Part one — the premiere of a new shelf. Three tales of the ǀXam people of the Kalahari from Specimens of Bushman Folklore (London, 1911), the record Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd made from ǀXam narrators in the 1870s — heard in the editors' own English translation, read as printed. In The Children Are Sent to Throw the Sleeping Sun into the Sky, the Sun is a man whose light shines only from his armpit as he lies sleeping, and the children creep up, take hold of him all together, and throw him up into the sky, telling him to become altogether the Sun, so that the whole earth will be bright and the Bushman rice will dry. In The Girl of the Early Race, Who Made Stars, a girl of the first people throws wood ashes into the sky to make the Milky Way, and then the red huin roots that become the stars. And in The Son of the Wind, a boy rolling a ball to his playmate must never speak the other one's name aloud — until the day the hut stands sheltered, when he cries it out, and the Wind falls down and blows the people's huts away. The episode opens and closes with its theme, LOVE, heard also briefly between the stories.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters
0:38 The Children Are Sent to Throw the Sleeping Sun into the Sky
10:45 The Girl of the Early Race, Who Made Stars
16:30 The Son of the Wind
Thirteen more of the book's tales are not read on this shelf, each excluded by name after a full reading: !Gaunu-Tsaxau, the Baboons, and the Mantis · The Story of the Leopard Tortoise · The Origin of Death · #Kagára and !Haunu, Who Fought Each Other with Lightning · The Hyena's Revenge (both versions) · The Lion Jealous of the Voice of the Ostrich · The Mason Wasp and His Wife · The Young Man of the Ancient Race, Who Was Carried Off by a Lion · The Girl's Story; The Frogs' Story · The Man Who Ordered His Wife to Cut Off His Ears · The #Nerru and Her Husband · The Death of the Lizard. Three items stand held for a later ruling and are not read here: The Mantis Assumes the Form of a Hartebeest · !Ko-g!nuing-tara, Wife of the Dawn's-Heart Star · the Appendix tales. One item, What the Stars Say, and a Prayer to a Star, is a prayer and stands parked. Five clean tales are held on the bench for Part 2: The Resurrection of the Ostrich · The Vultures, Their Elder Sister, and Her Husband · Dai-Xerreten, the Lioness, and the Children · A Woman of the Early Race and the Rain Bull · The Great Star !Gaunu. The book's songs and its history and customs sections are not tales and are not read on this shelf. No claim of completeness for the book is made.
From Specimens of Bushman Folklore by W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd (London, 1911), public domain — the editors' English translation, read as printed. The tales were told by the ǀXam narrators ǁkabbo, Dia!kwain, ǀa!kunta, !Kweiten ta ǁken and ǀhan≠kasso; the third tale ǀhan≠kasso had from his mother, ǂabbi-an. The principal narrators were prisoners at the Breakwater Convict Station, released into the Bleek household's custody; it was there that they taught their language and told these stories. Narrated by Scratch. Theme: LOVE.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
