--- title: Opening — Kaffir folk-lore · full text with trees description: Opening, «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: KAFFIR FOLK-LORE: --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/1/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / Opening # Opening Opening of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole text, 48 sentences and 1110 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. KAFFIR FOLK-LORE:[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") A Selection from the Traditional Tales[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") CURRENT AMONG THE PEOPLE LIVING ON THE EASTERN BORDER OF THE CAPE COLONY[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") WITH COPIOUS EXPLANATORY NOTES.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") BY GEO.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") Mc CALL THEAL, AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF THE COLONIES AND STATES OF SOUTH AFRICA.”[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") SECOND EDITION.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, Le BAS & LOWREY, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") 1886.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") PREFACE.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") Of late years a great deal of interest has been taken in the folklore of uncivilized tribes by those who have made it their business to study mankind.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") It has been found that a knowledge of the traditionary tales of a people is a key to their ideas and a standard of their powers of thought.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") These stories display their imaginative faculties; they are guides to the nature of the religious belief, of the form of government, of the marriage customs, in short, of much that relates to both the inner and the outer life of those by whom they are told.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") These tales also show the relationship between tribes and peoples of different countries and even of different languages.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") They are evidences that the same ideas are common to every branch of the human family at the same stage of progress.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") On this account, it is now generally recognised that in order to obtain correct information concerning an uncivilized race, a knowledge of their folklore is necessary.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") Without this a survey is no more complete than, for instance, a description of the English people would be if no notice of English literature were taken.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") It is with a view of letting the people we have chosen to call Kaffirs describe themselves in their own words, that these stories have been collected and printed.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") They form only a small portion of the folklore that is extant among them, but it is believed that they have been so selected as to leave no distinguishing feature unrepresented.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Though these traditionary tales are very generally known, there are of course some persons who can relate them much better than others.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") The best narrators are almost invariably ancient dames, and the time chosen for story telling is always the evening.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") This is perhaps not so much on account of the evening being the most convenient time, as because such tales as these have most effect when told to an assemblage gathered round a fire circle, when night has spread her mantle over the earth, and when the belief in the supernatural is stronger than it is by day.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Hence it may easily happen that persons may mix much with Kaffirs without even suspecting that they have in their possession a rich fund of legendary lore.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") There is a peculiarity in many of these stories which makes them capable of almost indefinite expansion.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") They are so constructed that parts of one can be made to fit into parts of another, so as to form a new tale.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") In this respect they are like the blocks of wood in the form of cubes with which European children amuse themselves.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Combined in one way they present the picture of a lion, another combination shows a map of Europe, another still, a view of St Paul’s, and so on.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") So with many of these tales.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") They are made up of fragments which are capable of a variety of combinations.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") It will surprise no one to learn that these tales are already undergoing great changes among a very large section of the natives on the border.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Tens of thousands of Kaffirs have adopted the religion of the Europeans, and the facility with which such changes can be made as were alluded to in the last paragraph has encouraged them to introduce ideas borrowed from their teachers.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus with them Satan—of whom they had no conception before the advent of Europeans—is now the prompter to evil, and morals are drawn that never could have entered their heads in days of old.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Their tales are thus a counterpart of the narrators, in possessing an adaptability to growth and a power of conformation to altered circumstances.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") It is necessary to say a few words concerning the care that has been taken to give absolutely not a single sentence in any of these tales that has not come from native sources.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") Most of them have been obtained from at least ten or twelve individuals residing in different parts of the country, and they have all undergone a thorough revision by a circle of natives.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") They were not only told by natives, but were copied down by natives.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") The notes only are my own.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") I have directed the work of others, but have myself done nothing more than was necessary to explain the text.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") For this I can claim to be qualified by an intimate knowledge of the Kaffir people, gained through intercourse with them during a period of twenty years, and while filling positions among them varying from a mission teacher to a border magistrate.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") Most of the tales collected in this book have already appeared in various South African papers and magazines, some as far back as 1874.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") They were arranged for publication in a volume which was to have been issued from the press of the Lovedale Missionary Institution, and the first sheet was already printed, when the disturbances of 1877 took place.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") I was then called away to perform work of a very different kind, and the publication was necessarily suspended.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") The book is now issued, in the hope that it may be found useful, as throwing light upon the mode of life of a people who differ from ourselves in many respects besides degree of civilization.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Geo.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") M. Theal.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") Jan. 1882.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") CONTENTS.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") PAGE Introductory Chapter regarding the Kaffirs 1 The Story of the Bird that made Milk 29 The Story of Five Heads 48 The Story of Tangalimlibo 56 The Story of a Girl who disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane 67 The Story of Simbukumbukwana 72 The Story of Sikulume 78 The Story of Hlakanyana 89 The Story of Demane and Demazana 118 The Story of the Runaway Children; or, the Wonderful Feather 122 The Story of Ironside and his Sister 127 The Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird 133 The Story of the Cannibal Mother and her Children 137 The Story of the Girl and the Mbulu 144 The Story of Mbulukazi 148 The Story of Long Snake 155 The Story of Kenkebe 158 The Story of the Wonderful Horns 169 The Story of the Glutton 172 The Story of the Great Chief of the Animals 176 The Story of the Hare 179 The Story of Lion and Little Jackal 186 Proverbs and Figurative Expressions 191 Notes 207[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") - next →: [Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/) - ↑ back to [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/)