''Specimens of Bushman Folklore'' is a book by the
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...
Wilhelm H. I. Bleek and
Lucy C. Lloyd, which was published in 1911. The book records eighty-seven legends, myths and other
traditional stories of the
Ç€Xam Bushmen
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia ...
in their
now-extinct language. The stories were
collected through interviews with various narrators, chief among them Ç€A!kunta, ÇKabbo, Diäǃkwain,
!Kweiten-ta-ǀǀKen and ǀHanǂkasso.
These tales were written down and translated by Bleek and his sister-in-law Lloyd. Bleek died in 1875, but Lloyd continued transcribing ǀXam narratives after his death. It is thanks to her efforts that some of the narratives were eventually published in this book, which also includes sketches of
rock art attributed to the Bushmen people and some
ǃXun narratives.
''Specimens of Bushman Folklore'' has been considered the cornerstone of study of the Bushmen and their religious beliefs.
Laurens van der Post
Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jun ...
describes the book (and
Dorothea Bleek
Dorothea Frances Bleek (later Dorothy F. Bleek; born 26 March 1873, Mowbray, Cape Town – died 27 June 1948, Newlands, Cape Town) was a South African-born German anthropologist and philologist known for her research on the Bushmen (the San peo ...
's ''Mantis and His Friend'') as "a sort of
Stone Age Bible" in the introduction to ''The Heart of the Hunter'' (1961), a follow-up to ''The Lost World of the Kalahari''.
''Specimens of Bushman Folklore'', as well as the situation of the Bushmen during their disappearance in South Africa and the lives of Bleek and Lloyd, have been covered in a Dutch documentary series called ''The Broken String''.
Further reading
Banks, Andrew. ''Bushmen in a Victorian World''. Cape Town: Double Storey, 2006.
External links
''Specimens of Bushman Folklore.''(entire text)
''Specimens of Bushman Folklore.''(scanned pages, with search)
Diä!kwain, the 'soft-hearted' prisoner(an informant)
/Xam (Bushmen and Bushwomen) Intellectuals (1845-1879)including the five informants of Bleek
(entry under ''1911'')
University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Art: The Digital Bleek and Lloyddocumentary information (in Dutch)
1911 books
Anthropology books
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