!gaunu-tsaxau (the son of the Mantis), the Baboons, and the Mantis
Metadata
Title
!gaunu-tsaxau (the son of the Mantis), the Baboons, and the Mantis
Collection
Lucy Lloyd |xam notebooks
Contributor
|han≠kass'o (Klein Jantje) (VIII)
Summary
<i>The son of the Mantis is killed by the Baboons, and restored to life by his father. This piece contains specimens of the manner in which the Bushman language is supposed to be spoken by baboons. By /han≠kass'o (L VIII.-11. 6978-7014, 12. 7065-7094). </i>!gaunu-tsaxau, the son of |kaggen (the Mantis) collects sticks for his father to shoot at the Baboons and comes across some Baboons, who beat him and break his head. |kaggen dreams that the Baboons have killed !gaunu-tsaxau and are playing with his eye. He awakes and goes to join in the Baboons' game and the child's eye smells its father's scent and plays about so that the Baboons cannot catch it. |kaggen catches his child's eye and anoints it with his perspiration and it flies into the air and into the quiver's bag. He flies into the water and speaks to his child's eye, wanting his child to return to life again. It grows back into his son and |kaggen catches him and takes him back home.
Comments
1) Date on p.7070: 16 June, 2) p.6977v: |han≠kass'o heard this from his mother (≠kabbi-an) who he thinks got it from her mother (≠kammi - who was Tsatsi's first wife), 3) pp.6978-7014 of the story were largely translated by D. Bleek, 4) pp.6978v-6879v: see <i>Note on the Bushman kkuirri-ttu</i> (|han≠kass'o's uncle), 5) pp.6980v, 6995v & 7013v: the baboon's speech and the clicks used, 6) p.6999v: see <i>Words and sentences: names of animals</i>, 7) pp.7005v-7008v: see <i>The !nabbe</i>, 8) p.7006v: see <i>Notes on a bird (|kitten-|kitten)</i>, 9) p.7010v: see <i>Explanation of !hau-!hau (a hunting charm)</i>, 10) pp.7067v-7068v: see <i>Words and sentences: terms for various relationships by marriage</i>, 11) p.7071v: the name of a grass growing near water, 12) pp.7074v-7076v: see <i>Regarding the children of the Mantis</i>, 14) This story is found in Books VIII-11 and VIII-12
Contributions