savage and Hellenic legends of this character. The Bushman myth about the origin of the eland (a large antelope) is not printed in full by Dr. Bleek, but he observes that it "gives an account of the reasons for the colours of the gemsbok, hartebeest, eland, quagga, and springbok."[1] Speculative Bushmen seem to have been puzzled to account for the wildness of the eland. It would be much more convenient if the eland were tame and could be easily captured. They explain its wildness by saying that the eland was "spoiled" before Cagn, the Mantis-insect and creator, or rather maker of most things, had quite finished it. Cagn's relations came and hunted the first eland too soon, after which all other elands grew wild. Cagn then said, "Go and hunt them and try to kill one; that is now your work, for it was you who spoilt them."[2] The Bushmen have another myth explanatory of the white patches on the breasts of crows in their country. Some men tarried long at their hunting, and their wives sent out crows in search of their husbands. Round each crow's neck was hung a piece of fat to serve as food on the journey. Hence the crows have white patches on breast and neck.
In Australia the origins of nearly all animals appear to be explained in myths, of which a fair collection is printed in Mr. Brough Smyth's Aborigines of Victoria.[3] Why is the crane so thin? Once he was a man named Kar-ween, the second man
- ↑ Brief Account of Bushmen Folk-Lore, p. 7.
- ↑ Cape Monthly Magazine, July 1874.
- ↑ Vol. i. p. 426 et seq.
