First edition 1911 with 468 pages in very good condition. Binding square and tight. Beside a name of a previous owner on ffep, this copy is clean an unmarked. A few marks on the green cloth pictorial covers' bottom edge.
The book records eighty-seven legends, myths and other traditional stories of the ǀXam Bushmen in their now-extinct language. The stories were collected through interviews with various narrators, chief among them ǀA!kunta, ǁKabbo, Diäǃkwain, !Kweiten-ta-ǀǀKen and ǀHanǂkasso.
These tales were written down and translated by Bleek and his sister-in-law Lloyd. Bleek died in 1875, but Lloyd continued transcribing ǀXam narratives after his death. It is thanks to her efforts that some of the narratives were eventually published in this book, which also includes sketches of rock art attributed to the Bushmen people and some ǃXun narratives.
Specimens of Bushman Folklore has been considered the cornerstone of study of the Bushmen and their religious beliefs. Laurens van der Post describes the book (and Dorothea Bleek's Mantis and His Friend) as "a sort of Stone Age Bible" in the introduction to his book The Heart of the Hunter (1961), a follow-up to The Lost World of the Kalahari. (wikipedia)
- Binding Condition: Very good
- Overall Condition: Very good
- Size: 8vo
