ABSTRACT
The Mantis dreams about the Beetle and tells the Striped Mouse to go into the riverbed to seek Bushman rice' and to fight the Beetle. The Striped Mouse does and makes holes for houses. His wife warns him of the Beetle's approach. Then the Mantis dreamt about it. He spoke to the Striped Mouse about it and told the Striped Mouse that he should hunt at the place from which the Long-Nosed Mice did not return. The Mantis himself gets into a bag before growing feathers and flying through the sky. Bags can act as nuggets. For instance, beyond its narrow denotation, the /Xam word !khau:/ko meant something rather different from what wildebeest to modern English-speakers. The ethnography author now cite, coming as it does from the /Xam and from the Kalahari San, shows that underlying beliefs about the protagonists and intertwining of the material and supernatural realms were expressed in a variety of ways in different San linguistic communities.
