Structure, Meaning and Ritual in the Narratives of the Southern San. Roger Hewitt

were not doing anything unusual as such (although this may have been another example of the stupidity of this early race) but the younger brother had acted foolishly, firstly in hunting alone, and secondly by only using ostrich bones which were too light to kill a lion. According to |Hang ǂkass'o he should have used either an elephant’s thigh bone or the bone of a giraffe. There is no record of such bones being used by the |Xam in any way connected with lions⁴ (for example as defensive weapons) although they were commonly used for hunting and to this extent some educational value might be attached to the story. It remains, however, primarily a probably fairly hair-raising adventure story told for entertainment rather than instruction.

      The range of socially motivated fictional accretions which narratives (both with and without factual foundations) may have is no doubt very large but one final example of the role which legends about human characters can perform is the story of the old woman whose family was forced to abandon her when their food and water supply could not support them all. Her success in killing the hyena which came to attack her, and in eating it and thereby gaining the strength to follow after her family, possibly represented a narrative expression of the fears connected with institutionalised geriatricide while offering an albeit far-fetched possibility for hope. A narrative which gives expression to the necessarily internalised feelings aroused by such practices obviously has a role to play in making them acceptable.