Tale
Specimens of Bushman Folklore
Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd · 1911
Synopsis
Eighty-seven legends, myths, poems and songs collected from ǀxam narrators and, to a lesser extent, !kun. We meet the mantis, the Cape fox, the blue crane, the bustard, the old woman, songs addressed to the stars Sirius and Canopus, the resurrection of the ostrich; other texts record botanical knowledge, hunting observances, divination and sorcery, and the history of these groups. The main narrators are named ǀA!kunta, ǁKabbo, Diä!kwain, !Kweiten-ta-ǁKen and ǀHanǂkasso.
Context
The volume appeared in London in 1911 from George Allen, with an introduction by George McCall Theal; Lucy Lloyd had made the selection from the notebooks kept since 1870, and the ǀxam text is printed facing the English translation. It also includes sketches of rock art. Laurens van der Post called it the “Bible of the Stone Age”, and Elias Canetti regarded it as the most important book he owned. A reissue from Daimon reprints the English text of 1911, with a preface by Megan Biesele.
Who it is for
Short tales, with the ǀxam text facing the English, in a volume of nearly five hundred pages that is read in fragments; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
The Bleek collection has been inscribed since 1997 in UNESCO's Memory of the World register; the book is regarded as the cornerstone of San studies.
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