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The riches of the tribe: cattle were the San's life and currency - care, passion and still-to-be-understood mysticism went into the paintings. Note on the wall behind Frans (right) the ghost-like figures: the popular, but by no means exclusive belief is that these figures depict the power of the Shaman who were believed to control the movement of wild animals with their supposed supernatural powers, driving them into the path of the hunter-gatherers. | ||||||
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Frans Prins - an enthusiastic guide | ||||||||||
THE HERD | ||||||||||
When San Shamans wished to control the movements of animals they became antelopes by wearing symbolic clothing in the image of an eland and carrying potent divining switches made from a tail. Their faces were adorned with tusk-like protuberances and their power was derived from the Great Dance which induced a state of trance from which they created the power to cure sickness, wounds and all other ills which may have beset the tribe. The dance may still be seen today in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana and Namibia. Now go to CLEOPATRA | ||||||||||
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