The mat makers were chiefly women. They went out in bands to gather the flags, reeds, and bulrushes which they needed. These they brought home and laid in the sun to dry. When sufficiently dry for the purpose, they were woven by the fingers into mats. If the materials for weaving became too dry, they were moistened slightly in water to render them pliable.
So closely were these mats woven that neither light, wind, nor rain could penetrate them.
The mats were used to cover the frames for the huts, and hence the care taken to render them impervious to the action of the elements. A good stock was usually kept on hand; for, in the course of time, as some decayed, new ones had to be provided to replace them.
The ropes were made of the same materials as those used for the mats.
The flags, reeds, and bulrushes were twisted separately into small strings. These strings were joined, till each length measured about four yards. When a sufficient number of these lengths had been obtained, they were twisted tightly one around another until the cord was about an inch in thickness. The entire work was done by the hands; yet so strong were these ropes that if they were perfect ones, even oxen rarely broke them when drawing a load.
The Europeans at the Cape frequently bought these ropes of the Hottentots and used them for drawing their plows and in various other ways. When required to do so, these rope makers could by the same process produce a rope of any desired length.
Each family of Hottentots made its own supply of earthen pots. They used for the purpose the mold from the immense ant hills, of which we shall read in time.
This mold was taken from the surface of the ground, cleaned from every particle of sand or gravel, kneaded closely in order to bruise and mix with it the ant eggs which were scattered through it. These ant eggs acted as a cement.
The mold, which had now become a clay, or dough, was then taken, in sufficient quant.i.ty to make a pot of the required size, and shaped on a smooth, flat stone by the aid of the hands. These pots were similar in form to the Roman urn.
When shaped, the vessel was first carefully smoothed both inside and out, and then set on the stone for a couple of days to dry in the sun.
When thoroughly dried, it was removed from the stone, to which it had adhered, by drawing a dried sinew back and forth between the stone and the base of the vessel, or pot.
The pot was then put into a hole just its depth, but more than twice its circ.u.mference. A brisk fire was then built over and around it. Here it was left to bake till the fire burnt itself out. The Hottentots believed that while the pot was baking in this simple oven, the substances of which the ant eggs were composed spread throughout its surface and gave it the great strength which characterized all their pottery.
The process of smelting iron ore was as primitive as it was unique. A hole was first made in a mound of earth. This hole was large enough to contain a good quant.i.ty of iron stones, of which there was an abundance. A fire was then kindled about the mouth of it. On the slope of the mound, about a foot and a half from this hole, a second hole, much smaller than the first, was made. This was to receive the melted iron.
When the iron in this receiver became cold, it was taken out and broken into pieces with stones. When needed, these pieces of iron were heated in fresh fires and beaten out into shape by means of stones.
One writer thus describes the process, though he neglects to say anything of the action of the fire: "They take a piece of new or old iron, and without any other implement than stone, make a weapon of it.
They get the hardest flat stone they can, and putting the iron upon it as on an anvil, bend it with a roundish stone, which serves them for a hammer, into the desired form. They then grind it on the flat stone, and afterwards polish it so nicely that it comes out a very valuable piece of work both for beauty and service, and which no European smith could, perhaps, produce the like to, by the like means."
One traveler watched with interest the process by which a Hottentot smith made knives and spears. His tools were few and primitive. A stone served him for an anvil, while a roughly made hammer and two small bellows made of skin completed his outfit.
The head of the hammer weighed perhaps a pound. The bellows had "a piece of cow horn at one end through which the blast went, the other end being open like a purse and sewed to two round pieces of wood. The two pairs of bellows were laid upon the ground opposite the fire, with a heavy stone to keep the under side steady." In order to make a blast the workman quickly raised and lowered the upper side of each pair of bellows, and with the greatest ease blew both pairs at once.
The Hottentot woman, as she sat in the shade near her dwelling, often employed her time by twisting cord from the bark of the acacia tree, while some of her companions chopped down its branches or stripped off long pieces of bark from its stems. Others, while working at cord making, busily chewed the fibers of the bark instead of pounding them upon a stone. This was not considered a task, but rather a pleasant pastime, since the juices of the bark had an agreeable taste.
Notwithstanding the laborious process of making this cord, it was done very expeditiously. The worker sat upon the ground with a quant.i.ty of prepared bark close beside her. By a clever process she was able to make two yards at once. By rolling them down her thigh with her palm, and then, by bringing them close together and rolling them upwards, with a turn in the contrary way, they were quickly and neatly twisted into a strong, compact cord.
The making of wooden bowls was another industry among the Hottentots when the Cape was first colonized. These bowls and jugs were skillfully carved from green willow wood.
As these willow trees had trunks often a foot or a foot and one-half in diameter, cutting them down was a task well calculated to test the perseverance of this people, whose only tools were small hatchets, that could make but little impression at a time upon anything so formidable.
Yet often a fallen tree might be found hacked through by these apologies for hatchets.
The tree once felled was cut into desired lengths, according to the utensils destined to be carved from the pieces. The soft, tough nature of the wood made it especially valuable for the purpose.
After a rough log had been chopped with the hatchet into a semblance of the desired shape, a common knife was the only tool used to smooth and complete the outer surface. Another knife, with its top bent into a semi-circular hook, was used with the greatest dexterity and neatness to cut and hollow out the inner surface.
When this work was done, the whole surface of the bowl, or jug, was thoroughly rubbed over with fat. This was to keep the wood from warping and splitting on account of the heat and dryness of the atmosphere.
The bowls were of various sizes. Most frequently they measured from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. In form they were mostly oval and quite shallow. The jugs, or jars, were made in the form of a cylinder, quite short, with the mouth, or neck, only about two-thirds the size of the body. These jugs held usually about a gallon; but they were made of other sizes also, to hold from a pint to five gallons.
The Hottentots also carved ivory rings. These were worn as arm ornaments. They were cut from an elephant"s tooth, and from the time the carver began the operation till the completion of the perfect ring--round, smooth, and brightly polished--he employed no other tool than his knife. The process, of course, was an exceedingly tedious and laborious one.
CHAPTER XLI.
ORANGE FREE STATE.
The Dutch settlers at the Cape had always been strongly in favor of slavery; hence, when Great Britain caused the emanc.i.p.ation of slavery throughout her dependencies in South Africa, great dissatisfaction and discontent were felt and manifested by the Boers.
Their only desire seemed to be to get into a country where they might not only steal land from the original owners, but capture and enslave the natives of the sections they chose to invade; in fact, to do as seemed best in their own eyes, irrespective of what others might think, and regardless of the laws of humanity and brotherly love. Accordingly, a large number migrated, with their wagons and various possessions, in a northerly direction across the Drachenberg Mountains and the Orange River. Here they settled in the territories now known as Natal, Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, or South African Republic.
The British government, however, did not relinquish its power, but a.s.serted it to such an extent that in a few years Natal was no longer a refuge for these independently inclined Dutchmen, who, anxious to live after their own fashion, had little regard for the distinctions between mine and thine.
After much trouble and fighting, creditable to neither party, the Dutch were permitted to locate in the central district of South Africa. This concession was made only on condition that they would not molest the native tribes.
The present republic was then established between the two main streams of the Orange River, west of the Drachenberg Mountains.
Errors in the government which was established threatened, at one time, to sink the country not only into bankruptcy but anarchy. The discovery of the Diamond Fields gave the state a great advantage, and it is now thriving and flourishing, and will continue so while the government can keep on good terms with the neighbors, both black and white.
Orange Free State can never become a very great country. Its natural situation is a disadvantage, shut off as it is from the sea, and accessible only by long railway or wagon journeys either from Port Elizabeth in the Cape, or from Port Natal in the colony of Natal.
Orange Free State is like all this portion of South Africa. As part of the plateau of the inner section, it comprises undulating gra.s.sy plains.
These are elevated four thousand feet above the level of the sea. They stretch to the north, with scarcely a break to interrupt the view, for miles and miles. In the south we find a little exception to this rule; for the broad level is broken by a number of small, detached hills.
Agriculture is pursued only where there is water or where the system of irrigation can be applied; hence, the people occupy themselves mainly in sheep and cattle grazing. Wool, consequently, is the staple export.
The mineral wealth is considerable. Diamonds, garnets, and other precious stones have been found, and gold is reported to exist.
The Dutch settlers have not cared to encourage the search for the hidden treasures of their country. They neither wished to awaken the greed of their neighbors nor to attract crowds of adventurers to invade their land.
The climate is favorable to Europeans. The winters are cold, but the summers are not very hot. Even when the heat is intense, its remarkable dryness keeps it from being unhealthy in its effect. Frequently the weather will be sultry for days, with a sulphurous odor in the air.
Suddenly the rumbling and the rolling of thunder is heard, and amid a veritable storm of lightning the superabundance of electricity is discharged, and the air becomes once more cool and pleasant.
It is interesting to note the contrast in the lives of a Dutchman and an Englishman in South Africa. Even when a Boer has acc.u.mulated considerable wealth, he is content to live in a house the floor of which consists of the hard-trodden earth. Here he will live happily, with scarcely any of the luxuries, or even comforts, which the average English settler would deem necessary to his well-being.
The Dutchman is a picture of content; the Englishman one of discontent with the country, the government, the climate, the soil,--with everything and everybody, his neighbors, even, not excepted. He draws the line only at himself and his own disposition.
While the Englishman is naturally a social body, liking company and the general gossip heard among his own people, the Dutchman is rather solitary in his tastes. He cares for no neighbors, and would resent the sight of smoke rising from any chimney within sight of his own. His tastes are pastoral, and this leads him to acquire vast tracts of land.
He is tormented by the fear that, in the course of time, his cattle and his sheep will increase to such an extent that he will not have gra.s.s enough to offer them, nor land enough on which to pasture them.
A Dutchman finds nothing forbidding in the aspect of the dreary country lying north of the Orange River; the stranger, however, finds the change from the most unattractive sections of the Cape to either the Orange Free State or the Transvaal a most depressing one.
There is nothing of a picturesque nature. The land is not wooded, and in the season of drought no more unattractive country can be thought of than this of the Orange Free State.
Still, it is far from being a wilderness. Work is plenty; for it is a country that is well adapted to keep men from indolence or from drifting into that dreamland of ease and idleness, in which the rich man is often led to wander when he has not had to toil for his possessions.
There is much English property and capital, and a good deal of energy is displayed by the English subjects. A few of the Englishmen, or "Africanders," were born in the Cape.