SOUTHERN AFRICA. 351 
by smothering it when burning clear, witii sand. They break 
the ore into small pieces. Thus prepared, they lay the ma- 
terials in alternate strata, within a small enclosure of stones, 
on a clayey bottom. They set fire to the charcoal, and blow 
it with several bellows, each made from the skin of a gems- 
bok converted into a sack, with the horn of the same animal 
fixed to one end for the pipe. This is all that is necessary 
to procure the metal from the sort of ore they make use of ; 
being that species called by mineralogists vitreous copper ore. 
It is in fact mineralized with sulphur, which a moderate heat 
will dissipate, and leave the copper in its pure metallic state. 
Such kind of ore is even more fusible than pure copper. The 
metal thus obtained is then manufactured into chains, rings, 
and bracelets, by means of two pieces of stone that serve as a 
hammer and anvil, and the workmanship would be no disgrace 
to an artizan furnished with much better tools. The links of 
the chains, however, are all open, as well as the rings, which 
shew that they have not yet discovered the art of soldering, 
or joining together pieces of the same metal by the inter- 
position of a second, or a composition of a softer nature than 
those to be united. 
As a nation of artists, and acquainted with metallurgy, 
they are, from all accounts, the poorest on the face of the 
earth. They keep no kind of cattle. Their country, in fact, 
is so totally barren and sandy, that no cattle could exist 
upon it. Though the Damaras are obviously the same race 
of people as the Kaffers, and these, as has in a former chap- 
ter been conjectured, of Arabic origin, yet there is no ne- 
cessity of tracing them back to a more refined nation, in order 
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