The San people are a direct link to the past for all mankind.
They have lived as hunter gatherers in the Kalahari for an estimated 30,000 years.
They hunt the eland antelope, a large and dangerous beast.
A small group of men, five or so, set out on the hunt.
First they scare up a herd of eland, and identify the strongest, fittest male with the largest horns.
Working silently using only hand signals, they slowly split off the male from the rest of the herd.
The large male, now panicking, takes off, the chase is on.
The fittest San member now pursues the beast, running constantly armed with just a small spear.
Through exhaustion he eventuall enters a trance like state.
The male antelope after a chase lasting up to eight hours begins to tire, and the reason why the San flushed out the male with the largest horns become apparent. The bigger the horns the heavier they are, the quicker that the antelope will tire.
The San has carried water with him, the antelope has none.
Yet the antelope cannot be tracked by the marks on the hard ground or deep in the bush.
The San in his trance like state becomes the antelope and begins to project himself as an antelope, thinks like an antelope.
He imagines which way that the antelope will have fled, which turn it would have taken. He is never wrong.
Finally the antelope collapses exhausted, near death.
The San respectively approaches the antelope and they lock gazes for a few minutes. The San then moves in for the kill. The antelope does not struggle as the San pierces its heart with a swift stab.
He rubs the saliva from the antelope into his aching muscles and says a prayer for the antelope, spilling blood onto the dirt so that the antelope may return to the earth.
Eventually his comrades find him, and together they carry their prize home, the hunt a success.
I find this almost shamanic form of hunting utterly compelling and fascinating.
yechydda,