Based on the articles published in the 1930s by Dorothea Bleek in the journal Bantu Studies, this revised and expanded edition brings together a wide range of |xam beliefs and key narratives as told to Bleek and Lloyd by |xam teachers.

Jeremy Hollmann is is a rock art specialist and an honorary research associate at the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has worked extensively with the Bleek and Lloyd Collection over the past 20 years, using the |xam testimony as an inspiration and source for exploring the meanings of southern African rock art.

More than 125 years ago, a remarkable group of people came together in Cape Town to write down the language and beliefs of the |xam people, a Bushman group that once lived over much of South Africa. The immensely valuable work of Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd and their |xam teachers not only preserved a language now no longer spoken, but also provided fascinating insights into |xam cosmology. First published in 2004, Customs and Beliefs of the |xam reproduces Dorothea Bleek's selection of |xam narratives from the well-known Bleek and Lloyd Collection that was originally published in the journal Bantu Studies during the 1930s. Collated and edited by Jeremy Hollman, the extracts include detailed notes on each of the narratives, as well as Bleek's 'sketch' of |xam grammar.
This substantially revised second edition integrates new scholarship on the Bleek and Lloyd archive, and restores previously omitted material. The introduction to each narrative has been expanded to contextualise it within the archive as a whole and, where relevant, reference it to the Notebook of which it is a part. This includes meticulous cross-referencing with the Bleek and Lloyd Collection catalogue code and the Notebook number and line reference. Each of the texts has also been critically reassessed, with additional editorial notes and commentaries, in particular with respect to the |xam words themselves and the ways in which they have been translated. A synopsis of each narrative is provided in an appendix, with cross references to the Bleek and Lloyd notebooks.
Customs and Beliefs of the |xam, second edition, is an in-depth, detailed and authoritative resource that will be invaluable to scholars, heritage workers and activists alike.

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction to the second edition
Contributors to Customs and Beliefs of the |xam
|xam speech
People in the notebooks

PART 1 BABOONS
The baboon narratives
Baboons and the Early Race
Special powers of baboons
Respecting baboons
Narratives

PART 2 THE LION
Lions are people too
The extraordinary powers of lions
Respect for lions
Lions and sorcery
Narratives


PART 3 GAME ANIMALS
Respecting the game
The potency of game animals
Narratives

PART 4 OMENS, WINDMAKING, CLOUDS
Relationships with the wind
Winking
The wind
Narratives

PART 5 RAIN
!khw and the rain
The riders of the rain
!khw and women
Respecting the rain
Taking care of the community
Narratives

PART 6 RAINMAKING
Fetching the rain
Hilltops: places of power
Angry rainmakers
Narratives

PART 7 SORCERORS
The anatomy of sorcery
Relations between !gi t n and ordinary people
The |nu !k e, the spirit people
Narratives

PART 8 MORE ABOUT SORCERORS AND CHARMS
The breaking of the string
The old woman and the chameleon
Vegetable medicines and charms
Narratives

PART 9 SPECIAL SPEECH OF ANIMALS AND MOON
The Early Race
Storytelling
Narratives

APPENDIX 1: DOROTHEA F. BLEEK'S BUSHMAN GRAMMAR
Introduction by Tom Güldemann
|xam Bushman Grammar by Dorothea Bleek

APPENDIX 2: SUMMARY OF THE NARRATIVES

REFERENCES

INDEX