Notebooks

Story: The Rain's story, and |kannu the waterhole

Title

The Rain's story, and |kannu the waterhole

Collection

Summary

A note has been made, from //kábbo’s information, of a story not yet written down in Bushman, telling how the Rain carried off a girl belonging to the First Bushmen (or the ancient people living before the Bushmen), who afterwards became a frog, her kaross being changed into a springbok, etc. Her people were also transformed (L II.-37. 3335 rev. and 3336 rev.). Versions of this transformation into frogs, ascribed chiefly to a New Maiden’s acts of disobedience, are given in the Katkop dialect by !kwéiten ta ||kên (L VI.-1. 3930-3958), and by Dia!kwãin (B XXVII. 2609-2618, continued in L V.-2. 3864-3881). Three maidens get caught in the rain. Two of the older girls glide across the Rain's back safely, but the third girl is a new maiden and falls into the spring and becomes a frog. The water-hole's name is |kannu.

Comments

1) The page numbers in this book (VI-1) are duplicates of those in notebook IV-4, 2) The story |kannu the waterhole appears on a separate page (p.3941) but is related to the rest of this story so has been included here, 3) p.3929v: This story was told to !kweiten ta ||ken by her mother (≠kamme-an), 4) p.3930v: frogs are people the rain has put into the spring (called xhwarra), 5) See also The maiden's story; the frog's story and A yet unwritten story, about the Rain and one of the First Bushmen girls carried away by a whirlwind and who became a frog and About new maidens, 6) This story is found in Book VI-1