then bundle up the flesh and carry it off home. As they go along the hartebeest winks and its head talks to the girl who carries it, asking her to remove the thong in its eye. The children get a fright and drop the bundles of flesh. |kaggen starts reattaching all the dismembered parts of his body. He becomes a man and chases the children. The children run home and tell their father what happened to the dead hartebeest. |kaggen leaves them and goes into the river bed to return to his own house. The father asks if they had cut up |kaggen who pretended to be the dead hartebeest. The children are tired from running away from |kaggen and do not hunt for food but stay at home.

1) pp.2287v-2289v: a note about extracting poison from a wounded man's flesh which also 'quivers' or moves (see <i>When a man's flesh moves</i>), 2) p.2292v: a note mentioning |kaggen's 'special speech', 3) p.2293v: a note on |kaggen's way of talking, 4) p.2299: curses used by the Flat Bushmen, 5) p.2331v: a note on |xam names of <i>gambro</i> and 'Bushman rice' (which are 'hunted' by women), 6) See also <i>The hartebeest resembles the Mantis</i> and <i>The hartebeest and the eland belong to the Mantis</i> (in Lloyd's notebooks), 7) This story is found in Book XXIV

story

5 October 1873 (started)

|kaggen (the Mantis)

Healing and ailing

|kaggen (the Mantis), |kaggen (turned into a hartebeest), |kaggen (puts himself together again), |kaggen (way of talking of), |kaggen (mends himself), |kaggen (special speech of), |kaggen (pretends to be a hartebeest), |kaggen (the 'tinderbox owner'), |kaggen (becomes a man), |kaggen (is a man), |kaggen (shoes of), |kaggen (flesh of moves), |kaggen (parts of rejoin), |kaggen (becomes whole), |kaggen (winks), |kaggen (mends flesh), |kaggen (body parts of), |kaggen (tricks), |kaggen (deceives), |kaggen (is a hartebeest), |kaggen (feigns death), |kaggen ('old man'), |kaggen ('eye riem' of), |kaggen (other names of), hartebeest (|kaggen turned into), hartebeest (is |kaggen), hartebeest (is a person), hartebeest (colour of), hartebeest (winks), hartebeest (feigns death), hartebeest (flesh of rejoins), hartebeest (flesh of moves), hartebeest (head of talks), hartebeest ('eye riem' of), hartebeest ('eye thong'' of), children (girl-), children (and |kaggen turned into a hartebeest), children (hunt food), children (frightened), children (skin hartebeest), children (skin |kaggen), children (cut and carry hartebeest's flesh), riem (and |kaggen turning into a hartebeest), riem (thong), riem (|kaggen's), riem (in the hartebeest's eye), riem (eye-thong), river (and |kaggen turning into a hartebeest), river (name of), river (Har Rivier), river (Klein Haartrivier), food (eaten by the |xam), food (found by women and girls), food (names of different foods and plants eaten by the |xam), food (|kui), food (gambro), food ('Bushman rice'), food (and |kaggen turning into a hartebeest), food (women hunt for), flesh (a man's), flesh (|kaggen's), flesh (hartebeest's), flesh (and how a man's dies), flesh (removing poison from a man's), flesh (that moves), flesh (that quivers), flesh (becomes cold and dies), flesh (that is living), flesh (that is dead), women (work done by), women (food found by), women (women's hunting), names (of food and plants eaten by the |xam), names (of food found by women), names (of rivers in Bushmanland), names (|kaggen's other), transformation (and |kaggen turned into a hartebeest), tinderbox (owner of), tinderbox (|kaggen is the 'tinderbox owner'), tinderbox (and |kaggen turned into a hartebeest), poison (removing poison from a man's flesh), death (flesh that becomes cold and dies), death (flesh that is living or dead), death (and a man's poisoned flesh), death (|kaggen as the hartebeest feigns), healing (removing poison from a man's flesh), curing (see healing), doctoring (see healing), hunting (women's), hunting (and the food eaten by the |xam), hunting (and the food found by women and girls), hunting (and |kaggen turned into a hartebeest)

2281-2332