In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

108 20 The Little Wise Woman 72 Khoikhoi (Southern Africa)73 A girl, it is said, went to seek onions. As she came to the place where the onions grew, she met some men, one of whom was half-blind, having only one eye. As she dug for the onions, the men helped her, digging also. When her sack was full, they said to her, “Go, tell the other girls, so that many of you come here.” So she went home and told her companions, and early the next morning they set out. But a little girl followed them. The other girls said, “Let the little girl go back.” But her elder sister protested against this, saying, “She runs by herself; you need not put her into your awa-skin.” So they all went together, and when they reached the onion-ground, they began to dig. Now the little girl saw traces of feet and said to the one who had guided them to this place, “Wonderful! Where did all these traces come from? Were you not alone here?” The other replied, “I walked about and looked out, and that’s why the foot prints are so many.” The child, however, did not believe that if the other girl had been alone the traces would be so many, and she felt uneasy, for she was a wise little woman. From time to time she rose from her work and looked about. Once, while doing this, she found by chance an anteater’s hole. Still spying around, she saw some men, but they did not see her. She then returned and continued digging with the other girls, without, however, saying anything. But, in the midst of their work, she always rose and looked about her. The others asked her, “Why do you always spy about and stop digging? What a girl!” But she continued her work in silence. When she rose from it again, she saw the men approaching. As they drew near, the one-eyed blew through a reed pipe the following air: “Today blood will flow, blood will flow, blood will flow!” The little girl understood what was blown on the reed. She said to the elder ones, while they were dancing,“Do you also understand the tune that is being blown on the reed?” But they only said, “What a child she is!” So she mixed in the dance with the others but managed while doing so to tie her sister’s kaross-cloak to her own, and in this manner they danced on, until it became very noisy, and then they found an opportunity to slip away. On their way out, the little sister asked, “Do you understand the reed— I mean what is blown on it?” She answered, “I do not understand it.” Then the little girl explained to her that the tune on the reed said, “Today, blood will flow!” While they walked along, the little girl let her elder sister go first, and she herself followed, walking backwards and carefully stepping in her sister’s traces, so that they thereby left only one set of footmarks, and these going in a contrary direction. In this manner, they arrived at the anteater’s hole. But the men killed all those girls who had remained dancing with them. When the eldest of those who had escaped heard their wailing, she said, “Oh, my sisters!” But the younger one answered her, “Do you think you would have lived if you had remained there?” Now One-eye was the first to miss the sisters, and he said to the other men, “Where are the two handsome girls who danced with me?” The others replied, “He lies. He has seen with his eye.”74 But One-eye insisted that the two girls were truly missing. Then they went to find their spoor, but the traces had been rendered indistinct enough to puzzle them. When the men arrived at the anteater’s hole, they could not see that the footmarks went further, so they spied into the hole but saw nothing. Then One-eye also looked, and he saw the girls and cried, “There they sit!” The others now looked again but still saw nothing, for the girls had covered themselves with cobwebs. One of the men then took an assegai and, piercing through the upper part of the hole, hit the heel of the larger girl. But the little wise woman took hold of the assegai and wiped o...

Share