Page:Folklore1919.djvu/160

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148
Folklore of the Bushmen.

killed a red rhebok and put meat on the fire to roast, those young men took fat from a snake they had killed and dropped it on the meat, and when he cut a piece and put it in his mouth, it fell out; and he cut another, and it fell out; and the third time it fell out, and the blood gushed from his nose. So he took all his things, his weapons, and clothes, and threw them into the sky, and he threw himself into the river. And there were villages down there and young women, and they wanted to catch Qwanciqutshaa; but he turned into a snake and said—"No it is through women I was killed," and he eluded and threatened them, and they all ran away. The only girl that remained was the girl he had saved, and she made a hut and went and picked things and made canna, and put pieces in a row from the river bank to the hut. And the snake came out and ate up the charms, and went back into the water, and the next day she did the same, and that night he came and went to the hut and took a mat and went up to the sky and got his kaross and came down and slept on the mat. And when the girl saw he had been there she placed charms again, and lay in wait, and the snake came out of the water and raised his head, and looked warily and suspiciously round, and then he glided out of the snake's skin and walked, picking up the charmed food, to the hut, and when he was asleep she went in and seized him and quickly forced more charms into his mouth, and he struggled to escape, but she held him fast, and he was exhausted and trembled, and said "Why do you hold me, you who caused my death?" And she said, "Though I was the cause, it was not my fault, for I loved you, and none but you!" and she smothered him in the kaross, and ran to the skin and sprinkled it with canna and burnt it, and they remained there three days. And Qwanciqutshaa killed an eland and purified himself and his wife, and told her to grind canna, and she did so, and he sprinkled it on the ground, and all the elands that had died became alive again, and some came in with assegais sticking in them, which had been struck by those people who had wanted to kill him. And he took out the assegais, a whole bundle, and they remained in his place; and it was a place enclosed with hills and precipices, and there was one pass, and it was constantly filled with a