86 MANTID.E — SOOTHSAYERS, ETC. 



liira to spare the creature and give it its liberty. The young 

 German now yielded, and, having let the insect fly, the Hot- 

 tentots jumped and capered and shouted in all the trans- 

 ports of joy; and, running after the animal, rendered it the 

 customary divine honors. But the creature settled upon none 

 of them, and there was not one sainted upon this occasion."^ 



Afterward, Mr. Kolben, discoursing with these Hottentots, 

 took occasion to ask them concerning the utmost limit they 

 carried the belief of the sanctity and avenging spirit of this 

 insect, when they declared to him, that if the German had 

 killed it, all their cattle would certainly have been destroyed 

 by wild beasts, and they themselves, every man, woman, and 

 child of them, brought to a miserable end. That they 

 believed the kraal to be of evil destiny .where this insect is 

 rarely seen. Mr. Kolben asserts that they would sooner 

 give up their lives than renounce the slightest item of their 

 belief.^ 



Dr. Sparrman, a Swedish traveler into the country of the 

 Hottentots and Caffres between the years 1772 and 1779, in 

 speaking of the Mantis, called in his time the " Hottentot's 

 God," denies the above statement of Mr. Kolben, and says 

 the Hottentots are so far from worshiping it, that they sev- 

 eral times caught some of them, and gave them to him to 

 put needles through them, by way of preserving them, in the 

 same manner as he did with the other insects. But there is, 

 he adds, a diminutive species of this insect, which some thiuk 

 would be a crime, as well as very dangerou's, to do any 

 harm to, but that it was only a superstitious notion, and 

 not any kind of religious worship.^ 



Dr. Thunberg, who traveled in South Africa about the 

 same time as Dr. Sparrman, corroborates the latter's state- 

 ment, and says he could see no reason for the supposition 

 that the Hottentots worshiped the Mantis, but, he adds, it 

 certainly was held in some degree of esteem, so that they 

 would not willingly hurt, and deemed that person a creature 

 fortunate on which it settled, though without paying it any 

 sort of adoration.* 



Dr. Yanderkemp, in his account of Cafifraria, after de- 

 scribing the Mantis, says that the natives call it oumloani- 

 zoulou, the Child of Heaven, and adds that "the Hotten- 



1 Pres. St. of the C. of Good Hope, i. 101-2. 2 jf^id, 



3 Trav., i. 150. * Ibid., ii. Go. 



I 



