Tlic Stone Ages of South Africa. 



125 



called Topnaar Hottentots, are still to be found, there has been 

 lately discovered undecorated pottery, of a kind as coarse as that 

 which prevails in the Middens of the Cape Peninsula. 



These fragments plainly denote vessels of the ovoid-conical shape 

 provided with ears. But instead of that part of the pot which 

 forms the ear projecting inwardly, as in Figs. 181, 182 of PI. XXIV., 

 and on that account supporting the theory of the lump of clay 

 ]:)eing held by the two fingers of one hand, the clay of the ear is 

 clapped on the- already finished pot as shown in the text-fig. 16, 



Fig 17. x h- 



POT SUPPORTED BY THE EARS. THE GROOVE OF THE MISSING EAR IS SEEN 



IN THE CENTRE. 



and the hole, which is of small diameter, is straight, and has been 

 plainly punched through. In other examples, in which the inner 

 bulging is also absent, the opening of the ear might still support the 

 theory of the two fingers process, but the perforation, instead of 

 l)eing transverse, is vertical, and also too small to be due to finger 

 action. 



It may be said of these relics that they show either traces of 

 regression, or of a more advanced culture retaining still traces of 

 survival. 



If we now turn to the furthest eastern end of the sea-board where 

 pottery has been found, we have evidence of another kind. 



