Echoes of the Dunes - The Young Man of the Ancient Race

Title:  The Gaze
Size: 70cm x 90cm
Charcoal on Paper
Framed in White Wood Frame
Available from Fine Art Gallery, Swakopmund, Namibia

THE YOUNG MAN OF THE ANCIENT RACE, WHO WAS CARRIED OFF BY A LION; WHEN ASLEEP IN THE FIELD

While out hunting a young man ascended a hill as this was the best lookout post where he could wait. The sun was beating down and as the young man waited patiently he suddenly started feeling very sleepy. He decided that as it was so very hot he would first lie down and sleep before he started out on his hunt.

While he was sleeping a lion came walking by heading to the nearby waterhole as he was very thirsty. The lion saw the man sleeping in the noonday sun and very carefully he picked up the man and carried him off.

The man awoke startled. He then realised that he was now in the grips of a lion.  He decided that it would be best to not to react and to pretend to be dead as the lion appeared to think that he was dead. Should he move, then the lion would realise that he was not dead and would most likely kill him anyway. 

The lion carried the young man to a zwart-storm tree and laid him in it. The lion then decided to return to the waterhole as he was still very thirsty. He could not eat the man immediately as he realised that his thirst would then be far greater. He decided to eat the man once he had returned from the waterhole.

The lion checked that he had put the man into the tree properly that he may not fall out of it. With his paw he pushed hard on the man to make sure that he was well wedged into the tree. The branches of the tree stuck into the body of the man and he was very uncomfortable. He was still pretending to be dead but he needed to move his head just ever so slightly to stop the branches from hurting him. The lion looked back at him and thought that he had moved because he, the lion, had not wedged him carefully enough into the tree. He returned once again to the man and trod even harder on him to make sure that he did not fall out of the tree. A small branch from the tree stuck into the man’s back and caused him to shed some tears in pain. The lion licked the tears away but kept his eyes fixed on the man. The man then moved just ever so slightly again to try to relieve the pain without alerting the lion to the fact that he was still alive. The lion looked again at the man suspiciously as it looked as though he had moved. However, after staring intently at the man for a few minutes he decided that the man was not moving any longer and he struck off in the direction of the waterhole.

He ascended the hill and then descended on the other side. But, he was still ever so slightly suspicious of the man and he therefore lay down just on the other side of the hill so that he could keep an eye on the man and see that he was definitely not moving. The man, very very slowly, moved his head and opened his eyes just ever so slightly so that he could see if the lion had moved away. But, he saw his head on the top of the hill and he kept very still in the tree.

As the lion was very hungry he decided that he would quickly run to the waterhole, take a quick drink of water and then return to eat the man. But the lion remained suspicious. He would leave, take a few steps but then he would quickly go back to check if the man was still lying in the tree. The man kept looking to see if the lion would return and after a while the lion seemed satisfied that the man had not moved or fallen out of the tree and he finally moved off to the waterhole to drink.

Finally the man quickly rose from the tree and ran off in a zigzag manner trying to leave as little trace of his departure as possible so as to fool the lion so that he would not know where he had gone. He knew that the lion, when he got back, and realised that his food had disappeared would start tracking his footsteps.

Finally the man got back to his home and he called out to the people of his home. He told them what had happened and that the lion had taken hold of him and had put him into the tree. He explained to them how he had got away and then begged them to help him hide as he knew that the lion would start looking for him and would follow his tracks. Everyone knew that it is a lion’s nature not to leave his food and if his food moves off he then will set off looking for it until he finds it again. 

The young man then asked that his people hide him by rolling him up in hartebeest skins and mats so that the lion could not get hold of him.  This young man was well loved by his people and they did as he asked in order to protect him. They first wrapped him up in some mats and then they rolled him into some hartebeest skins. Once he was well wrapped up they then hid him under some bushes so that the lion would be deceived and think that he had disappeared.

While they were hiding the young man some of the other people went out looking for edible roots that they would bake at noon. An old Bushman who was out looking for wood for his wife so that his wife could bake the roots saw the lion as it came over the top of the hill and he ran back to the village to warn everyone that the lion was coming.

The young man’s mother then said “You must not allow the lion to come into the huts, you must shoot it when it comes near”.

All the hunters then gathered up their quivers and they went out to meet the lion. When they got near enough to the lion they shot their arrows at it but it seemed as if the lion could evade their arrows and it did not die. The lion then approached the huts and demanded that he wanted the young man. One of the old women of the village then said to the other villagers, “we must give the lion another child so that he will leave us alone”. But the lion refused, he said he wanted the young man whose tears he had licked and he did not want any other child.

The people of the village then turned to the hunters and demanded to know why they had not killed the lion. One of the hunters then turned around and said “Do you not see that this is not really a lion? This is a sorcerer and it will not die even if we shoot all our arrows at it. That is why he is demanding the young man and no one else.”

The people then threw other children at the lion to try to appease him that he might leave them alone. But the lion did not want the other children and he started off looking for the young man that he was seeking. The hunters started shooting their arrows at the lion again but they had no effect. They then took their assegais and stabbed at the lion but it was as if they were stabbing into the air and the lion was able to moved through and around them with impunity as he searched for the man whose tears he had licked.

The lion then broke into the peoples huts and scratched at everything while it was looking for the young man. The people were very confused and they panicked. They offered the lion a young girl but the lion refused and he continued to search for the young man. Finally, the people of the village decided that they would have to speak to the young man’s mother and tell her that although she loved her child very much she would have to give the young man to the lion as the lion would not leave the people alone.

The young man’s mother realised that she had no choice and she said to the people “I will agree to this but when you give my child to the lion you need to kill him so that my child does not die on his own”. She then went to the hartebeest skins and she unrolled her child from the skins.

The people then gave the lion what he wanted. The lion then proceeded to bite the young man and he killed him, but the people, at the same time then started stabbing the lion. The lion then spoke to the people and said “This is the one for which I will die”. And together the lion and the young man died.