Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Another video in the "Moments in the history of optical astronomy in South Africa" series.
Today’s episode is again starlore, in particular a San or Bushman story, titled "The Sun is the Head of Dancer Fireman" telling how Dancer Fireman was decapitated for the light provided by his glowing head and how the head is still going around every day, looking for his body, explaining the strange behaviour of the crab.
This story was recorded in Volume 1, "Mythology and Legends", titled BOESMANSTORIES, written by Gideon Retief von Wielligh, first published in 1919. Von Wielligh collected about 60 stories from the Bushmen at the time which he published in four-volumes, between 1919 and 1921.
00:00 Today's Story is ...
00:29 The term "Bushman"
00:50 Oral cultures quote
01:03 About the author, GR von Wielligh
01:54 Carol Botha - Bushman paintings background info
02:43 Info on 2nd illustrator & narrator
03:03 The Sun is the Head of Dancer Fireman
08:00 Good bye
Another video in the "Moments in the history of optical astronomy in South Africa" series.
Today’s episode is again starlore, in particular a San or Bushman story, titled "The Sun is the Head of Dancer Fireman" telling how Dancer Fireman was decapitated for the light provided by his glowing head and how the head is still going around every day, looking for his body, explaining the strange behaviour of the crab.
This story was recorded in Volume 1, "Mythology and Legends", titled BOESMANSTORIES, written by Gideon Retief von Wielligh, first published in 1919. Von Wielligh collected about 60 stories from the Bushmen at the time which he published in four-volumes, between 1919 and 1921.
00:00 Today's Story is ...
00:29 The term "Bushman"
00:50 Oral cultures quote
01:03 About the author, GR von Wielligh
01:54 Carol Botha - Bushman paintings background info
02:43 Info on 2nd illustrator & narrator
03:03 The Sun is the Head of Dancer Fireman
08:00 Good bye
