Notebooks
Story: |xue and the ostriches
Title
|xue and the ostriches
Collection
Summary
|xue fights with a female ostrich. In the course of this story |xue becomes an ostrich, a lizard, a snake, a bird, a mouse, a hyena (!gau), a fly (or flies), a butterfly, an Omuherero, a grasshopper, a !naxane plant and water. |xue alternates between being himself and a number of other creatures during the fight. A male ostrich hears the cries of the female and comes to grab hold of |xue. |xue continues switching between his own form, a variety of animals and an Omuherero, as he fights with the the male and female ostrich. |xue then becomes a large lizard and bites and kills the male ostrich. |xue flays the ostrich and cuts off its head. He places it over his own head and becomes an ostrich. When he sees his father, he dies and lets flies eat him. His father sees his body and thinks that |xue has killed an ostrich and is being eaten by flies. The father goes away to his own country. |xue becomes a little te e bird and whistles to his wife, who comes looking for him but does not see him. |xue becomes a variety of things and his wife comes and goes, looking for him, as he cries out. He becomes a large bird and then dies. |xue's wife sees his body and goes to take hold of him and put the dead bird into her |ou skin kaross. [It says 'To be continued' at the bottom of the page but appears not to have been.]
Comments
1) p.9361v: !nanni heard this from his paternal grandfather (Karu), 2) pp.9370v & 9371v: |xue transforms himself into many |xue's and they all kill the male and the female ostrich. He becomes an eagle and settles on a tree (called !goa) while the other |xue's kill the ostriches. The other |xue's then vanish and |xue goes and skins and eats from the male ostrich and carries the body off with him, 3) p.9376v: see Hai ||umm, 4) p.9388v: The te e bird resembles the domestic fowl (chicken) and it and its eggs are eaten by the people, 5) This story is found in Book XI & XII-5.
Contributors
Date
26 February – 19 March (finished on or about) 1880
Categories
Keywords
|xue (and the ostriches) , |xue (dies and returns to life in different forms) , |xue (is eaten in the form of food) , |xue (is cooked but breaks the pot) , |xue (tries to catch the ostriches in different forms) , |xue (becomes a child and cries when he sees his own blood) , |xue (he becomes many |xue's and kills the male ostrich) , |xue (is kicked and wounded by the ostrich) , |xue (he 'alone worked many things') , |xue (and the ostriches) , |xue (his transformations) , |xue (and his wife) , |xue (and his father-in-law) , |xue (becomes different things on different days) , |xue (resembles many things) , |xue (his doings) , |xue (his wife slaps and scolds him) , |xue (becomes an ostrich, himself as a grown-up man, a Bushman child, a lizard, a snake, a little bird, a fly, an Omuherero, a mouse, a locust or grasshopper, a !gau, a butterfly, an ostrich, a !naxane plant and water) , |xue (he becomes an ostrich and dies, letting flies eat his eyelids) , |xue (he dies in different forms) , |xue (he chases his wife as water) , |xue (also becomes little and large food and is eaten) , |xue (runs away from his wife and father-in-law) , |xue (he cries loudly) , |xue (his fight with the ostriches) , transformation (|xue and the ostriches) , transformation (|xue becomes an ostrich, himself as a grown-up man, a Bushman child, a lizard, a snake, a little bird, a fly, an Omuherero, a mouse, a locust or grasshopper, a !gau, a butterfly, an ostrich, a !naxane plant, water) , transformation (|xue becomes different things on different days) , transformation (|xue resembles many things) , transformation (and |xue's death) , transformation (of |xue) , transformation ('|xue alone worked many things') , plants (!naxane) , plants (|xue and the ostriches) , names (!kun, of things |xue becomes) , names (of a plant, !naxane) , names (!kun, for hyena) , Omuherero (|xue and the ostriches) , Omuherero (|xue becomes) , !naxane (plant) , !naxane (|xue becomes) , !naxane (|xue and the ostriches) , plant (|xue becomes !naxane) , plant (|xue and the ostriches) , water (|xue chases his wife as) , water (|xue and the ostriches) , death (of |xue and his transformations) , death (|xue and the ostriches) , death (|xue dies and lets flies eat him) , death (|xue dies as a large bird) , death (|xue dies in different forms) , hyena (!kun name for) , kaross (|xue's wife's |ou skin) , kaross (|xue and the ostriches) , pot (|xue and the ostriches) , pot (|xue cooked in)
Story Pages
9362-9377, 9379, 9385-9391, 9391v
