A man is wounded by another by accident when out after springbok
Metadata
Title
A man is wounded by another by accident when out after springbok
Collection
Lucy Lloyd |xam notebooks
Contributor
||kabbo (Jantje) (II)
Summary
A man shoots another accidentally on the hunting ground. He explains that dust from the springbok prevented him from seeing clearly and the wounded man confirms this. The men tell the women that the accident was a result of their letting the children play inside the house. Different kinds of arrows and wounds are described. The dying man tells his wife how to continue after his death and how to raise the children. His wife laments and prepares to leave for her own family's place.<i> The various ways of dying, and of being killed. A man is accidentally wounded by another, when they were both hunting springbok. Dialogue, in which the wounded man begs them to speak gently, not angrily, to the one who shot him. Unfortunate shots are believed to be due to such causes as the children at home playing on a man's bed, etc., and are ascribed to the remissness of the wives. The dying man's last speech to his wife, in which he gives her advice etc. The widow's lament, in which she says that she should like to cry herself to death; and does not want to eat food. Her mother-in-law comforts her. After the burial of the deceased, his widow returns home to her father, where her brothers receive her very well. She relates her sorrow to her family, and expresses her intention not to marry again, for fear of meeting with a husband who had not the good qualities of the deceased. A general conversation ensues, ending in an almost interminable description of springbok hunting, etc. (L II.-12. 1173-1243, 13. 1244-1314. 14. 1315-1396) </i>
Comments
1) p.1125v: ||kabbo explains hunting behaviours and the putting on of weapons before commencing, 2) p.1224v: in death the heart falls from the throat into the middle of the body, where it remains (see also Lloyd's note on the subject on pp.3356v-3362v), 3) p.1235v: the man tells his wife not to give his children away to other people, 4) p.1253v: <i>gambro</i> can kill children if too much is eaten, 5) p.1266v: |xam carry springbok skin sacks on their backs, whereas black people and Korannas carry them on their heads, 6) See also <i>The story of the widow</i> (from p.1268) and <i>The place to which people go after death, and various ways of dying and being killed</i>, 7) This story is found in Books II-12 and 13
Contributions