26 Albany Museum Records. 



females were generally spared by the less savage of the two. It is 

 usual to call the Midden-people by the name of " Strandloopers." 

 This term seems to have been originally restricted to a small Hotten- 

 tot tribe found in Van Ri check's time,i and though it is convenient 

 to give it now the current extended meaning, it must always be re- 

 membered that from an ethnograi)hieal point of view it cannot be 

 clearly defined, while as a rule it signifies Primitive Hottentots. 

 Before further discussing the quesUon whether it is possible to 

 distinguish between Hottentot and Bushman pottery generally, I 

 will describe a few of the pottery relics in the Albany Museum 

 which must be ascribed to either of these two races. The finest of 

 these is obviously the one reproduced on Plate II, fig. 1 (C 276 of 

 the Museum Register). It is ;H in. wide at tiie mouth, 14^ in. high, 

 and its greatest breadth is 8| in. Though of very elegant shape, 

 it will be noticed that it is not quite symmetrical. It is reddish in 

 appearance, both inside and outside, Init black on the fractures, 

 thus indicating that it is very well burned of clay tak^i^ from 

 termiteheaps with which the pupa? of termites had beeii mixed. 

 As ornamentation it only shows a number of nearly parallel lines 

 round the neck. It is evidentlj- hand-made without the aid of a 

 potter's wheel. It is rather thin and evenly built throughout, only 

 the bottom perhaps being somevvhat thick. In contemplating 

 and handling it one cannot help sharing Kolbe's^ enthusiasm for 

 the Hottentot's art of making pots. He mentions several times 

 thataiji European potter could, without tools, not produce such 

 excellent pots as these savages built up with their bare hands. It 

 was found upside down in a hole, evidently specially prepared for 

 it, by Mr. R. L. Walker on his farm near Port Alfred, and presented 

 to the Museum eventually by Mr. Mitford Bowker. In this hole 

 the pot had probably been burned as descril)ed by Kolbe, though 

 no remnant of fires could be seen when I examined the hole with 

 Mr. Bowker. I must add, however, that at the time it did not 

 strike me to look for them, and l)esides in the shifting sand its 

 traces may have been removed. The hole was situated towards the 

 edge of a flat piece of ground, several acres in extent, just behind 

 Mr. Walker's house, and about 4 miles east of Port Alfred, and 

 only separated from the sea by a range of sandhills. This piece of 



' See Gustav Fritsch, '-Die Eingeborenen Sued Afrikas," Breslau, 1872, 

 p. 265. 



'^ Peter Kolbe, " Beschryving van de Kaap de Goed Hoop," Amsterdam, 

 1727, II, p. 62, 90. 



