These straps were of great service. The natives used them to tie up the materials for building their huts and their hut furniture, when they migrated to new cattle kraals. By means of the straps they girded these goods upon the backs of their oxen, and employed them in various ways.
The mat makers were chiefly women. They went out in bands to gather the flags, reeds, and bulrushes which they needed. These they brought home and laid in the sun to dry. When sufficiently dry for the purpose, they were woven by the fingers into mats. If the materials for weaving became too dry, they were moistened slightly in water to render them pliable. So closely were these mats woven that neither light, wind, nor rain could penetrate them.
The mats were used to cover the frames for the huts, and hence the care taken to render them impervious to the action of the elements. A good stock was usually kept on hand; for, in the course of time, as some decayed, new ones had to be provided to replace them.
The ropes were made of the same materials as those used for the mats. The flags, reeds, and bulrushes were twisted separately into small strings. These strings were joined, till each length measured about four yards. When a sufficient number of these lengths had been obtained, they were twisted tightly one around another until the cord was about an inch in thickness. The entire work was done by the hands; yet so strong were these ropes that if they were perfect ones, even oxen rarely broke them when drawing a load.
The Europeans at the Cape frequently bought these ropes of the Hottentots and used them for drawing their plows and in various other ways. When required to do so, these rope makers could by the same process produce a rope of any desired length.
Each family of Hottentots made its own supply of earthen pots. They used for the purpose the mold from the immense ant hills, of which we shall read in time.
This mold was taken from the surface of the ground, cleaned from every particle of sand or gravel, kneaded closely in order to bruise and mix with it the ant eggs which were scattered through it. These ant eggs acted as a cement.
The mold, which had now become a clay, or dough, was then taken, in sufficient quantity to make a pot of the required size, and shaped on a smooth, flat stone by the aid of the hands. These pots were similar in form to the Roman urn.
When shaped, the vessel was first carefully smoothed both inside and out, and then set on the stone for a couple of days to dry in the sun. When thoroughly dried, it was removed from the stone, to which it had adhered, by drawing a dried sinew back and forth between the stone and the base of the vessel, or pot.
The pot was then put into a hole just its depth, but more than twice its circumference. A brisk fire was then built over and around it. Here it was left to bake till the fire burnt itself out. The Hottentots believed that while the pot was baking in this simple oven, the substances of which the ant eggs were composed spread throughout its surface and gave it the great strength which characterized all their pottery.