Page:Folklore1919.djvu/163

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Folklore of the Bushmen.
151

put his hand down into the water to loosen his leg, and the thing let go the man's leg, and seized Cagn's arm. And the man ran stumbling out of the water, for his leg was stiffened by his being so long held fast, and he called out, "Now you will be held there till the winter," and he went to the honey, and threw Cagn's sticks away; and Cagn began to bethink him of his charms, and he sent to ask Cogaz for advice through his charms, and Cogaz sent word and told him to let down a piece of his garment into the water alongside his hand, and he did so, and the thing let go his hand and seized his garment, and he cut off the end of his garment, and ran and collected his sticks, and pursued the man and killed him, and took the honey to Cogaz.

The thorns (dobbletjes) were people—they are called Cagn-cagn—they were dwarfs, and Cagn found them fighting together, and he went to separate them, and they all turned upon him and killed him, and the biting ants helped them, and they eat Cagn up; but after a time they and the dwarfs collected his bones, and put them together and tied his head on, and these went stumbling home, and Cogaz cured him and made him all right again, and asked what had happened to him, and he told him; and Cogaz gave him advice and power, telling him how to fight them, that he was to make feints and strike as if at their legs, and then hit them on the head, and he went and killed many, and drove the rest into the mountains.

Cagn found a woman, who had been left behind by people, and he thought he would take her home and make her his wife, so he picked her up and put her on his back, and she stuck on his back like wax, and he went to a tree to scrape her off, and she stuck to the tree too like wax. At last he got home to his wife Coti, and she scolded him for his conduct—he who was so great a king picking up with any woman he met with—and she boiled water and melted the woman off him, and when he got loose, Cagn gave her a tremendous thrashing for sticking to him like wax, and he drove her away.

The men with rhebok's heads, Haqwe and Canate, and the tailed men Qweqwete live mostly under water, they tame elands and snakes. That animal which the men are catching is a snake! They are holding out charms to it, and catching it