with a long rein. They are all under water, and those strokes are things growing under water. They are people spoilt by the . . . dance,[1] because their noses bleed. Cagn gave us the song of this dance, and told us to dance it, and people would die from it, and he would give charms to raise them again. It is a circular dance of men and women, following each other, and it is danced all night. Some fall down, some become as if mad and sick, blood runs from the noses of others whose charms are weak, and they eat charm medicine, in which there is burnt snake powder. When a man is sick, this dance is danced round him, and the dancers put both hands under their arm-pits, and press their hands on him, and when he coughs the initiated put out their hands and receive what has injured him—secret things. The initiated who know secret things are Qognqe; the sick person is hang cäi.
Bushmen have lost different arts. They formerly knew how to make things of stone over rivers, on which they crossed; and knew how to spear fishes. It was formerly said that when men died they went to Cagn, but it has been denied. There is a thing with one fiery eye, which flies by night; creeping on the ground, holding one arm up, it crushes the breath out of people, and leaves the bodies dead. It is cannibal. Cagn forbade its name being often mentioned. Its name is Cadintaa.
Qing did not know any story about the moon and a hare, but I asked him did they eat all parts of a hare, and he pointed me out the back part of the thigh, and said Cagn had forbidden them eating that because it was human flesh. I asked this after the expedition, as I then heard of some of the stories Dr. Bleek had collected. I asked what caused the Milky Way, and he said Cagn placed it there to support the snow.
Remarks by Dr. Bleek.
It is well known that Dr. Bleek has been engaged in researches into the Bushman language and traditions for some time past, and the latest of his official reports on the subject is now in the hands of the Government. We have requested him to make
- ↑ I have not noted the name of this Bushman dance—Basutos call it Uagoma. In some pictures the dancers have their heads painted white.—J. M. O.
