From South African |Xam Bushman Traditions and Their Relationships to Further Khoisan Folklore by Sigrid Schmidt. This is the only picture I could find of her online; her work is absolutely remarkable. She was born in 1930, and as near as I can tell, she is still alive. I feel very lucky that she publishes extensively in English.
Of the sections in Schmidt's book, the most interesting for me is the part she labels as "IKaggen the Fool," and I think I will draw all my stories from that part, which will also be a fun way to illustrate the idea of theme and variation, since all the stories share a similar framework; Schmidt's discussion of that framework is so helpful for looking at tricksters in general, and I am really glad to have acquired this book.
The basic cycle is that Mantis goes out, does something audacious, and gets trounced. He then gets advice some someone (his son or another younger character), goes back and tries again and, victorious, brags that he actually knew how to do that all along.
Schmidt also has some fascinating observations about mythical tricksters (of whom Mantis is certainly one) and more modern-day tricksters like the Jackal; for example, the mythical trickster stories are based on the trickster's actions, while the modern trickster stories often feature more dialogue because the modern trickster's power often resides in his use of language. When it comes to the mythical trickster-as-fool, Schmidt notes a kind of split between the story-trickster and the mythical trickster as a manifest power in the world: "They tell the tales of the old one without restraint, say his name aloud, howl and roll on the ground with laughter at his humiliations, whereas, when they speak of the great one, they whisper and avoid his name. yet they think that somehow in the rightness of things these two beings must be one, so one they are said to be." Schmidt notes that the Devil as medieval fool and the Devil as cosmic enemy can be seen as a similar development (I agree! very throught-provoking stuff).
Schmidt lists all the variations on IKaggen the fool as "3b" in her index which is then subdivided as follows, with asterisks for the ones I think I will use:
1 IKaggen and the Cat. Since we don't know (?) what trick IKaggen used to defeat the cat, this story won't work, although I will check out the bibliographical references here later (Lewis-Williams sounds promising!) in order to see if we do perhaps know more about this story.
**2 IKaggen and Eyes-on-his-Feet. This is such a cool, weird story. It's in Seed's book, and I know I want to use this one. The man appears to be able to see but he has no eyes in his head. Mantis tries to deceive him (stealing the best meat in one version), but the man sees him and beats him. Then son-in-law Kwammanga-a (whom I guess I'll call Rainbow-Man) tells him the man has eyes between his big toe and the next toe, so Mantis should throw dust at the man's feet, and then he can win. "I let you beat me up just to see what you were capable of," he claims. There is also the motif of his possessions flying home separately, but I'll try to include that in another story; there aren't any tools or other possessions that are relevant here. Perhaps a connection here between sinister ogre who lures people at night with a big fire, and he then fries and eats them: Eyes-on-his-Feet becomes name for this ogre.
3 IKaggen and the Meerkats (Suricates). This story goes better with the story of Mantis the creator, so I'm not going to try to use the trickster part here.
*4 IKaggen and the Ticks. I really like this one! The version in Seed's book has the more mystical and epic ending, but there is also a more basic trickster version. Mantis went to steal sheep from the Tick people, but the Ticks saw him coming and hid in the wool. When he stole a sheep, the jumped out and beat him. He grabbed some feathers and flew away. Rainbow (or Ichnuemon) told him to avoid the Ticks, but if he really insisted on stealing from them, there is a trick for taking the sheep. This version does not say what the trick is! In the mystical version, Mantis then has a dream: he dreams that all the sheep come. In the morning, all the things were there, as he had dreamed. I could use this story as the final one, moving in the direction of Mantis not just as fool but as supernatural being.
5 iKwammang-a Visited "the Other One". This is a weird one, and the woman antagonist is a human character apparently, not an animl, so I'll skip this one.
*6 IKaggen and Cagn. These are Maluti Bushman tales (Cagn is Mantis's name).
a Cagn and the Eagle. In this one Mantis transforms into a bull eland.
b Cagn, the Cagn-cagn and the Ants. This one is pretty cool because Cagn actually gets killed and eaten and son Cogaz must restore him from bones; then he gives advice about how to defeat the dwarves (are they ants?).
c Cagn and the "Thing" in the River. This is the best one, and there is a IXam tale where it is a tortoise in the river, so I could tel lthis one using the tortoise.
**7 IKaggen and Mother Proteles. This is a great one where Rainbow goes to visit Aardwolf, but Mantis is not supposed to come. Mantis sneaks along, and sees Mother Aardwolf gives Rainbow a young aardwolf to eat. Mantis is greedy, comes back, asks for another; she holds one out, but then grabs him and throws him into the fire. He flew away into the water to save himself. Rainbow then explains to Mantis that this is what she does to those who are greedy. She is a Guardian of Nature. Mantis himself can act as Guardian of Nature with regard to the eland, but here it is a female Guardian.
**8 iKaggen and the Magic Bird. This is another one about greed. This magic bird is like an ostrich. Mantis shot her, but arrow bounced off. She agreed to let him have one egg, but he took all. Then the egg stuck to his mouth and the net stuck to his back, and his drinking brush (they use animal-hair brushes to drink instead of cups). Ichneumon gradnson explained that he can take one egg only. Mantis went back without everything stuck to his body. Everything dropped off his body, and he took the one egg allowed.
**9 IKaggen and the Korotwiten Bird. This bird (perhaps the formicovora, ant-wren?) taught Mantis to dive into holes and get out ant larvae without digging. He annointed Mantis with sweat which gave him this power. Then Mantis threw away all his tools because he thought he would not need them. But Mantis refused to share with the bird as they had greed. Then the bird made the ground hard so Mantis broke his head when he tried to get the ant larvae. This one is in Seed's book also.
10 IKaggen and Ku-te-gaua. Another imitation story, this time about jumping through a fire to seize wildcat skins. Very similar to the preceding story, but instead of breaking his head, Mantis gets burned.
11 A Visit to the Lions' House. Rainbow and Ichneumon go to visit the lions; they don't want to take Mantis, but he hides in a bag. He flew home and said son-in-law and grandson eaten by lions, but they came home with meat and were very angry at Mantis for his bad behavior.
a Child Notices Eye of Person Hidden in Bag/Bundle.
b iKaggen's Magic Flight.
Schmidt explores these components of the story in great detail with lots of parallels from other African folktales.
12 IKaggen and iKwammang-a Visited the Bees. Complex story with lots of characters; this is the one that culminates with stones rolling down so that Mantis was badly hurt (very nice version of this one in Seed's book). Too many characters involved for my purposes.
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