DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0134
Rites of transition and the conception of !Nau among the Hottentots
79
Hannah said none of the people who had treated him so far had had the disease badly
enough, hence all the attempted cures had failed. It is interesting to note here that this
Inomi heip has to be treated with great deference. It is the root, which is astringent,
(somewhat like ginger), which is used. When a person comes to the bush, before digging
he must put down a bracelet, or a bead, or some little thing. If he fails to do so, the
root will simply disappear. Later, if he divides it among his friends, the same process
takes place; each must give some little thing for the piece received. I was warned to
do the same when I received a piece lest all the virtue leave the root, even if it did not
itself wholly disappear.
However it may be with the ‘ sacramental ’ meal, the purification meal certainly takes
place when the fire is cleaned away and renewed. The reintroduction to the duties of
life also takes place in the usual manner.
Peter Kolben, writing at the beginning of the 18th century, states that “if a Hotten-
tot, man or woman, recovers of a dangerous sickness, ‘ andersmaken ’ is performed by
killing, for the entertainment of the kraal, a head of great or small cattle, according to
the circumstances of the family ”30. This may be a feast similar to the one in which
all partake when the oayais leaves her kharu 6ms.
The purification of the survivors after a death. The series of rites connected with
death have perhaps undergone more disintegration than any of the others described.
They have been telescoped, as it were, into one another, so that often enough as many
of them as remain are all carried out on the same day, after the burial is over. The old
writers, of whom Kolben is the earliest and the most detailed on this point, state quite
definitely that the hut of a deceased person was left standing with all the belongings, and
that the camp or kraal was moved. My informers state that in the earlier days of their
recollection the hut was always moved to some other part of the camp, whereas nowadays
the hut as a rule is not moved at all. Several deaths occurred while I was at Walfish
Bay, and one while I was in Berseba, and in none of these cases was the hut moved. Yet
where an animal is to be had the feast takes place, and in any case the cleansing is
done even now. After a death not only the immediate relatives are affected, but also the
larger family circle, and there are interesting things to note in each case. If it is a husband
who has died, the wife becomes !nau, but his relatives, brothers, sisters, parents, have also
to perform certain rites before the ceremonial meal, and in a lesser degree all members of
the kraal who take part in the proceedings. It will be as well to describe these purifica-
tion rites before attending to the widow.
When the people come back from the grave, they all wash their hands in cold water
30 Kolben’s Hottentots. A translation from the High German by Medley,2 London, 1738, p. 313. (The High
German version is itself a translation of P. Kolbe, Caput Bonae Spei hodiernum, Nuremberg, 1719).
79
Hannah said none of the people who had treated him so far had had the disease badly
enough, hence all the attempted cures had failed. It is interesting to note here that this
Inomi heip has to be treated with great deference. It is the root, which is astringent,
(somewhat like ginger), which is used. When a person comes to the bush, before digging
he must put down a bracelet, or a bead, or some little thing. If he fails to do so, the
root will simply disappear. Later, if he divides it among his friends, the same process
takes place; each must give some little thing for the piece received. I was warned to
do the same when I received a piece lest all the virtue leave the root, even if it did not
itself wholly disappear.
However it may be with the ‘ sacramental ’ meal, the purification meal certainly takes
place when the fire is cleaned away and renewed. The reintroduction to the duties of
life also takes place in the usual manner.
Peter Kolben, writing at the beginning of the 18th century, states that “if a Hotten-
tot, man or woman, recovers of a dangerous sickness, ‘ andersmaken ’ is performed by
killing, for the entertainment of the kraal, a head of great or small cattle, according to
the circumstances of the family ”30. This may be a feast similar to the one in which
all partake when the oayais leaves her kharu 6ms.
The purification of the survivors after a death. The series of rites connected with
death have perhaps undergone more disintegration than any of the others described.
They have been telescoped, as it were, into one another, so that often enough as many
of them as remain are all carried out on the same day, after the burial is over. The old
writers, of whom Kolben is the earliest and the most detailed on this point, state quite
definitely that the hut of a deceased person was left standing with all the belongings, and
that the camp or kraal was moved. My informers state that in the earlier days of their
recollection the hut was always moved to some other part of the camp, whereas nowadays
the hut as a rule is not moved at all. Several deaths occurred while I was at Walfish
Bay, and one while I was in Berseba, and in none of these cases was the hut moved. Yet
where an animal is to be had the feast takes place, and in any case the cleansing is
done even now. After a death not only the immediate relatives are affected, but also the
larger family circle, and there are interesting things to note in each case. If it is a husband
who has died, the wife becomes !nau, but his relatives, brothers, sisters, parents, have also
to perform certain rites before the ceremonial meal, and in a lesser degree all members of
the kraal who take part in the proceedings. It will be as well to describe these purifica-
tion rites before attending to the widow.
When the people come back from the grave, they all wash their hands in cold water
30 Kolben’s Hottentots. A translation from the High German by Medley,2 London, 1738, p. 313. (The High
German version is itself a translation of P. Kolbe, Caput Bonae Spei hodiernum, Nuremberg, 1719).