The Stone Ages of South Africa. 131 



certainly not be easy or reliable, for the hide thong, or rope, would 

 be soon charred. That these vessels were used as suspended cooking 

 utensils remains therefore very doubtful. 



Fig. 174 is the largest *' Strand Looper " vase hitherto found. 

 That it was not a cooking-pot, at least previous to its abandonment, 

 would seem to be proved by the fact that a small hole on the lower 

 part of the side was closed by a conical limpet, similar to, but some- 

 what larger than, that closing the aperture of the ostrich-egg, 

 Pig. 189, PI. XXV., presumably intended for storing water. The 

 black cement used for the purpose is of the same substance in both 

 cases. 



On the whole, these pots are far from strong, but however coarse 

 the texture, they can all hold water. A find made at Hangklip, in 

 False Bay (Cape Colony), w-here six pots, with and without ears, 

 were discovered buried in the sand," and standing in a line, seems 

 to bear out the conclusion that they were mostly used for storing 

 water, fat, or butter. Our two examples from Mossel Bay bore a 

 gummed label affixed probably some forty years before I examined 

 them, but which had become so impregnated with a fatty substance 

 as to have become illegible.! Even now these pots are slightly 

 greasy on the surface. 



It must not be forgotten also that two of these vases or pots were 

 found partly filled with specular iron. 



Against the conclusion that these pots were mainly used as 

 receptacles and not for cooking purposes, I must, however, add that 

 I know of two ostrich-eggs, similar to those used now in the Kalahari 

 Desert as w^ater-vessels, that have been found close to middens, 

 where potsherds are numerous, and even not far from where the 

 specimen, Fig. 174, was discovered. With one of them was found 

 an admirably preserved quiver containing arrows with the modern 

 triangular iron tips. These relics are thus in all likelihood com- 

 paratively recent.;]: 



Is the manufacture of these ovoid-conical earthenware vessels to 

 be attributed to Strand Loopers only, or to Hottentots as well ? 



Kolben does not discriminate between the two. He never went 

 far from Cape Town ; and the Hottentots he met were in all likeli- 

 hood Strand Loopers, who, however mixed they might have become 



* These pots were unfortunately broken in the removal. 



t These two pots were sent to the Museum at the same time (1856) as a 

 Portuguese inscription dated 1500, and they were on that account labelled as being 

 of " Portuguese manufacture." 



I They were found some 12 miles from Cape Town, and probably date from the 

 beginning of the colonisation of the Cape. 



