Notebooks

Story: The Mantis and !goe !kweitentu

Title

The Mantis and !goe !kweitentu

Collection

Summary

Among the fights which the Mantis has with different personages and animals, one of the most interesting to the Bushman mind, is that with a being whose eyes are in his feet, instead of his head, which is smooth. Its unusual name is !góë-kweitentu, – but it has others, one of which seems identical with the Bushman name for the Ignis fatuus. This personage, in the first instance, gives the Mantis a severe beating, but the latter, obtaining advice from his grandson, the Ichneumon, with regard to the proper method of attacking this foe, is ultimately victorious. Of this myth we have three versions; a short one (L II.–9. 935–966), a long one (B II.391–420, III. 461–500, XI.1027–1119, XII. 1121–1170, XIX.1805–1871, XX. 1872–1964, again pp.1805–1816, 1872–1910, 2060–2152) |kaggen (the Mantis) talks to his belongings. He carries them in a sack made from hartebeest skin (the 'Hartebeest's children'). He fights with !goe !kweitentu (eyes-in-feet) who beats him, scarring his head. |kaggen springs into the water to cool his wounds. His 'arms' feathers' are wet and float off in the water. |kaggen becomes human. Ichneumon advises him that the best way to attack !goe !kweitentu is to go for his eyes which are in his feet. So |kaggen beats !goe !kweitentu's feet, beating dust into his eyes. |kaggen's things wait for him in his house. |kaggen's wife |huntu !kat !katten (the Dassie) waits there too and heals the wounds in his head when he returns. |kaggen dreams of the hunt in the morning, as he is hungry. He wants to take !kuken !kakka !ani's eggs and does so. His wife says he is unwise to take the eggs and that he must return them for they will all go hungry because of his actions. (A section of the story not translated.) |kaggen is going along with |kwammana to his home when he leaves |kwammana to go to the |gipps' (Striped Jackals') house. The |gipps throw |kaggen into the fire and hold him down. They hammer coals onto his body. |kaggen burns in the fire and calls to his 'hartebeest's children (his things), and with his 'arms' feathers' flies into the sky. He goes into the water and the hot stones fall off him. He emerges from the water as a man. He puts on his things. Ichneumon laughs at |kaggen because he has seen him without his things and is not deceived by him. |kaggen returns home to |huntu !kat !katten and his fire. (A section of the story not translated.) |kaggen tells of hunting the Ostrich (who is different) and its eggs, and how he was cheated by his own arrow which turned around on him as he tried to shoot a hare. He recounts the story of his fight with !goe !kweitentu.

Comments

1) !goe !kweitentu is spelt in various ways throughout this story, 2) Dia!kwain (David Hoesar) began translation of this story on 28 December 1873, 3) p.1121opp: a note on a brush: its |xam name, how it is made and what it is used for, 4) p.1072v: the name of a |xam man (Whitbooi Toorn or 'Smoke's Man'), 5) p.1130v: a note on the thinking strings, how the tale enters the ears and travels down the sides of the throat into the thinking channels, where it grows up with the hearer, 6) p.1131v: a note on !kuken !kakka !ani (who scratches with his feet, lays eggs like an ostrich but talks like a person, and the yolks of its eggs are like water), 7) p.1873v: what |kaggen calls to his hartebeest sack (his things), 8) p.1903v: the |gipp is the striped jackal, 9) p.2100v: |kua is another name for |kwammana, 10) p.2115v: |kwa is another name for |kwammana,11) An insert between pp.2121 and 2122: scrap paper with sums on the back featuring translations of |xam names of insects, 12) This story is found in Book II, Book III, Book XI, Book XII, Book XIX, Book XX, Book XXI and Book XXII