The Stone Ages of SoiitJi Africa. 127 



most probable that the mouth was as broad as the periphery, and 

 that it was not constricted to a neck as in the examples figured in 

 PI. XXIV.- 



That the very short, bluntly tripod-like supports formed by the 

 ears gave the vessel more stability is probably the explanation for 

 their presence at the bottom instead of on the upper part of the 

 sides, but it is quite a departure in the technique. The clay is very 

 badly baked, only a thin external and internal layer being burnt 

 red. 



Certain earthenware vessels made here by Bantu-speaking races 

 are not unlike the Berea example, but apart from the perforated 

 knobs, which plainly denote a Strand Looper technique, the decora- 

 tion is also clear proof of its Bush origin. 



It is not always easy, however, to decide whether pots of the 

 shape of the former, but undecorated and earless, or without 

 traces of mamelon, are of Hottentot or Kafir manufacture. One, 

 now in our Collection, is alleged to have been found near a midden 

 at Kei Eoad, Cape Colony, and another of nearly the same shape 

 near the mouth of the Eiver Kei, it is said, together with stone 

 implements. Both, but the latter especially, are extremelv 

 uncouth. 



Yet the evidence afforded by the two examples represented in 

 text-fig. 19, and especially by the smaller of the two, seems to show 

 that flat-bottomed, sub-cylindrical earthenware vessels were also 

 manufactured by people of the yellow race, though perhaps for 

 certain purposes only.f 



Fig. 1 has no history. It is alleged to have been found in the 

 western part of the Cape Colony, but there is no absolute proof of 

 the same. 



Fig. 2 is less primitive in shape, and the lim projects nearly a 

 centimetre all round. It is from a rock-shelter in the Prince Albert 

 district of Cape Colony, and with it were found other fragments of 

 pottery, including a tjipical "ear." 



This shows conclusively that the earthenware-making Bushmen 

 did not restrict his skill to the production of eared, ovoid-conical 

 pots. But this Rietfontein rock-shelter showed unmistakable traces 



• Dr. Schonland has figured a small pot, 3^ inches wide at the mouth and of 

 about the same height, adorned with three knobs above the middle of the girdle. 

 " which represent a reminiscence of ears." This pot was discovered a mile and 

 a half from the sea, near Port Alfred, Cape Colony. 



t These small pots are said by the old Colonists, who came into touch with the 

 remaining wild Bush people, to be the vessels in which the poison for arrows was 

 prepared. 



