Heitsi Eibip (Bleek’s Nama Witnesses)

Overview

Bleek prints several accounts under the name Heitsi Eibip, also giving Kabip and Heigeip in particular passages. They are separate collected witnesses, not a single continuous biography. The clearest contest begins with a killer beside a deep hole, inviting passers-by to throw stones at his forehead. In the Knudsen manuscript version, a stone rebounds and kills its thrower, whose body falls into the pit. Heitsi Eibip refuses the invitation. Instead he distracts the man by directing his attention to one side, then strikes him behind the ear. The killer dies and falls into his own hole; the passage closes with peace for the people.

A Krönlein manuscript version names the enemy ǂGã ǂgorip and makes pushing, rather than rebounding stones, the immediate danger. Heitsi Eibip, here also called Heigeip, confronts him and the two chase each other around the opening. The hero is pushed down twice. On both occasions he asks the hole to support him, climbs out and renews the contest. Eventually he pushes the enemy in; this opponent does not return. The ending again describes relief for people formerly threatened. These two forms of the encounter preserve different methods of attack and victory. The second gives the hole an active response that is absent from the first.

The Raisin-Eater, drawn from another Krönlein manuscript passage, sets Heitsi Eibip travelling with his family. He becomes gravely ill in a valley of ripe raisin-trees, tells his son ǃUrisip to cover him with soft stones, and warns that the family will die like him if they eat the fruit. They bury him and move away. Eating and singing are then heard from the direction of his grave. The younger wife sends the son to investigate; he recognizes his father’s footprints. She tells him how to approach without giving himself away in the wind and to cut off the route back to the grave. They catch Heitsi Eibip when he jumps down from the trees and runs towards his burial place.

He asks to be released on the ground that he has been dead and might infect them, but the wife insists that they keep hold of him. Brought home, he is fresh and healthy. The episode represents an apparent death, burial, clandestine return and bodily recovery; it does not explain a universal resurrection mechanism. Bleek’s preceding notice describes repeated deaths and returns, changing appearance and stone offerings at attributed graves, but its water-opening episode has a specific identity problem: a footnote says Knudsen’s informant Petrus Friedrik was later contradicted as to whether Heitsi Eibip was the person meant. That episode is therefore not treated here as an unqualified deed of this hero.

Origins & earliest records

Bleek 1864 tales 36–39: Knudsen’s German Notes on the Hottentots, manuscript p. 7, and Krönlein manuscript p. 36 and pp. 34–35, all identified as Grey Library material. The selected printed attributions do not name individual narrators for the pit or raisin episodes.

Records & interpretation

Complete tales 36–40 and the following notes were read to retain the misplaced-looking but explicitly keyed caveat on tale 36. Knudsen’s water-opening informant is Petrus Friedrik; the note says the hero’s identity was later disputed. Original manuscripts and Alexander comparative quotations were not independently newly inspected.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales

   W. H. I. Bleek, translator and editor; H. C. Knudsen and G. Krönlein, manuscript intermediaries · 1864

   Complete tales 36–39; chapter VII footnotes, especially note 1 excluding an unqualified Heitsi attribution of the water-opening episode.

2. 02

   Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales — VII, tale36 — Heitsi Eibip

   W. H. I. Bleek; source-specific manuscript/earlier collector qualifications in attestations · 1864

   London: Trübner and Co.,1864; selected Gutenberg73413 title-page transcription and originalpublication metadata agree. Tale-number locators retained; digital bracket page markers are not asserted as visually verified printed pagination.

Family, evolution & connections

Heitsi Eibip and !Urisip — Bleek’s Raisin-Eater account

Complete The Raisin-Eater, historical English rendering; underlying Krönlein manuscript not independently inspected.

Explicit named father and son. The unnamed young second wife is not assigned as !Urisip’s mother. No first wife’s name, additional child or maternal ancestor is supplied. The account’s death and recovery are narrative events, not a general biological model.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical translated manuscript narrativeBleek 1864, tale 36Research access: 2026-10-05
2. Historical translated manuscript narrativeBleek 1864, tale 37Research access: 2026-10-05
3. Historical translated manuscript narrativeBleek 1864, tale 38Research access: 2026-10-05
4. Historical translated manuscript narrativeBleek 1864, tale 39Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.