The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-28
FOLKLORE ON THE VELDT.
Curious SuperstitiOns Prevalent
Among the Beers and the Natives.

London Spectator
One of the most remarkable of Cape SUI
perstitions, purely Boer, for the natives
know it only from the Beers, is the strange
properties possessed by the imam met die
helm" One often hears the expression, II
am afraid of So-and-So; he has been born
with the helm" The theory is that GER
tain children are born with an additional
membrane around the skull, and that as
long as they preserve this covering (Which
the nurse carefully removes and dries)
they are able to look into the future and
to possess a kind of second sight. A man
born with a helmet foresees the death of
a near relation by seeing a funeral pro-
cession pass in front of his bedside, and
numerous instances are on record, it is
alleged, of accurate forecastings on the
part of such singularly gifted beings. 1t
is impossible to do more than touch upon
the various beliefs to which the Cape
farmer, indoctrinated as he already is with
a religion that has an unusually mystic
and superstitious catechism, attaches full
faith. To eat the marrow in a sailed bone
is a sure way of producing madness on the
veldt; to look behind ones left shoulder
while crossing a road an equally certain
way of seeing ghosts when the moon is
full. The bald legendary stories of the ma
tives have been encrusted with fanciful ad-
ditions that make them more complicated,
but scarcely add to their beauty. Indeed.
the folklore of the South African Beers is,
like his religion, extremely prosaic. There
are no fairies for him, though there are
"Watergode," water demons who haunt the
dark deeps of some shaded hippopotamus
hole where the nests of the weaver finches
overhang the water.
There is a tinge of ancestral color in the
belief that on old years eve the world
beings analogous to the German "Ko-
bolds,'' creep out to steal the firewood for
their midnight revels. The source of another
belief-namely, that the bowling of a dog
foretells disaster, since the animal sees a
visitor from the neither worlds also easily
traceable; but ii is less easy to- discover
whence arose the curious belief which pre-
walls in certain of the eastern districts OF
the Cape Colony that ii Is unsafe TO cut
short a sneezei From native sources are de-
rived the many superstitious beliefs con-
corning the praying mauts and stick insect
the butcher-bird and the Stanley crane
while the devil-bee the deaths head
MOTH owes its reputation for vindictiveness
to the influence of European teachings
Most of the folklore of the veldt concerns
morbid subjects-death and dying, the al
ready dead, and those about TO die, sickness
and disease, tempest and bad weather, and
dire events The more innocent fables are
4
them are decidedly pleasing.
The k-tales-how the sand lizards
mother would not allow him to be mar
ried, how the jackal christened his chill
dren, and how the balloons got the better
of the tigers-are known TO every BoeI
boy and GIRL and deserve a wider public
for they are thoroughly original and smell
of the veldt Some South African Grimm
is needed to discover and put on record
the many fairy tales Of the Maqua tribes
and the higher Damaras, which are said
to be extremely curious and interesting
Some of them are known to the Beers
but in general the Cape farmer does not
care for such things. He prefers the more
morbid subjects, and leaves the less ex-
| citing episodes to his children. 1t is ex-
tremely rare nowadays to meet a farmer
who has at his fingers ends the details
of the history of the little brother with
| the lame leg" 1.-The iron mouse" or 1.-THE
| crowned snake"-three folk-tales which
were at one time well known. More idely
| spread is the belief in "Ou-paai bully" al
| imaginary person who fulfills a role some
what similar to that of the DOGGY man
| ''Antjie Somers," a woman with a bearG
| who kidnaps naughty children, seems tC
| rest on some historical basis while ''Klaas
| Vaakle," the little man in the red car
| who brings sleep, is obviously a German
| importation that he deserves no place In
| the assembly of purely South African char.
acters of evil and good genii