Bushmen Curios

Hunting Equipment

BOW AND ARROW HUNTING EQUIPMENT

The hunting bow is approximately 1 meter long with a bowstring made of the rolled spinal sinew of a large antelope. The hunting arrow is probably the most intricate implement of the Bushman. It consists of two parts: the point and the shaft. The point has three components: a metal component, a connection shaft of wood or bone and the binding reed - a piece of grass that ties the first two components together. Arrow points of bone are presently scarce, today they are made of wire. The metal points vary from 7 to 12 cm in length with a point, which is hammered flat and grinned into a triangular shape. The arrow poison, which is mainly used these days, comes from the larva of the beetles of the Chrysomelidae family. The arrows are carried in quivers that are normally made of the root of an acacia tree. When the root is heated, the bark expands, loosens itself from the pith of the root which is then removed from the bark. The sides of the quiver are covered in a sleeve of skin, which shrinks firmly around the quiver when it dries out. In the quiver there is a repair kit and fire rod. The former is a rod with viscous resin which, when heated, can be used as a paste to repair arrows. The traditional method of making a fire is with two sticks. A hard stick is held between the hands and drilled quickly into the hollow of a soft stick, which is gripped with the feet. This causes heat and soft grass is used as tinder.

BOWBAG

The Bushman hunter's quiver, bow, digging stick, knife and little axe are normally carried in a special bag. The bag is made of the complete hide of a steenbok. By cleaning the skin, all inside is taken out through the backpart and turned inside out. Tying the skins of the foreleg and hindleg together makes carrying straps. The javelin is fastened on the outside of the bag.

CHOP-CHOP / AXES

The Bushmen are considered as the oldest living inhabitants of Southern Africa. Excavations have indicated that they had been there at least 10 000 years ago. Stone and bone utensils have also been found. The past 200 years after the Bushmen came into contact with iron, they made utensils and weapons such as knives, axes (the chop-chop), javelins and arrow points of iron. The chop-chop is used for woodcarving and to chop wood for fire. The women use the chop-chop to dig for food in the sand.

SPEAR

The Bushmen are considered the oldest living inhabitants of Southern Africa. Excavations have indicated that they had been there at least 10 000 years ago. Stone and bone utensils have also been found. The past 200 years after the Bushmen came into contact with iron, they made utensils and weapons such as knives, axes (the chop-chop), javelins and arrow points of iron. The spear tip is made out of any piece available iron and shaped using heat and a hammer or an axe. After being formed, the tip is burned into the shaft, and the joint is strengthened with a sinew binding. The spear is used to kill big game when it has become weak after poisoning.

KNIVES

The Bushmen are considered as the oldest living inhabitants of Southern Africa. Excavations have indicated that they had been there at least 10 000 years ago. Stone and bone utensils have also been found. The past 200 years after the Bushmen came into contact with iron, they made utensils and weapons such as knives, axes (the chop-chop), javelins and arrow points of iron. The blade of the knife is made of iron, which is heated and the patiently hammered into the right shape. Afterwards the blade is burned into the handle. The knife is used for purposes such as slaughtering animals, skinning and making leatherwork, cooking, etc.

POISON CONTAINER (penduline tit's nest)

The extraordinarily interesting little nest of the penduline tit bird is used to store things that should not get wet, like tobaco or un-used poison pupae. The nest itself is built by the penduline tit bird and made of wild cotton and animal hairs. It is soft and so strong that it is very difficult to pull apart it and it is completely waterproof. There are two explanations for why the nest has two compartments, depending on who tells the story. According to the one story the big compartment is for the female, the eggs and the young birds while the male rests undisturbed in the small compartment. According to the other story the small compartment is to trick enemies like snakes. When the snake finds nothing in the small compartment, it will leave the nest thinking it is empty. The arrow poison presently used comes from the larva of the beetle of the Chrysomelidae species. The poisonous larva is dug out 30 cm under the plants on which the beetles live. The larva is removed from the cocoon after the head or the forelegs are pinched off, the contents are squeezed out into a bone container, which is formed out of the hollow of an animal joint, or a container that is made out of wood and covered with a leather lid. The contents are mixed with saliva and thorn-tree resin. It is then daubed with a stick onto the arrow shaft immediately behind the barbs of the point. The poison should also be squeezed out into a container where it gets hard. When necessary, it could be ground fine in the container and mixed with saliva. The hunters sometimes store the cocoons for months in a horn container lined with down or a birds nest before the contents are squeezed out and used.

Music Instruments

DANCING RATTLE

The dancing rattle is used by the men and put around their legs while dancing. The monotonous sound of the song and the clapping of women, together with the stressed rhythm from the dancing rattle help the men to go into a trance.

QUASI

The quasi, a musical instrument used by the Bushmen. It is made of a hollowed tree trunk with rolled sinew strings tied to little sticks fixed inside the trunk.

Quasi, Rattle & Thumbpiano

RATTLE

The rattle, a musical instrument used by the Bushmen, is made of the fruit of the Strychnos spinosa. The inside of the fruit is eaten and then filled with seeds and sealed.

THUMBPIANO

Bushmen play the thumbpiano for pleasure when sitting around the fire. They also play it when walking long distances. Here the thumbpiano helps keep up a pace of 3 - 4 km an hour. The keys are made of fence wire; the board is made of wood, often decorated. The thumbpiano can be tuned by moving the individual keys in or out. It is held in the palms of both hands and played with the thumbs.

DRUMS

Drums are relatively new musical instruments and are made out of tree roots. They are then decorated with drawings.

Beads and Bushman Jewellery

	BEADS AND BRACELETS Bushman women are fond of ornaments and even newborn babies normally wear strings of beads around their ankles, wrists and necks. Natural objects such as pieces of roots, reeds, porcupine quills, horns, tambotie wood and seeds are used. But the most important Bushman ornaments consist of small flat round beads made of ostrich eggshell. These beads are threaded into softened sinews to make bracelets, girdles and headdress, or they are sewn onto pieces of clothing. Presently use is made increasingly of modern glass beads.

BELTS

Bushman women nowadays makes belts of eggshell, glass beads, leather or Tambotie wood as a gift for their husbands.

BUSHMAN POWDER-BOXES

The Bushmen make a perfume container out of a tortoise shell. The decorated shell of a small tortoise is worn with a string around the neck or waist of Bushman women. It contains a fragrant powder, which is made of various plants and roots. Each woman uses her own special mixture. At the bottom where the hindlegs come out, the holes are blocked with a mixture of dung and gum from a tree. The Bushmen use a soft bird's nest, a piece of skin or the switch of a rabbit to rub the powder on the body.

EARRINGS

The men make this typical piece of Bushmen jewelry as gifts for their wives or girlfriends. The earrings are made from wire, pieces of wood, beads and eggshell.

HEADBANDS

Bushman women are fond of ornaments and even newborn babies normally wear strings of beads around their ankles, wrists and necks. Natural objects such as pieces of roots, reeds, porcupine quills, horns, tambotie wood and seeds are used. But the most important Bushman ornaments consist of small flat round beads made of ostrich eggshell. These beads are threaded into softened sinews to make bracelets, girdles and headdress, or they are sewn onto pieces of clothing. Presently use is made increasingly of modern glass beads.

OSTRICH EGGSHELL BEADS

Small pieces of shell are made more or less round by tapping it with a piece of horn or metal. A stone is used as an anvil. A hole is drilled through the centre of the beads and they are then stringed into a rolled sinew thread until they fit tight against each other, they are then rubbed with a brittle stone on the person's thigh.

CURIO TIES, RINGS AND CHOCKER

Clothing

CHI-CLOTHE

The Bushman babies go naked with merely beads around their arms, legs and neck. Older children wear an apron of hide, the chi-cloth. The apron is made of the soft skin of duiker or steenbok and decorated with ostrich eggshell beads, tassels and coloured glass beads. The strings are tied on the back so that the apron covers the front for modesty. Even though western clothing is more and more in use amongst the Bushmen today, the girls often wear their loin apron underneath.

DANCING DRESS

Women and girls use dancing skirts. The skirt is wrapped around the back, covering the buttocks and fastened in front with two strings made of leather. In the past this dress was used by all women and was the traditional dress amongst the Bushmen. Today the dress is mostly worn for dancing or ceremonies. The dress is usually made of springbok skin. Immediately after being skinned, the hide of the antelope is stretched out to dry, with the hairy side under. When it has dried out, the hair is removed with the aid of a metal, wood or stone scraper. After this the skin is buried wet under the sand in order to become soft and thereafter it is prepared by hand. Animal fat or bone marrow is used to ease the preparation by hand. After this the hide is sometimes tinted redbrown with the juice of Elephantorrhiza burchellii. The soft hide is cut into the desired shapes and then sewn together with sinew threads and wire awls. The women then decorate the finished piece of clothing by sewing multicolored bead designs on it.

SANDALS

Sandals give protection against the hot burning sand of the Kalahari. The sandals are normally made of a piece of gemsbok (oryx) hide. It is the strongest leather found in the area.

SHONA

The shona is the Bushmen's "trousers". The shona is made of steenbok or duiker skin and put on from the front with the smaller part between the buttocks to the back. The loose ends are then tied together at the back. The edges of the shona are often decorated with glass beads or ostrich eggshell. Western trousers nowadays replace the shona. The shona is still used when hunting.