[From The Mantis and His Friends: Bushman Folklore by Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd
[From The Mantis and His Friends: Bushman Folklore by Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd and Dorothea Bleek (1924). See item #35 in the Bibliography. The portrait of the San storyteller ||kabbo is from Bleek and Lloyd’s book Specimens of Bushman Folklore. For a version of this story in literary English, see Chapter 6 of Jenny Seed’s The Bushman’s Dream, #173 in the Bibliography.]
The Mantis caught sight of Will-o-the-Wisp walking about; he asked where Will-o-the-Wisp came from. Will-o-the-Wisp told him that he was hunting about.
While Will-o-the-Wisp was answering him, the Mantis put down his quiver, he took out a knobkerrie, he looked to see where Will-o-the-Wisp’s eyes were.
He asked Will-o-the-Wisp where his eyes might be. Will-o-the-Wisp said that his eyes were not anywhere, and the Mantis asked him how he could walk about like a man who had eyes.
Then the Mantis threatened him, and Will-o-the-Wisp dodged. And the Mantis said, “See now, why did you spring aside when I threatened you? That looks as if you had eyes, you seem to have seen that I meant to beat you.”
And the Mantis searched Will-o-the-Wisp again; again he looked him over, seeking his eyes. And the Mantis told him that he was really going to fight him.
And Will-o-the-Wisp told the Mantis that he might fight him if he wanted to do so.
Then the Mantis threatened him and Will-o-the-Wisp dodged him. And the Mantis told Will-o-the-Wisp that he must have hidden his eyes, for how else could he dodge like a man who had eyes?
Then the Mantis struck at him, and he sprang aside stooping, and the Mantis hit the ground while Will-o-the-Wisp stood on one side. Then the Mantis asked him whether he were a sorcerer, for he did not understand why he did not see his eyes, and Will-o-the-Wisp told him that he had no eyes, yet when he struck him Will-o-the-Wisp dodged away from his stick. He acted like a man who had eyes.
Then Will-o-the-Wisp said, “Now I will fight you,” and he took up the knobkerrie.
The Mantis said, “That was a lie you told just now when you said your eyes were not anywhere. Where are your eyes with which you mean to fight me?” When Will-o-the-Wisp was about to hit him, the Mantis struck at Will-o-the-Wisp; then Will-o-the-Wisp struck him. The Mantis said, “How is it that you have hit my head after telling me you had no eyes?”
Then the Mantis struck at Will-o-the-Wisp again, and he dodged away stooping, and the Mantis hit the ground. And Will-o-the-Wisp hit the Mantis’s head and broke it, and hit it again. And the Mantis sprang aside and ran away because he felt he could not bear it any longer.
Then he called to the quiver and the shoes so that his things should follow him home.
The things came to him at home, and his son-in-law Kwammanga asked him, “Whom have you been fighting, who has broken your head like this?”
And Mantis answered, “Will-o-the-Wisp was the one whom I saw. It was he who did this to me. I was looking for his eyes, I did not know where they could be. So I tried to strike h