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Prada-Samper, JosŽ M. de. ŇThe plant lore of the /Xam San:
//Kabbo and Kasiŋ's identification of ÔBushman medicinesŐÓ. Culturas Populares. Revista Electr—nica 4 (enero-junio 2007). http://www.culturaspopulares.org/textos4/articulos/deprada.htm ISSN: 1886-5623 |
The plant lore of the /Xam San: //Kabbo and Kasiŋ's
identification of "Bushman medicines"
JosŽ M. de Prada-Samper
Independent Scholar
Abstract
This paper presents for the
first time two texts that deal with the ethnobotany of the /Xam, a now extinct
San (Bushman) group. The discussion of the texts is focused on the concept of So-/›Š, a term which, as it is proved in the paper, was generic and meant
"medicine" The plant known until now as So-/›Š was really called //kurrak@n//kurrak@n, and was used mainly in scarification rituals.
Keywords: Bleek, Lloyd, Bushmen, San, /Xam, Ethnobotany,
Medicinal Plants, Halucinogenics, So-/›Š, //kurrak@n//kurrak@, Hunting Rituals, Scarifications.
Resumen
En este art’culo se publican por primera vez dos
textos de la Colecci—n Bleek-Lloyd relacionados con los conocimientos
etnobot‡nicos de los /xam, un grupo bosquimano (san) ya extinguido. El an‡lisis
de los textos se centra sobre todo en el concepto que los /xam ten’a de So-/›Š tŽrmino que, como se
demuestra en el art’culo, era genŽrico y significaba ÇmedicinaČ. La planta
hasta ahora conocida como So-/›Š se llamaba en realidad //kurrak@n//kurrak@n y
se usaba sobre todo en rituales de escarificaci—n.
Palabras clave: Bleek, Lloyd, bosquimanos
/xam, etnobot‡nica, plantas medicinales, alucin—genos, So-/›Š, //kurrak@n//kurrak@n, ritos
de caza, escarificaciones.
|
T |
his paper presents an edited
transcription of two unpublished items from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection, the
archive of /Xam San oral literature and ethnography gathered by W. H. I. Bleek
and Lucy C. Lloyd between 1870 and the early 1880s.[1] the collection is kept in the
Manuscripts and Archives Department of the University of Cape Town Libraries.[2]
The two items in question appear in entry 109 of Wilhelm Bleek's A Brief
Account of Bushman Folk-Lore and Other Texts (1875: 18-19). The entry of the report reads as
follows:
Different Bushman
Medicines; where found; and their uses. – Only the names of these
medicines are given in Bushman, and the remarks respecting them in English,
after Kasiŋ (L IV.-1. 3425-3440) – These specimens were found in
the hut of a Bushman sorcerer, and were kindly furnished for identification by
Mr. J. Gibb. –//Kabbo's names for the same specimens, with remarks (in
English only), are in a separate paper of 7 folio pages, to which Kasiŋ's
notes have been also briefly added, in red ink.
The "separate
paper" mentioned at the end of the entry was written, in all likelihood,
in the first days of September, 1873. It bears number BC151, E4.3.1 in the list
of items in the Bleek-Lloyd Collection (Eberhard and Twentyman Jones 1992)[3] and is an inventory of the
specimens (about 20 in number) provided by Mr. Gibb bearing the title
"Bushman medicines". The inventory is divided in 7 sections numbered
with roman numerals. The first of these, headed Ssho: /›Š (in D. F. Bleek's spelling, So-/›Š), has 12 subentries numbered in Arabic
numerals. In this paper I will refer to this manuscript as BM. Most of the
specimens listed in it, as will be seen in the texts, are vegetal, although
there are a few of an animal nature.
As stated in entry 109
of Bleek's report, the inventory was written with the help of //Kabbo, a
"Flat Bushman" from the area south of Kenhardt. This area is now
partially enclosed by the farm Arbeidsvreug, in the South African province of
the Northern Cape. //Kabbo had been helping Bleek and Lloyd since mid February,
1871. He left Mowbray, the Cape Town suburb within which the Bleek's home was
situated, on October 15, 1873 (Bleek 1875: 5; Prada-Samper 2001: xxxvi-xxxvii).
Kasiŋ, whose remarks on the items of this inventory were added in
November of that year, was a "Grass Bushman" from the Katkop area,
several hundred kilometers to the west of //Kabbo's territory. He was the son
of a Koranna chief and a Grass /Xam woman. He stayed in Mowbray from 1 November, 1873 until 18 March, 1874, and
later with his wife and children from 13 June 1874 until 13 January, 1875
(Bleek 1875: 5; Prada-Samper 2001: xxxix).
Kasiŋ's detailed
explanations on the items in BM, not to be mistaken with the remarks added to
the inventory itself, are in notebook L.IV.1 (catalogued in the Collection as
item BC151, A2.1.44). They were dictated to Lucy Lloyd on the 3 and the 4 of
November 1873, and follow the numeration of the items established in BM. The
same folder where the inventory is kept includes a 7 page typescript (listed as
BC151, E4.3.2), which bears the title "Information on the materials used
by Bushmen as poisons and medicines etc., taken down by L. C. Lloyd in 1873
from the dictation of Kasiŋ, a Bushman-Hottentot from the Katkop
mountains in Calvinia, C. P.". This typescript was probably meant for
publication and includes, among other things, information on /Xam poisons taken
mainly from Kasiŋ's testimony (pages 1-2) and a summary of //Kabbo's
notebook testimony on So-/›Š. (pages 6-7).
Pages 3 and 4 of the typescript are a fair copy, faithful to the manuscript and
with some additional
explanations by Dorothea Frances Bleek, of Kasiŋ's notebook remarks to BM. I have taken this text into account when editing these.
I have not been able to
find more information about the J. Gibb who provided the specimens. Data found
after a quick search in the on-line National Automated Archival Information
Retrieval System of the National Archives of South Africa (NAAIRS) strongly
suggests that he is the same J. Gibb mentioned in several documents in the Cape
Archive. One of them (CO 4125), dated 1864, is a memorial in which he requests
to be appointed Acting District Surgeon at Clanwilliam. It would be very
interesting to know where, and in which manner, he obtained the specimens. As
to their whereabouts, in page 2 of the above mentioned typescript D. F. Bleek
states the following: "I presume the specimens were returned. I do not
know where they are".
//Kabbo's long series of
stories and other information regarding one of the specimens in BM was dictated
between 10-27 September 1873, and is also considered here. It was published
more than 70 years ago by Bleek's daughter Dorothea and is one of her contributions
to the journal Bantu Studies, now African Studies (D. F Bleek 1936: 144-160). This
edition was reprinted, with notes and additional material, by Jeremy Hollmann
in his outstanding edition of Dorothea's "Customs and Beliefs of the /Xam
Bushmen" series (Hollmann 2005: 300-322). It occupies a whole
notebook (L.II.36, listed in Eberhard and Twentyman Jones 1991 as item BC151,
A2.1.42). I will henceforth refer to this testimony as KT.
*
Given
the paucity of information the Bleek-Lloyd Collection offers about tthe /Xam-ka
!ei knowledge of medicinal plants, the data contained in the material
transcribed here is of great relevance. It has, apparently, so far escaped the
attention of scholars interested in these matters. Among other things, the
material throws light on So-/›Š, a
"vegetable medicine, used also as a charm" (Bleek 1875: 18). The
plant's exact nature has been the object of some discussion, especially since
it is believed to be a psychoactive substance, possibly connected with trance
(Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989: 134-135; Hollmann 2005: 306-307). Although
Jeremy Hollmann (2005: 277-278) has tentatively identified So-/›Š as Gallium tomentosum, a plant of
the Rubiaceae family, the fact is that, notwithstanding the detailed
information given by //Kabbo in KT, it has not yet been possible to positively
identify the species which he is describing.[4] The fact that
So-/›Š, as I hope
will be proved in the rest of this paper, is not really the name of a single
plant, but a generic term meaning "medicine", may be one of the
reasons that have hindered the identification of the species.
The
trouble with So-/›Š begins with
the original research of Bleek and Lloyd, as both were convinced that the term
was used to designate a single species. For example, in a series of loose pages
that I think are her grammatical and lexical aids for the study and translation
of /Xam texts (BC151, E4.5.4), and which are drawn mostly from material
dictated by //Kabbo, Lloyd explains the following:
sso: /o:Š (or //k‡rruken-//karruken
or /u sshoŠ)
Names for a plant (or bush?) which is used in medicine by Bushmen, &
also for purposes of enchantment.
At the start
of his testimony on the subject, when giving the different names of the plant
(D. F. Bleek 1936: 144; Hollmann 2005: 300; L.II.36: 3242'), //Kabbo said that
"the !Kurri-ka !ke or Hart River's people call [the specimen] So-/›Š". The !Kurri-ka !ke
(which literally means "people of the riverbed[5]") are
presumably a subdivision of the /Xam, and maybe Bleek and Lloyd based their
conviction that So-/›Š is the name of
specific plant in this piece of information. The fact is that, when editing KT
for publication, D. F. Bleek accepted this and later scholars simply followed
her lead.
As
stated before, however, entry no I in BM is headed Ssho: /›Š (=So-/›Š). It contains no less than 12 subentries of
items, all of them vegetal, considered to be under that designation. Their uses
range from, among others, being useful to find honey (item 3, also useful for
"making people shoot well") to being a remedy against headache (item
7a). Item 4 is said to be "used by men as a medicine for the women", and could have been an aphrodisiac. Items 10b and 11 were used
"when going to shoot each other". Item 10a was said by Kasiŋ
to be used "when a girl first
leaves the house" meaning probably at
the time of the first menstruation rituals.
Some of the
substances were burnt and inhaled by the patient (items 3, 5b, the latter said
to be "used by the witches"), others were powdered and rubbed in the
body, sometimes mixed with fat (items 4 [= 8], 9). In
other cases (item 3a), the plant could be boiled in water, which was then drunk
by the patient. If the patient was "only a little ill" small pieces
of the dry root were bitten off and ingested. The use of about half of the items (nos. 2, 5, 6, 7, 12) was
unknown to //Kabbo, but in most cases Kasiŋ could provide
additional or missing information.
It is clear that most of //Kabbo's
testimony in KT concentrates on single species of medicinal plant, always
referred to as So-/›Š. A reference
in brackets to "no. 1" in a note in page 3242' of the original
notebook (reference which was omitted both by D. F. Bleek and Hollmann) leaves
no doubt that most
(though possibly not all) of the material in KT deals with the first item
listed in the inventory of the contents of the
bag found by Mr. Gibb. KT does not include any other references to BM, but
there are strong reasons to believe that "How the women fear the new So-/›Š when it has just been
brought home" and "The consequences of women's smelling fresh So-/›Š scent", two
distinctly separated set of remarks on pp. 3279-3283 and 3284-3286 of the
manuscript (D. F. Bleek 1936: 150-151, 152-153; Hollmann 2005: 308-310;
311-313; D. F. Bleek omitted the titles), while dealing mainly with item 1 also
mention another type of So-/›Š, very likely
item 4 (= 8) of the inventory, i:tana.
This
happens when //Kabbo
explains that women must be careful of the scent of So-/›Š (meaning here item 1) scent, because it can "hurt their hearts" (Bleek 1936: 152). When a woman's husband
has put the So-/›Š's scent into
her body, //Kabbo says, /ki /ka:g@n-di-ka So-/›Š, or, as D. F. Bleek rendered it, "she is one who has womanhood's So-/›Š scent". This appears
to be a variant of the sentence !e'ta /ka:gen ka ssho'/oa, "women's [ssho: /oa]", used by //Kabbo in BM to describe i:tana. As a matter of fact, in a gloss on
p. 3282' of the manuscript, //Kabbo explained that he meant here //ke ke:ya
!ke ta /kagen e: /kwaiya, ho ta ssho: /oa, "Like/as women which (are) many, their [So-/›Š]", which probably would be best rendered
as "women's So-/›Š", as Lloyd had originally
translated it.
*
What
is then the exact meaning of So-/›Š if it does
not designate a specific plant? The word appears to be a combination of So: (or s?o) , "to sit, be at,
remain at" (D. F. Bleek 1956: 171, 173) and /oa, "to
rub, wipe, sweep, anoint" (D. F. Bleek 1956: 355). As L. F. Maingard
suggested about 70 years ago, the word is probably a cognate of the Khoi term so/›ab, which means
"medicine". Maingard included it in a series of words "where it
is difficult to say whether the Bushman borrowed from [Khoi] or whether the
reverse was the process" (1935: 486). I do not know the precise sense of
the Khoi word, but in /Xam it is clear that So-/›Š appears to refer to any vegetable substance which
was considered to have medicinal or magical properties, in some cases to cure
ailments, in others "to make the path good", to make people shoot
well, or to help them find honey.
Unfortunately,
Kasiŋ did not add any new information about specimen no. 1 in BM. This
appears to have been some kind of root whose specific /Xam name, as given by
//Kabbo in his glosses and additions to KT, was //karruk@n//karruk@n, (D. F. Bleek 1936: 144; Hollmann
2005: 300; L.II.36: 3242'), a word which I have not been able to find in the Bushman
Dictionary. The
Koranna name, also given by //Kabbo, /u-S›Š, probably means "root
medicine" (see D. F. Bleek 1956: 357, where /u is said to mean "root").
I leave to others the
identification of //karruk@n//karruk@n, and hope that the materials here
published will be of some help in that endeavour. However, I would like to add
some brief remarks about the ritual use of the plant as described by //Kabbo in
KT.
In his comments to one
of //Kabbo's stories about the plant, in which a man faints when struck by
another man who has rubbed his hands with the substance before fighting,
Hollmann (2005: 306-307) says that "the death-like state of the man
resembles the state of altered consciousness that Ju/'hoansi healers reach
during the healing dance [É] It is possible that the So-/›Š plant was
believed to have a similar effect on people". Hollmann could be right, but
the fact is that, with the exception of some intriguing references to
"trembling" (D. F. Bleek 1936: 156; Hollmann 2005: 317), there is
nothing in //Kabbo's testimony or in Kasiŋ's
remarks about Gibb's specimens, that can be really interpreted to say
that //karruk@n//karruk@n (or any
of the other species mentioned), was a psychoactive substance, although there
is no doubt that it was considered to be very powerful, and to be collected and
handled with extreme caution. It is interesting to add here, however, that the
French missionary Thomas Arbousset (1968 [1846]: 251), saw in the Malutis, many
hundred of kilometers east of /Xam territory, an old woman who, while other
people were smoking tobacco or dagga, "took from her neck a bit of some
narcotic root, lit it at the fire, and bringing it near her nose, snuffed in
the smoke". Interestingly, the plant described by //Kabbo could also be
snuffed in this way (D. F. Bleek
1936: 156; Hollmann 2005: 316). So could
item 5b in BM (the specific name of which was not given by the
informant), about which Kasiŋ said that it was "used by the
witches".
In his testimony,
//Kabbo gives especial importance to the use of //karruk@n//karruk@n in scarification rituals:
They cut their
flesh; they burn (a piece of the) wood; it burns to charcoal; they hold it
blowing it out where it flames; they dip it smoking into fat; they grind it
(between stones). They rub it into the cuts, the wounds of the cuts; they
blacken them with the So-/›Š coals
which are black. Then the cuts' scars are black, because the coals are black in
them; they become dry, then the cuts dry closing up; the coal lies black inside
the skin. (D. F. Bleek 1936: 144-145; Hollmann 2005: 300-301)
These proceedings, at least in some
aspects, are very similar to the scarification practices described by
Lorna Marshall in her account of the first kill rituals of the Ju/'hoansi of
Namibia. In her book Nyae Nyae !Kung Beliefs and Rites Marshall states the following:
The principal
element in the [first kill] rite is the scarification of the boy. The purpose
of this is to put into the boy's body, through little cuts in his skin,
substances that, in !Kung belief, will make him a successful hunter. The
scarifications remain visible on the skin for a lifetime; they show that the
man has been "cut with meat". (Marshall 1999: 154)
The scarifications
described by //Kabbo were made in the hands, the arms, and the head, and do not
correspond exactly to those made on the young Ju/'hoan initiate. But the basic
principle is the same: to introduce into the body of the person
"substances that [É] will make him a successful hunter" (Marhsall
1999: 154), or, as //Kabbo explained, "that the arrow may fly well at the
springbok" (D. F. Bleek 1936: 145; Hollmann 2005: 301).
It is not clear if
//Kabbo is describing first kill rituals, but there is no doubt that he is
referring to some sort of initiation connected with hunting. The "So-/›Š man" mentioned by //Kabbo is an essential
figure in these initiatory rites. He was scarified, but not "between the
thumb and first finger (the place where the arrow lies)", as the /Xam did,
but in the wrists, as the /Nu:-ka !ke (D. F. Bleek: 145; Hollmann 2005: 302).
Only this "So-/›Š man" could safely dig out the
plant safely. No doubt he was a specialist in the collection and use of
medicinal plants.
//Kabbo mentions the use
of //karruk@n//karruk@n by
other Khoisan groups who lived near the Orange river in BM and KT. These are
the already mentioned /Nu:-ka !ke, who lived on the northern bank (D. F. Bleek
1936: 145, 157; Hollmann 2005: 302, 317), the /Ki:-/eŋ, who talked
"both Bushman and Koranna" and lived close of the southern bank (D.
F. Bleek 1936: 157; Hollmann 2005: 317), and the Koranna themselves (D. F.
Bleek 145; Hollmann 2005: 301). The key to identify the plant in question could
be found in our knowledge, if any, of the ethnobotany of these groups and their
descendants.
Publications cited
Arbousset,
Thomas and F. Daumas 1968 [1848]. Narrative
of an Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Cape of Good Hope, translated by J.
C. Brown (Cape Town: Struik).
Bank,
Andrew 2006. Bushmen in a Victorian World: The Remarkable story of the
Bleek-Lloyd Collection of Bushman Folklore (Cape Town: Double Storey).
Bleek
Dorothea Frances 1936. "Beliefs and Customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part
VIII: More About Sorcerors [sic] and Charms", Bantu Studies 10: 131-162.
Bleek,
Dorothea Frances 1956. A Bushman Dictionary (New Haven: American Oriental
Society).
Bleek,
W. H. I. and Lucy C. Lloyd 1911. Specimens of Bushman Folklore (London: George
Allen).
Eberhard,
Etaine, and Leonie Twentyman Jones 1992. The Bleek Collection: A
List
(Cape Town: University of Cape Town Libraries).
Hollmann,
Jeremy C. (ed.) 2005. Customs and Beliefs of the /Xam Bushmen
(Johannesburg-Philadelphia: Wits University Press-Singing Rock Press).
Lewis-Williams,
John David y Thomas Dowson 1989. Images of Power: Understanding Bushman Rock
Art
(Cape Town: Southern).
Maingard,
L. F. 1935. "The First Contacts of the Dutch with the Bushmen until the
Times of Simon van der Stel (1686)", South African Journal of Science 32: 479-487.
Marshall,
Lorna 1999. Nyae
Nyae !Kung Beliefs and Rites (Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Monographs).
Prada-Samper,
JosŽ Manuel de 2001. La ni–a que cre— las estrellas: relatos orales de los
bosquimanos /xam (Madrid: Lengua de Trapo).
//Kabbo's list
of "Bushman Medicines", with Kasiŋ's remarks
For convenience's sake, instead
of presenting both texts separately, I have added Kasiŋ's notebook
remarks to the main list, placing them between brackets, in smaller type. His
notes to the main list are given in angular brackets <>, also in smaller
type.
I have replaced the informants'
European names (Jantje Toreen and Klaas Katkop) with their /Xam equivalents,
//Kabbo and Kasiŋ.
The transcription of the words in
boldface is in doubt.
Words in italics are Kasiŋ's comments, which are in red
ink in the original manuscript.
x means that I have not been able to decipher a
word or words.
I have followed Lucy Lloyd's
practice of giving the left-hand pages of the notebook the same number as that
of the right, but adding an apostrophe. Thus, page 3425' is the same as
3424rev.
I. Ssho: /›Š
"A Bushman medicine &
charm" (vegetable) with a pungent smell
1. Like that which comes from the Orange River
(/K"i:), being, darker than others.
4 large and 2
small specimens; also like that from across the Orange river (/nu:), used by
the /nu: ssa: or /nu:
ku !Ž; those latter are
said to kill with it.
2. Locality (mountain) unknown.
36 specimens,
large and small (of which one in a paper marked 2, when removed by us).
3. !khou: ("honey") ka ssho-/›Š very light colored, with a sweet smell (similar to liquorice-wood, ("lisshkolz"). People find honey by using this; it
is also employed to make people shoot well.
<3a (only the richest piece, the rest unknown to Kasiŋ.)
/hunn ka ¤ho grows in Kasiŋ's
country, used as medicine, when the inside of x body aches. Is very good when you have x
headache to burn & smell it.>
[/hu:nn ta ¤ho.[6] A piece of root taken from
a short thick round bush, which has long roots in the ground, which are dug
out. The bush grows at Kasiŋ's place. When people are ill, they eat the
root. It grows on the side of rocks ("klip kopjes"). The root is
scrapped into
a vessel, then boiling water is poured upon it, a rag is tied over it, & it
is left to cool; & then drunk by the sick person. This is for one who is
very ill. If only a little ill, one eats the root dry, bite off pieces of it.
(L.IV.1: 3425-3426)]
4. Ssho: /oa i:tana, i:tana[7]
!e'ta
/ka:gen ka ssho'/oa "women's [ssho: /oa]".[8]
It is red, grows in the bed of the Haart river (/k"‡ or !ku’rri). It springs out of the ground near the stem of a great
thorntree, named !kou:.[9] This is used by men as a medicine for the women, being burnt, powdered and mixed with fat. Then
the women's bodies are
rubbed with it.
<Used by
women as a medicine; is eaten and also rubbed over the body (I[t] grows at Kasiŋ's
place)>
[i: tanna. This has a tall part above
the ground, but short roots; it grows to the height of about nine feet, but
upon another (different) tree, not
alone. The little roots are used; they are dug out & broken off; the plant
itself, & its greater roots being left growing. The plant is found at
Kasiŋ's place; it grows in the bed of the river; in the dry part of the
bed, & also in the part where there is water (as far as I can make out).
Men as well as women dig it up. (L.IV.1: 3439-3440)]
5. Unknown
Light coloured
Five specimens
<5a Thick piece (the others
unknown) ss'o /a the nicest and most helpful wood, it is eaten as medicine by men
and women.
5b (The two long straight ones
are used by the witches, they are not eaten, but when (sic) inhales them into
the nose).]>
[ sso: /a.[10] This grows not near Kasiŋ's
place; it is rather far from it; it grows short; its top is red; men go &
dig out its roots that are in the ground. It grows in the sand (!khu:). Its roots are long. It grows at the sides of the
!kuirri;[11] & also in its bed;
which is often dry. Kasiŋ is one who is used to dig up sso: /a. Men dig this up (L.IV.1:
3437-3438).]
6. Unknown <= 5b>
Dark brown,
straight.
Two specimens.
7. Like that used by Grass Bushmen (but not on
the Orange river).
Dark brown,
crooked.
Four
specimens, one burnt at the end.
<7a
(the piece
with the burnt point & the tiny piece.[12]) is ss'o /a used against
headache,
is burnt for that purpose, and one smells it.
7b
//kei:ten (the longest other) believed to be used as an emetik, thrown into
boiling
water & then allowed to cool.>
8. Little roots !kw‡ !kwigen ta !kauken
<= 4>
Seven small
specimens reddish, brown.
9. Light coloured
Powdered dust
(unburnt), which comes off when they cut it. They rub themselves under the arms
with it, when out hunting, when they have not a fire; so that when they are
shooting springboks, also other springboks which have not been shot, may die
from the smell.
Three papers full.
<[9a] ss'a: do When going on journey, they
rub themselves with it, and it renders the path good. It is refreshening after very tired when they raise in the morning, to smell
it. They rub it in the necks's hole.>
10. Powdered dust (unburnt), mixed with fat.
Two papers
full.
<10a !g—e ta ¤ho[13]
They
smell it when sick.>
[ssa: / /gumm / !gaś‘ ta ¤ho. It grows at Kasiŋ's
place. It is a short bush, like "schaap bushes". The powder in paper
is from the root of the plant, which is dug not from the earth. Women dig it
out, and work it; the men smell it, as well as the women; but women only work
it. It is a medicine, and is smelt, & rubbed round the front of the neck;
but not taken internally. Women assist men, & also other women with it. It
is called !gaue ta ¤ho because it is rubbed on
the neck and smelt when one gets up in the morning; when one is not well. Those
who are well do not use it. It is used when a girl first leaves the house.[14] (L.IV.1: 3433-3435)]
<10b
a:ga
¤hogen
When
going to shoot each other, they smear it on their forehead, and the bridge of
their nose, not used for any other purpose.>
11. Powdered dust, burnt, used by Bergbushmen,
rubbed on their foreheads when they go to kill each other. This is to prevent
other people's arrows to hurt them. Also used medicinally.
One papers
(sic.) full.
12. Probably the seed of ssho: /oŠ
<!kśrri
seeds, used strung in a string, used as ornaments on the neck by women. They
grow upon a tree.>
[!kurri / !kurri ka: ka
tchueŋ.[15] The seeds of a tree or bush which is large, (like in
height to one we have here about 11 feet high), it grows at Kasiŋ's
place. Women thread the seeds, & wear necklaces of them. The seed grow in
pods. (L.IV.1: 3436).]
II. Anteater's skin (/ka ken tte ta ttu)
Used for making shoes, on account
of its strength, also they make thongs of it.
<Kasiŋ
confirms this, and adds that they (the women) make braided and x instruments of the tail.* Stones as in this burnt skin, and then
they get something of the cleverness of the anteater himself, in
digging for Bushman rice.
* This also helps them to seek
rice.
/kueken tte
!kwi ka ttu
anteater; part of skin burnt by the women when digging for Bushman rice. They rub their
digging sticks.>
III. /K"ammaŋ-o or //k—//komm
Seems to be a sort of fungus,
dried. It is got out of soft white sand. When young, it is roasted in the fire
and eaten. The new one x up
in winter.
One specimen, called by //Kabbo /k"‡mmaŋ-o /nu: tara "an old she fungus (?)". It's an
old one, which is not to be eaten.
</k"‡mman
used as
food [by the] /xam ka !ei ka.>
IV. Grass seed which partridges kkotten (sing. & pl.) eat. /khe:i
ts<"/"> axeiten
(grass seed).
<Poison
kh—tten /k"a ka ts'oen or kk— tti.>
[K—ttenka ¤hoki or "Patrijs
Bush".
([It ]grows at Kasiŋ's place). A women's thing. (A man does not work it,
for the women are the ones who work it). [It comes] from a short plant that
grows on the ground, which partridges eat. Women pound a little pinch of it,
& put it into a vessel (kommetje) with boiling water at night. They fasten
it up, having stirred it, and let it stand, drinking it in the early morning.
People who are not in any way ill do not eat it. (L.IV.1: 3427-3428)]
V. !na:
!kw‡ !kw‡gen
"Legs"[16] (insect like locust / with black wings & red body) When they come in numbers to
hung on the shrubs in Bushmanland to eat the flowers, and the Bushmen look at
them, it hurts their eyes
(makes them burn) when
the Bushman sees these things on the bushes, he does not look at them, but looks in the
direction in which he is going, and says to them:
ŋ kaśruken e'
(pointing to back of his
forehead)
ŋ xśken e'
("
" to back of his head)
ŋ //k‡uruken e'
" "
his forehead)
&c &c &c
When he is well passed them, so that the insects
may look that his face
is at the back of his head,
and the influence (scent)
may go there over road of
to their eyes, where it
would be x. They leave a
strong scent like fresh meat.
[!na: The lower pieces at the ends
of the legs of the !na:; for its great legs (thighs) they are not. The body of
the insect is about 4 inches long. It eats low bushes; eating off the tops of
them; they come in numbers, as far as I can understand. Their wings are red
& yellow, & they have black bands across/on their backs, their bodies
are red & yellow. If one's eyes are not well, one takes the legs &
sticks them into one's hair; when they eyes get better one removes the legs,
& puts them by. This is done for men, women, & children. These insects
are found at Kasiŋ's place. They are found on (or dwell at) the bushes of
rocky kopjes. They eat their green tops. [17] (L.IV.1: 3429-3430)]
VI. !k"wa:•[18] sing. & plural (kaauwgoed) a small plant
found on the great mountains growing out of crevices in the rocks. It is chewed by Bushmen, and
gives strength to their limbs; and takes away poison, and make[s] their memory strong. The two
Bushmen from Stuurmansfontein[19] had some with them, to enable them to walk till
they met the waggon. Is
found around [the territory of the] the Berg Bushmen.
[!k"wai:n /
kaauwgoed.
If a little
child that is still being suckled is ill in its inside, they take a little
piece of it, & put it into a spoon of cold water, & rub it about in it,
the water becomes yellow (like tobacco water), and they give it to the child to
drink. Men and women chew it; and swallow their saliva. The plant is in some
cases short, but in others long, like a pumpkin in growth; it grow on the
ground. It grows at Kasiŋ's place. (L.IV.1: 3431-3432).]
VII. /ka:i ka !guoken[20]
Made by Grass
Bushmen from grubs (?) which are like young bees (bees' children) live in the ground in
their own houses and with these
they are dug out. They (the houses) are then put on the fire, to kill the
tenants, and then are set aside to cool. The grubs (?) are then shaken out,
dried in the sun, pounded in
a tortoise shell (with a little round stick), and while being pounded there,
are wetted a little with saliva. Then the little stick is laid down. They are
gathered together with a
knife, and put into little bags of skin. The present specimen is a bit of goat
skin, cut out of a bag, as //Kabbo says. Bags are also made
for them of springbok skin.
It is used for poisoning arrows,
first that what is in the upper, x the x. Not to be touched.
Very small grubs are said to be
like young spiders (spider's children), but soon grows much larger. What the
parents are like, only
the Grass Bushmen know.[21]
/Kabbo. Photograph by Lawrence
& Serlik, Cape Town 1870-1871.
National Library of South
Africa.
First page of the notebook containing KT.
Taken from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection website (http://www.lloydbleekcollection.uct.ac.za).
Except for BM, made from photocopies supplied by the Manuscripts and Archives
Department of the University of Cape Town Libraries, all transcriptions in this
paper are based on the scans of the notebooks made available in the
said website, mantained by The Lucy Lloyd Archive Resource and Exhibition
Centre at the University of Cape Town (LLAREC).