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Specimens of Bushman Folklore, by W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd, [1911], at sacred-texts.com


||HARA AND TTO.

||hara[1] is black; the people [having mixed it with fat] anoint their heads with it; while tto is red, and the people rub their bodies with it, when they have pounded it; they pound it, pound it, pound it, they rub their bodies with it. They pound ||hara, they anoint their heads, when they have first

[1. A certain stone which is said to be both hard and soft.]

pounded the tto; they first rub their bodies with tto. And they pound ||hara, they anoint their heads. They anoint their heads very nicely, while they wish that their head's hair may descend (i.e., grow long). And it becomes abundant on account of it; because they have anointed their heads, wishing that the hair may grow downwards, that their heads may become black with blackness, while their heads are not a little black.

And they return, when they come away from the other man, while they return to their home; when they have told the other person (the woman) about it, that the other person shall prepare [More] ||hara for them, as well as tto. For he (the man) also goes, (his) wife will go to dress bags for him, bags which he will also bring to the other man; while the other (man's wife) will also put aside ||hara for him, when the other (man) collects ||hara. And the other (man) comes to put aside ||hara for him; while she [the wife of the man who brought the bags] also dresses (and) puts away bags for the other; for, she has told the other (woman) that the other must also bring her ||hara and tto; for she has been to the other, and she will not be coming (soon again) to the other, for, the other must go to her; the other must go to receive the bags, when the other takes tto to her. Therefore, the other one also does so; she takes to the other tto and ||hara.

||hara sparkles; therefore, our heads shimmer, on account of it; while they feel that they sparkle, they shimmer. Therefore, the Bushmen are wont to say, when the old women are talking there: "That man, he is a handsome young man, on account of his head, which is surpassingly beautiful with the ||hara's blackness." They say, "Handsome young man" to him, "His head is surpassingly beautiful; for, his head is like the !khi tree.[1]

It is a tree which is in our country; it is the !khi tree; it is large; (it) is a great tree. They are not a little abundant in our country: the ||Ukerri tree and the khi.

[1. The !khi tree bears berries; and has no thorns.]

 


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