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CHAPTEE XX. 



Stone and Iron Ages Combined. 



That many of the aboriginal clans or tribes of the Hottentot, or 

 " San " race, knew and pi'actised the use of iron before Europeans 

 came into contact with them, especially along the littoral, there can 

 be no doubt ; but that this iron industry had little penetrated the 

 inland districts would seem to be also proved by the evidence which 

 I have endeavoured to piece together. Along the coastal belt, how- 

 ever, the evidence of the contemporaneous use of stone and iron is 

 unmistakable. 



In the account of the wreck of the Sao Gonqalo in Plettenberg 

 Bay (Baia Formosa, as it was then called) in 1629," we read that 

 the natives met there by the shipwrecked people exchanged oxen 

 and sheep for iron ; we read also that the natives were armed with 

 spears (assagais) and bows. Had these implements been tipped 

 with stone this peculiarity would probably not have escaped the 

 notice of the narrator. From the account given of these natives and 

 their habits it is plain that they were Hottentots. 



And if we turn to the old Cape chroniclers, we have evidence of 

 the fact that the smelting of iron, perhaps also of copper, was known 

 and practised by the people of that race, but that they had still 

 retained the use of stone tools. 



Thus Kolben, speaking of the Hottentot artificers : " Smithery as 

 it stands among the Hottentots requires a great deal of labour and a 

 great deal of ingenuity. For the melting of iron from the ore is 

 comprehended in it, and, what is much worse, it is furnished with 

 no other implements than stone. ... As soon as the receiver is 

 cold they take it out, and break it to pieces with stones. The pieces 

 the Hottentots as they have occasion heat in other fires, and with 



* Trans. S. Afr. Philos. Soc, xi., 1902, p. 197. 



