The horn displayed before you is said to have belonged not to any earthly antelope, but to Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà — the Beautiful Aardvark Girl of Juǀʼhoan legend, whose passing is remembered in certain desert traditions of Southern Africa with reverence and dread alike.

According to the oldest account preserved in Bell family journals, Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà was born during a season in which no rain fell for eleven moons. The rivers withdrew into the earth. Goats miscarried. The thorn trees bled sap black as pitch. It is said the girl wandered alone beyond the dunes and vanished into a storm no one else could see.

When she returned, she no longer cast a shadow.

The villagers claimed that lightning walked several paces behind her, even beneath clear skies. Wild dogs would not approach her footprints. Children born after her return were said to dream of underground rivers and awaken with mouths full of dust.

Yet she was beautiful beyond reason.

So beautiful, in fact, that hunters abandoned their camps merely to follow her across the salt plains. Some accounts say her voice resembled distant singing carried through a cavern. Others claim no one ever heard her speak at all.

The horn itself is believed to have emerged during the final night of her life. The tale states that Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà climbed a basalt rise during a great drought and called into the heavens for rain. Witnesses described a black column of cloud descending from empty sky. Lightning struck the earth repeatedly around her, splitting stone and igniting thorn scrub. When the storm ended, the girl had vanished entirely.

In her place remained only:

• a circle of scorched earth,
• hundreds of fresh puncture vines sprouting from bare rock,
• and this horn.

The Bell family maintains that the artifact is not carved, but transformed.

Examination reveals the horn to be neither wholly oryx nor wholly fashioned by human tools. Its inner chamber contains vitrified channels consistent with extreme heat exposure. When sounded correctly, the instrument is said to produce effects impossible under ordinary atmospheric conditions.

Among the phenomena attributed to the horn are:

• the sudden formation of dense black storm clouds,
• violent electrical disturbances,
• localized hailfall,
• and the rapid emergence of venomous goathead thorns from dry soil.

Bell family records insist the horn has been used only three times since 1891.

The third occasion resulted in seven fatalities near Antelope Ridge, Nevada.

For this reason, demonstrations of the artifact are strictly prohibited.

Visitors are respectfully asked:

• not to whistle near the display,
• not to touch the glass,
• and under no circumstances to imitate the sounding posture illustrated in the adjacent sketches.