Both in Bleek's report of 1875 and Lloyd's of 1889 much prominence was given to collected materials which related to the sun, the moon and the stars, and it is indeed true that their informants had much to say concerning celestial bodies. However, the number of actual narratives collected – as opposed to beliefs and superstitions – is extremely small indeed. A story of the creation of the sun was collected (two versions); a narrative accounting for the waxing and waning of the moon (three versions); another relating to Jupiter (three versions); the Moon and the Hare (seven versions); one very brief sketch of a story about a disobedient girl who made stars; a note about the two lions who became the pointers of the Southern Cross; and an allusion to a family who were stars. If the story mentioned in the last chapter concerning the girl who changed a family into the Corona Australis by glancing at them, and the narrative relating to ǀKaggen's creation of the moon are added to this number, it is clear that, at the very most, only nine distinct stories, out of the total collection of over a hundred, were concerned with celestial phenomena. The long-standing belief that ‘the heavenly bodies figured largely in Bushman mythology’ (Dornan 1922: 432) – based mainly on the emphasis Bleek gave to this material – is clearly not a reflection of the actual incidence of such narratives in the collection. Furthermore, only four or five of these narratives were told with sufficient expansiveness or care to warrant much attention as examples of verbal art.

Almost all of the sidereal narratives are well known from published sources and there is little need to describe their content here. However, something should be said briefly about the beliefs concerning the sun, moon and stars since Bleek (1875: 9) claimed that ‘the Bushmen are clearly to be included among the nations who have attained to sidereal worship’ and were this statement true it would plainly have consequences for how these narratives should be regarded.

The sun, moon, Canopus and possibly other stars, were all addressed at certain times. According to ǁKabbo, the sun could be asked for nothing except warmth and light (L. II, (1) 218 rev.).