The power of a place in understanding southern San rock engravings

Abstract

Abstract Two examples are given from the folklore of /Xam San informants, interviewed by Bleek and Lloyd in Cape Town in the 1870s, to suggest that the legendary and ritual significance of particular places in the landscape was enhanced by rock engravings. The nature of the power and of the ritual significance of a place may be discerned from the ethnography and from themes represented in the engravings.