Mantis Trickster-Creator
San · deity · First Times / the Early Race · Recorded classification
Classed as deity (the term 'trickster-creator' is descriptive; per the schema constraint, type=deity). The ǀXam name is rendered with click symbols (ǀ = dental click); ASCII Bleek–Lloyd convention writes '/Kaggen'. 'Cagn' is the Maloti/Drakensberg San form recorded by Orpen from the narrator Qing. Wife = the Dassie (san_kaggen not given a separate Dassie entry); son-in-law = san_kwammanga.
Children
Domains
- creation
- the eland
- trickery and transformation
Powers
- changes his shape between mantis, eland, hare, snake and vulture
- brings creatures and things into being by dreaming and by his will
- restores and revives the eland he has made
Epithets
- ǀKaggen The Mantis; the trickster-creator who made the eland and the moon (ǀXam San)Bleek & Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman Folklore (secondary)
- Cagn the Mantis (Maloti-Drakensberg form recorded from the narrator Qing)J. M. Orpen, 'A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen,' Cape Monthly Magazine (1874) (primary)
Relations
- spouse: the DassieReciprocal of san_dassie.spouse (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)
- companion: Rainbow Being, Son-in-Law of the MantisSon-in-law and household-mate of the Mantis through the adopted Porcupine; no in-law kind exists, so given as companion.Bleek, The Mantis and His Friends: Bushman Folklore (1923) (primary)
Sources
- ǀKaggen is the trickster-creator of the southern San (especially the ǀXam), most often manifest as a praying mantis, credited with making the world and the eland.: Orpen, J.M., 'A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen', Cape Monthly Magazine 9 (1874) (primary); Bleek, W.H.I. & Lloyd, L.C., 'Specimens of Bushman Folklore' (1911) (primary); Guenther, M., 'Tricksters and Trancers: Bushman Religion and Society' (1999) (secondary)