Of all the narratives that Dorothea Bleek gathered together for Bantu Studies, Part 7 could be considered the single richest source of insight into |xɑm cosmology. The ideas, concepts and beliefs presented here about ǃgiː (‘magic power, sorcery’, Bleek 1956: 382), ‖keːŋ (‘magic, sorcery’, Bleek 1956: 569) and |kóːöde (‘magic things, magic doings, magic power’, Bleek 1956: 320) characterise the |xɑm world view. These beliefs underlie every other facet of the |xɑm world described in the Bantu Studies series, from the significance of baboons in Part 1 to the speech of animals and the Early Race people in Part 9.

Not surprisingly, Part 7 has the most narratives and is also the longest of all the parts Dorothea prepared for Bantu Studies. Presented by the three main |xɑm narrators – ‖kɑbbo (one narrative), Diäǃkwɑin (fifteen) and |hɑŋǂkɑssʼo (five) – they are rich in the detail of healing practices.

The anatomy of sorcery

The narrators in Part 7 talk about how ǃgiː affects the body. Significantly, the word ǃgiːxɑ (the |xɑm word translated by Bleek and Lloyd as ‘sorcerer’) emphasises the powerful, all-embracing effects of ǃgiː. The word is compounded from ǃgiː, ‘magic power’ (Bleek 1956: 382), and the suffix -xɑ, an ‘ending similar to -ful’ (Bleek 1956: 255), thus meaning ‘full of ǃgiː’. Dorothea Bleek explains her use of the words ‘medicine men’ and ‘sorcerers’ in her introduction to this part in Bantu Studies:

ǃgiː was literally in the blood: it was carried in a sorcerer's |xuttǝn|xuttǝn, translated as ‘blood vessels’, ‘arteries’ and ‘senses’. Diäǃkwɑin mentions a particular artery, the ǃkháũä – the so-called ‘vertebral artery’ – that was the conduit of ǃgiː (see notes to Narrative 7.12).