Notes on Namaqualand Bushmen. 
117 
near the fire, suddenly she hit him on the one ear with such force that 
the blood shot out of the other ear. She then battered his head so 
that the brains came out, adding, " Throw him to the aasvogels (vul- 
tures) so that they can eat him. I am satisfied. I have had revenge 
of my husband." 
Bushmen children have no set games. They imitate their elders in the 
use of the bow and arrow, shooting birds, mice, and lizards, which they 
roast and eat. They hunt for lizard eggs, which they find in holes in the 
ground, and gobble the contents. They imitate the sounds made by 
animals, but never play any game like other children. They will also try 
to straighten the reeds (which they use for arrows) by means of a stone 
implement heated in the fire (5). This stone is long and flat in shape, 
and has a central groove running through the whole length, into which 
the reed is pressed with stones, thus straightening the reed in an 
effectual way. 
The Bushmen believe that they will rise again after death, and for 
this reason they bury their dead in a sitting position, so as to enable them 
to get up easily and walk to a certain mountainous place near the lower 
part of the Orange Eiver, called by them Koegas," where there is sup- 
posed to be plenty of wild honey and locusts. Those who have been 
quarrelsome and have behaved badly in their lifetime towards their 
friends will have common flies (house flies) to eat as a punishment for 
their bad behaviour; the good and favoured ones have wild honey and 
locust porridge to eat — doubtless two highly appreciated delicacies. 
Bushmen are very superstitious. In the evening they never talk about 
any dangerous wild animals such as lions and leopards, because doing 
so would be taken for a bad omen, and these animals would come and eat 
them during the night. 
The Bushmen believe that the vermin — jackals, wild cats, and like 
animals, even lions — were formerly some kind of human beings, and were 
transformed by witchcraft into wild animals ; this was their punishment 
for some bad act done by them once upon a time. These beliefs have 
been handed down for generations — perhaps centuries — from father to 
son. They believe that there was in the early days an evil person or 
devil who always quarrelled with the others, and was always trying to 
pick a quarrel for the slightest reason. One day this evil person or devil 
went out into the veld. He met a wild cat who was quietly walking 
about by himself hunting for game, and who, whilst so doing, had a 
habit of calling a certain name, " No'can no'chabd." As soon as the 
devil heard him call that name, he said, " Oh, that is why my brother 
is so sickly, because you are always using this name in vain. How dare 
you do that ? " 
* The name is, of course, reproduced here phonetically. 
