Notebooks
Story: Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_006
Title
Dorothea Bleek - Book BC151_A3_006
Collection
Summary
Diary. A5 size. DB's journey to Kakia, Bechuanaland. Lots of blank pages. Not paginated by DB but has been paginated by library [1]-[165]. Features comments on journey, settlements, weather, rivers etc, peoples spotted (Masarwa, Bakalaharies etc), the odd little sketch, dictionary work done, photos taken, trading (buying & selling), people measured, artefacts purchased. Report on Lake Chrissie Bushmen.
Comments
1) p.[1]: 'Monday June 23rd 1913'; 2) p.[7]. Sat 5th July, photos taken; 3) p.[8] Reached Kakia on 6th July; 4) p.15v, [16-24]: Report/history of Lake Chrissie Bushmen…'they were practically starving as the former owner had been dead for 2 years. They just lived on bulbs and grubs found in the veld...', Mr Royston's testimony about the Bushmen, and Zulus, and Swazis. How in the past Bushmen used to trade with neighbouring Swazis and Zulus, how the Swazis made war upon the Bushmen, 'scattering them'. 'The Bushmen taught their children to run and hide in the reeds whenever white men passed' (p.18); 5) Contnd. Bushmen in the past. p. [20] A legend of 'The Buloma Kassan' accounting for a series of holes on the ground; 6) [p.22] Another legend believed by Swazis and Bushmen about a spring in the ground out of which cattle rise; 7) [p.23] Dian, an old Bushman, says his great grandfather was the man who taught the Bushmen to make fire; how death said to come from a fight between blue-headed lizard and the cameleon; 8) [pp.24-69] and also [pp.71-85] are blank except for 78v where there is alist of films; 9) [p.69v] Prices paid for 'curios' purchased & future told; 10)[p.85]: About Hau, a Masarwa woman, 11) pp.[85v-92]: Names of measurements of Masarwas; 12) pp. [93v-102]: Names and measurements of Lake Chrissie Bushmen; 13) p.[103-4]: List of curios & prices [?]; 14) p.[108] Piet and Klaas Dantje, Bet; 15) p.[115-145] are blank.
Date
23 June 1913 - 1 August 1913
Story Pages
Not paginated [1-165]
