A prayer of the San bushmen, calling to the Moon to assist the hunter the following day. In the prayer the hunter describes how he will steal the yolk of an ostrich’s egg while the ostrich is actually sitting on the nest.
To do this the hunter must creep up behind the ostrich without being noticed, crack the shell of an egg within the nest and scoop out the yolk without being detected. For this amazing piece of hunting, he will use a brush made of the tail hairs of a Gemsbok antelope.
Ho moon lying there,
Let me early tomorrow see an ostrich;
As the ostrich sits on the eggs,
Let me whisk out the yolk
With a gemsbok tail hair
Which sits together upon a little stick
Upon which the gemsbok tail sits.
from Oral Poetry from Africa 1984
compiled by Jack Mapanje and Landeg White,
Longman
