W. H. I. Bleek

“ Children, and also simple-minded grown-up people, whose taste has not been spoiled by the poison of over-exciting reading, will always be amused by the quaintly expressed moral lessons which they receive through every good Fable; and the more thorough student of literature will also regard with pleasure these first innocent plays of awakening human imagination. To all these the Hottentot Fables offered here may not be unwelcome as a fresh store of original compositions, or even as old acquaintances who gain a new interest in different clothing and scenery. ”

“ THE GIRAFFE AND THE TORTOISE.
(The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey’s Library, G. Krönlein’s Manuscript, p. 5.)
THE GIRAFFE. Thou who descendest river by river,
Thou burnt thornbush (ǂaro) !
Thou blue one,1
Who appearest like a distant thornhill full of people sitting down.
The Giraffe and the Tortoise, they say, met one day. The Giraffe said to the Tortoise, “At once I could trample you to death.” The Tortoise, being afraid, remained silent. Then the Giraffe said, “At once I could swallow you.” ”

“ You must fetch her yourself; I cannot bring her.” The Lion went home very angry. Then the Jackal said, “Quick, let us build a tower.” They heaped stone upon stone, stone upon stone, stone upon stone; and when it was high enough, everything was carried to the top of it. When the Jackal saw the Lion approaching with his wife and children, he cried out to him, “Uncle, whilst you were away we have built a tower, in order to be better able to see game.” “All right,” said the Lion; “but let me come up to you.” “Certainly, dear Uncle; but how will you manage to come up? ”

“ A Bushman was, on one occasion, following a troop of zebras, and had just succeeded in wounding one with his arrows, when a Lion sprang out from a thicket opposite, and showed every inclination to dispute the prize with him. The Bushman being near a convenient tree, threw down his arms, and climbed for safety to an upper branch. The Lion, allowing the wounded zebra to pass on, now turned his whole attention towards the Bushman, and walking round and round the tree, he ever and anon growled and looked up at him. At length the Lion lay down at the foot of the tree, and kept watch all night. ”

“ But when she approached the cows with a thong (in order to tie their fore-legs) , they all refused to be milked by her.
The Hare said, “Why do not you stand before the cow?” She replied, “Hare, call your brother, and [86] do you two stand before the cow.” Her husband said, “What has come over her that the cows refuse her? These are the same cows she always milks.” The Mother (of the kraal) said, “What has happened this evening? These are cows which she always milks without assistance. What can have affected her that she comes home as a woman with a lion’s nature?” ”

“ Others, however, have strong claims to be regarded not merely as genuine products of the Hottentot mind, but even as portions of a traditionary Native literature, anterior in its origin to the advent of Europeans.
That the latter is a true view of the subject becomes perhaps the more conclusive by the intimate relations in which, among the Hottentots, Myths still stand to Fables; in fact, a true mythology can hardly be said to exist among them; for Myths (as that of The Origin of Death) are in reality as much Fables as Myths ”

“ This higher flight of the imaginative faculty which the Sexdenoting nations possess (through the stimulus of this personification of impersonal things, consequent upon the grammatical structure of their languages) , and what it had been to them, becomes the more evident if we compare their literature with that of the Kafirs and other black tribes of South Africa.
As the grammatical structure of languages spoken by the latter does not in itself suggest personification, these nations are almost, as a matter of course, destitute of Myths as well as Fables. ”

“ But when he rose in the morning, he saw that his wife and all the cattle were gone. Taking his stick into his hands, he said to his mother, “If I fall the earth will tremble.” With these words he followed them. When they saw him approaching, they ran fast to the side, against a piece of rock (at a [96] narrow spot) , and she said, “We are people, behind whom a large (travelling) party comes. Stone of my ancestors! divide thyself for us.” ”

“ This similarity in the disposition of nations can in itself indeed hardly be considered as a valid proof of common ancestry; but if there be other grounds to make us believe that the nations in question, or at least their languages, are of common origin, it may render us more inclined to assume that such a similarity in their literary taste is derived also from the same source. ”

“ Myths may be supposed to have been always understood in their true original character; and it is only when in the course of generations their real origin has been obscured, and they have become merely the petrified excrescences of a traditionary creed, that their apparent absurdity makes them at first sight almost inexplicable, particularly when found among nations of a high intelligence. ”

“ The others replied, “He lies. He has seen with his eye” (satirically [120] meaning he had seen wrongly) . But “One-eye” insisted that “two girls were truly missing.” Then they went to find their spoor, but the traces had been rendered indistinct enough to puzzle them.
When the men arrived at the ant-eater’s hole, they could not see that the footmarks went further, so they spied into the hole, but saw nothing. Then “One-eye” looked also, and he saw the girls, and cried, “There they sit.” The others now looked again, but still saw nothing; for the girls had covered themselves with cobwebs. ”

“ The Lion looked at him and growled. “I’ll remain here till I die,” said the Man, “if you don’t become a woman again.” The mane and tail then began to disappear, the Lion went towards the bush where the skin petticoat lay; it was slipped on, and the woman, in her proper shape, took up the child. The Man descended and partook of the horse’s flesh, but never again asked the Woman to catch game for him. [91]
[Contents]
26. THE LION AND THE BUSHMAN.
[A Tale.]
(From Sir James E. Alexander’s “Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa,” vol. ii. p. 51.) ”

“ This is the real origin of almost all those poetical conceptions which we call Fables and Myths. Both are based on the personification of impersonal beings—the former by ascribing speech and reason to the lower animals, whilst the latter substitute human-like agencies in explanation of celestial and other elementary phenomena in place of their real cause.
Mythology is, in its origin, most generally either a mere figure of speech or a poetical explanation suggested by the grammatical form or etymological meaning of words, indicating certain striking natural phenomena. ”

“ The Jackal, it is said, married the Hyena, and carried off a cow belonging to ants, to slaughter her for the wedding; and when he had slaughtered her, he put the cow-skin over his bride; and when he had fixed a pole (on which to hang the flesh) , he placed on the top of the pole (which was forked) the hearth for cooking, in order to cook upon it all sorts of delicious food. There came also the Lion to the spot, and wished to go up. The Jackal, therefore, asked his little daughter for a thong with which he could pull the Lion up, and he began to pull him up ”

“ Are you there? Are you alone not thirsty?
Oh, you dirty child of your father!
Dirty child of your father!”
“I am indeed thirsty,” said “One-eye,” and went away.
Then the two girls came out of the hole, and the younger one took her elder sister on her back, and walked on. As they were going over the bare, treeless plain, the men saw them, and said, “There they are, far off,” and ran after them.
When they came near, the two girls turned themselves into thorn trees, called “Wait-a-bit,” and the beads which they wore became gum on the trees. The men then ate of the gum and fell asleep. ”

“ J. C. Adamson, in communicating to the Syro-Egyptian Society some observations on the analysis of languages, with a special reference to those of South Africa, had stated “That the signs of gender were almost identical in the Namaqua and the Egyptian, and the feminine affix might be considered as being the same in all three”3 (Namaqua, Galla, and Old Egyptian) .
Another curious agreement on this point, by an apparently independent observer (Mr. J. R. Logan) ,4 [20] was pointed out to me by your Excellency. You also suggested this name of “Sexdenoting Languages.” ”

“ From time to time she rose (from her work) and peeped about, and once, while doing this, found by chance an ant-eater’s hole. Still further spying about, she perceived some men, but they did not see her. She then returned and continued digging with the other girls, without, however, saying anything. But in the midst of their work she always rose and looked about her. So the others asked her, “Why do you always spy about you, and leave off digging? What a girl!” ”

“ The Moon, on one occasion, sent the Hare to the earth to inform Men that as she (the Moon) died away and rose again, so mankind should die and rise again. Instead, however, of delivering this message as given, the Hare, either out of forgetfulness or malice, told mankind that as the Moon rose and died away, so Man should die and rise no more. The Hare, having returned to the Moon, was questioned as to the message delivered, and the Moon, having heard the true state of the case, became so enraged with him that she took up a hatchet to split his head ”

“ Then he put into his mouth a hot piece of quartz which had been boiled together with the fat, and the stone went down, burning his throat. Thus died the Lion.
There came also the ants running after the cow, and when the Jackal saw them he fled. Then they beat the bride in her brookaross dress. The Hyena, believing that it was the Jackal, said—
“You tawny rogue! have you not played at beating long enough?
Have you no more loving game than this?”
But when she had bitten a hole through the cow-skin, she saw that they were other people ”

“ He did accordingly, and they came between the grave and Heitsi Eibip who, when he saw this, jumped down from the raisin-trees, and ran quickly, but was caught at the grave. Then he said:
“Let me go! For I am a man who has been dead that I may not infect you!” But the young wife said, “Keep hold of the rogue!” So they brought him home, and from that day he was fresh and hale. [115]
[Contents]
40. ORIGIN OF THE DIFFERENCE IN MODES OF LIFE BETWEEN HOTTENTOTS AND BUSHMEN.
(From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey’s Library, H. C. Knudsen’s “Notes on the Hottentots,” pp. 7, 8.) ”

“ It remained by the flock all day in the field, and at night drove them home to the kraal, riding on the back of one of the goats, which brought up the rear. The Baboon had the milk of one goat allowed to it, and it sucked that one only, and guarded the milk of the others from the children. It also got a little meat from its master. It held the office of shepherd for twelve moons, and then was unfortunately killed in a tree by a Leopard. [77]
1 With reference to the Baboon’s great power of distancing his pursuers. ”

“ The humbler sisters of the Myths, the Fables based on the natural propensities of animals, are not obscured in their real character so easily as the former, and have, on that account, more generally retained their simple usefulness as moral teachers ”

“ So the child complained, saying, “How is it that you eat my honey, which I received from the lads of our cattle, from our children who had broken my axe, which had been given me by Father who had broken my needle, which was a present from my Mother who had eaten up my eïngi, that I had plucked from our tree?”
The little old woman gave her food, and she went away. This time she came to the pheasants, who scratched the ground; and she said, “Pheasants! how is it that you scratch the ground? ”

“ Fables, which never claim so high a place among the elements of furthering the eliminating process of our species, remain always welcome to most classes of readers at certain periods of their intellectual development. ”

“ They can hardly be expected to amuse or interest the general reader—at least, not in the form in which they appear here, though a Longfellow might be able to render some of them in a way that would make them attractive. ”

“ Their literary efforts are, as a general rule, restricted to narrating the doings of men in a more or less historical manner—whence we have a number of household tales, and portions of a fabulous history of these tribes and nations ”

“ The Girls who Escaped from the Hill Damaras, pp. 24, 26. 11. The Elephant and the Tortoise, pp. 27, 29. 12. The Two Wives, pp. 29, 33. 13. The Lion who took different Shapes, pp. 34, 35. 14. The Little Girl left in the Well by her wicked Companions, pp. 35, 38. 15. The Unreasonable Child to whom the Dog gave its Deserts, pp. ”

“ Knudsen’s first Manuscript is, “Südafrica: Das Hottentot-Volk; Notizzen (Manuscript) H. C. Knudsen.” 4to., p. 12. Its contents are, Bushman Land, [29] p. 3; the different kinds of Rain, p. 3; Bethany (in Great Namaqualand) , p. 3; the Damara, p. 4; the Grassy Plain, p. 4; the Diseases, pp. 4, 5; Birdsnests, p. 5; Marriage and Wedding among the Namaqua, p. 5; Extent of Authority among the Namaqua, p. 5; Similarity with the Jewish manner of Thinking, Counting, Eating, Drinking, Praying, Mode of Speech, and manner of Reckoning Relationship, p. 6; Heitsi Eibip or Kabip, p. 7 ”