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Ascribing human traits to animals
—for example, the inquisitiveness of
the meerkat—is a mainstay of early
myth, around which stories are woven
about how the world came to be as it is.waterhole to summon a rain-cow,
and then bring it back through the
sky to the place in need of water.
There he would kill the rain-cow
so that its blood and milk fell
down as rain on the earth.
Rain was a vital necessity
in the arid desert landscape in
which the /Xam lived. It was
essential to replenish the widely
scattered waterholes that they
moved between, and which
were linked to each other by a
complex web of story and myth,
known as kukummi and similar
to the Dreamings of the Australian
Aborigines (pp.34–35).
Entering other worlds
Many aspects of the natural world
described in /Xam stories feature
the interaction of the supernatural
beings with humans—how they
have an interest in this world, and
how humans can, in turn, act to
influence and please them. All
San peoples believe that the spirit
realms are accessible, in altered
states of consciousness, to those
who have a supernatural potency,
known as !gi, imparted to humans
and animals by their creator.
The trance dance is the key
religious ritual in which the San
can use this power to access
the spirit world, via trance, and
launch their essential selves up
through the top of their heads and
into the spirit world. There, they
may plead for the lives of the sick,
and return with healing power so
that they can drive out the arrows
of disease fired by the dead from
the other world.
The /Xam offered prayers to
the moon and stars to give them
access to spiritual power, as well as
good luck in hunting. When /Xam
people entered a state of altered
consciousness, it was believed that
they were temporarily dead, and
that their hearts had become stars.
Humans and the stars were so
intimately linked that when a
person actually died, “the star
feels that our heart falls over [and]
the star falls down on account of it.
For the stars know the time at
which we die.”
After death, the links in /Xam
belief between the worlds of human
experience, of spirits, and of natural
phenomena become even more
apparent. The hair of a deceased
person was believed to transform
into clouds, which then shelterPRIMAL BELIEFS
humans from the heat of the sun.
Death was described in elemental
terms: the wind that exists inside
every human being was said to
blow away their footprints when
they died, making the transition
between the world of the living and
the world of the dead a decisive
one. If the footprints remained, “it
would seem as if we still lived.” ■Kabbo’s dream-life
Much of the information we
have about /Xam San beliefs
comes from a man named
//Kabbo, who in the 1870s
was one of several /Xam San
released from prison into the
custody of Dr. Wilhelm Bleek,
who wished to learn their
language and study their
culture. They had been jailed for
crimes such as stealing a sheep
to feed their starving families.
//Kabbo spoke of his waterholes,
between which his family would
move in the arid desert of the
central Cape Colony, campingsome way from the water so as
not to frighten off the animals
that came to drink the brackish
water. Wilhelm Bleek said
of him: “This gentle old soul
appeared lost in a dream life
of his own,” and in fact the
name //Kabbo means “dream.”
The god /Kaggen was said to
have dreamed the world into
being, and //Kabbo had a
special relationship with him;
as a /Kaggen-ka !kwi, a
“mantis’s man” he was able to
enter a dream state to exercise
powers such as rainmaking,
healing, and hunting magic.A long time ago,
the baboons were little
men just like us,
but more mischievous
and quarrelsome.
African fable