of the wealth of native traditionary literature actually existing among the Bushmen.
But whether the stories given by !(k)ing are only tribal compositions, or-form part of the common national property of the Bushmen, a slightly different character is attributed in them to the Mantis (Cagn—/kággen), who, according to the myths told by our Bushman informants, is very far from being represented as a "beneficent" being; but, on the contrary, is a fellow full of tricks, and continually getting into scrapes, and even doing purely mischievous things, so that, in fact, it was no wonder that his name has sometimes been translated by that of the "Devil." I must refer here to my second Bushman Report, sent in to the Honourable the Secretary for Native Affairs, in which I give a short outline of the Bushman literature collected by us. But even the myths told by !(k)ing bear out, to a certain extent, this character of the Mantis (Cagn): for example, in the story of the woman sticking to Cagn's back, which reminds us of the eggs of a magic bird sticking to /kaggẹn's mouth and back. (Second Report No. 9.)
Further, our Bushmen seem to know nothing of any worship of the Mantis, so that the prayer recited by !(k)ing was quite new to me, but they have given us prayers addressed to the Sun, to the Moon and to Stars, besides a number of myths referring to these celestial objects. The latter were, as !(k)ing states, unknown to him, because being a young man, he had not been initiated. Our best Bushman informant was nearly sixty years of age, and was picked out among twenty-eight grown-up Bushmen as one of the best narrators. But, if a young man like !(k)ing could give, and that through the medium of an imperfect interpretation, so much important information regarding the mythology of the Maluti Bushmen,—what may not be expected if Mr. Orpen should succeed in discovering, among the sources of the Orange River, some old Bushman or Bushwoman, and if the traditionary lore, of which they are the repositories, could be noted down from their lips in their own language, which we conclude to be essentially the same as, although dialectically different from, that of the more Western Bushmen.
But if Mr. Orpen's contributions to our knowledge of the Bushman folk-lore and mythology are important, the Bushman paintings copied by him are not less valuable. They are in fact the most interesting Bushman paintings I remember to have seen, and they fill us with great longing to see that splendid collection of Bushman paintings which Mr. C. G. Stowe is said to have made. They are evidently either of a mythological character, or illustrative of Bushman customs and superstitions. Before I saw Mr. Orpen's paper, I laid his copy of these paintings
