ÃÂKaggen (more accurately ÃÂKággeÃÂ¥n or ÃÂKaggÃÂn, sometimes corrupted to Cagn and sometimes called Mantis) is a demiurge and folk hero of the San people of southern Africa. He is a trickster god who can shape shift, usually taking the form of a praying mantis but also a bull eland, a louse, a snake, and a caterpillar.
ÃÂKaggen is a trickster who is able to shape shift into the form of any animal. He is most frequently represented as a praying mantis but also takes the form of a bull eland, a louse, a snake, and a caterpillar. His wife, ÃÂHúnntuÃÂattÃÂatteÃÂ¥n (sometimes spelled as Coti), is represented as a marmot or rather a Cape hyrax and is known as the mother of bees. Their adopted daughter is represented as a porcupine.
One of the first animals created by ÃÂKaggen, and his favourite, was the eland. ÃÂKaggen's wife ÃÂHúnntuÃÂattÃÂatteÃÂ¥n gave birth to the eland, and ÃÂKaggen hid it near a secluded cliff to let it grow. One day his sons, Cogaz and Gewi, were out hunting. Not knowing their father's love for the eland, they killed it. ÃÂKaggen was angry, and told Gewi to put the blood from the dead eland into a pot and churn it. Blood spattered from the pot onto the ground and turned into snakes. ÃÂKaggen was displeased. Next, Gewi scattered the blood, and it turned into hartebeests. Again, ÃÂKaggen was unhappy. He told ÃÂHúnntuÃÂattÃÂatteÃÂ¥n to clean the pot and add more blood from the eland, with fat from the heart. She churned it, and ÃÂKaggen sprinkled the mixture on the ground. It turned into a large herd of eland. This was how ÃÂKaggen gave meat to his people to hunt and eat. The Bushmen attribute the wildness of the eland to the fact that ÃÂKaggen's sons killed it before it was ready to be hunted, spoiling it.
The scholar David Lewis-Williams recounts a variation of the eland myth involving the meerkats. ÃÂKaggen's daughter the porcupine married the meerkat, kwammang-a. They had the mongoose as a son. The mongoose was close to his grandfather ÃÂKaggen. ÃÂKaggen used to take honey to feed his favourite, the eland. The people were curious as to what ÃÂKaggen was doing with the honey, so they sent the mongoose to spy on him and find out. When the mongoose saw ÃÂKaggen giving honey to the eland, he reported his discovery to his brothers, the meerkats. While ÃÂKaggen was out gathering honey, the meerkats persuaded the mongoose to show them where the eland was. They called the eland out of its hiding place and killed it.