Local Myths and Legends
This legend is about a pirate who was Dutch, called van Hunks. van Hunks
lived in a cottage between Devil's Peaks (which is a sloped mountain ) and Table Mountain. Many people were scared of him. One day a stranger came, he wore a
hat and fine clothes. He did not introduce himself but asked van Hunks for
some tobacco. van Hunks invited him to sit down, and he filled his pipe. While
they were smoking van Hunks boasted that nobody could smoke as much as
him, so the stranger challenged van Hunks to a smoking contest. They divided
the tobacco between them and they started smoking.
By the next morning there was smoke around the entire mountain. The stranger
accidentally knocked off his own hat and he had horns. The stranger was the
devil. A clap of thunder was heard and the devil and Van Hunks disappeared.
![[van Hunk]](hunk.jpg)
We enjoy going up Table Mountain, we think there is a great view from the top. We like the
legend about van Hunks and the Devil.
A Legend - Why the Dassie has no Tail
There is a Xhosa story about why the dassie has no tail.
There was a lion who was king and the only animal with a tail. He found his tail
very useful and decided that all his subjects also needed a tail. He made
many tails of all shapes and sizes and asked the baboons to call all the
animals.
![[Dassie]](dassie.jpg)
Many animals came to Council Rock, except for the lazy little
dassie. The animals all chose their tails. The lion noticed that dassie was
missing and he was angry. He picked out a small little furry tail for the monkeys
to take to dassie but the monkeys decided to teach the dassie a lesson and
stuck the little furry tail on themselves. They went to dassie to show him their
new gift and he was very upset, but was too lazy to do anything about it, and still
has no tail to this day.
Written By Natasha Day