Notebooks
Story: Moon and Hare: the origin of death
Title
Moon and Hare: the origin of death
Collection
Summary
The veritable Hottentot myth of the “Origin of Death” is told in the Katkop dialect by #kásin, whose father was a Hottentot; and, although the narrator says that he heard the story from his mother yoa ≠ko, a Bushwoman, its Hottentot origin can hardly be doubted. Here, the Moon sends the Hare to men with the message of the renewal of life; but it reverses it into a message of death. The angered Moon then heats a stone, and burns the Hare’s mouth, causing the harelip. – #kásin, told this story three times; –once in a very short version (B XXV. 2361–2364), and thirdly, in a still more extended one (L IV. –4. 3890–3900). The Moon tells the Hare to inform people that they must return to life after dying, as he does, but the Hare gets the story wrong and tells people that they are 'thoroughly' dead when dead. The Moon fights the Hare with a heated stone, burning his mouth and leaving a wound on the Hare's lip.
Comments
1) Namaqua vocabulary appears on many of the verso pages of this story, 2) This story is found in Book XXV
Contributors
Date
November 1873 (finished 6 November)
Categories
Celestial bodies and aeroscopy
Keywords
Moon (and the Hare and the origin of death) , Moon (burnt the Hare's mouth) , Moon (fights the Hare with a stone) , Moon (his message about resurrection) , Moon (returns to life) , Hare (and the Moon and the origin of death) , Hare (talked backwards) , Hare (and the origin of the harelip) , Hare (spoke 'incorrectly') , Hare (contradicted the Moon) , Hare (mouth of was burnt) , Hare (appearance of) , Hare (little) , Hare (gets the Moon's message wrong and tells people that they will 'thoroughly' die) , death (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of) , death (creation of) , death (the Hare gets the Moon's message wrong and tells people that they will 'thoroughly' die) , death (dead 'remain so') , death (of people who must return to life after dying) , death (of animals) , death (and resurrection) , resurrection (and the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , resurrection (of the Moon) , resurrection (the Moon's message about) , resurrection (people must return to life after dying) , fight (of the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , fight (and the Moon's burning of the Hare's mouth with a heated stone) , animals (death of) , animals (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , animals ('thoroughly' die) , speech (of the Hare) , speech (the Hare talked backwards) , speech (the Hare spoke 'incorrectly') , speech (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , stone (the Moon burns the Hare's mouth with a heated stone) , stone (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , harelip (the origin of) , harelip (and the Moon burning of the Hare's mouth with a heated stone) , harelip (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , origin (of death) , origin (of the harelip) , origin (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death) , creation (of death) , creation (the Moon and the Hare and the origin of death)
Story Pages
2361-2364
