The process of smelting iron ore was as primitive as it was unique. A hole was first made in a mound of earth. This hole was large enough to contain a good quantity of iron stones, of which there was an abundance. A fire was then kindled about the mouth of it. On the slope of the mound, about a foot and a half from this hole, a second hole, much smaller than the first, was made. This was to receive the melted iron.
When the iron in this receiver became cold, it was taken out and broken into pieces with stones. When needed, these pieces of iron were heated in fresh fires and beaten out into shape by means of stones.
One writer thus describes the process, though he neglects to say anything of the action of the fire: "They take a piece of new or old iron, and without any other implement than stone, make a weapon of it. They get the hardest flat stone they can, and putting the iron upon it as on an anvil, bend it with a roundish stone, which serves them for a hammer, into the desired form. They then grind it on the flat stone, and afterwards polish it so nicely that it comes out a very valuable piece of work both for beauty and service, and which no European smith could, perhaps, produce the like to, by the like means."
One traveler watched with interest the process by which a Hottentot smith made knives and spears. His tools were few and primitive. A stone served him for an anvil, while a roughly made hammer and two small bellows made of skin completed his outfit.
The head of the hammer weighed perhaps a pound. The bellows had "a piece of cow horn at one end through which the blast went, the other end being open like a purse and sewed to two round pieces of wood. The two pairs of bellows were laid upon the ground opposite the fire, with a heavy stone to keep the under side steady." In order to make a blast the workman quickly raised and lowered the upper side of each pair of bellows, and with the greatest ease blew both pairs at once.
The Hottentot woman, as she sat in the shade near her dwelling, often employed her time by twisting cord from the bark of the acacia tree, while some of her companions chopped down its branches or stripped off long pieces of bark from its stems. Others, while working at cord making, busily chewed the fibers of the bark instead of pounding them upon a stone. This was not considered a task, but rather a pleasant pastime, since the juices of the bark had an agreeable taste.
Notwithstanding the laborious process of making this cord, it was done very expeditiously. The worker sat upon the ground with a quantity of prepared bark close beside her. By a clever process she was able to make two yards at once. By rolling them down her thigh with her palm, and then, by bringing them close together and rolling them upwards, with a turn in the contrary way, they were quickly and neatly twisted into a strong, compact cord.
The making of wooden bowls was another industry among the Hottentots when the Cape was first colonized. These bowls and jugs were skillfully carved from green willow wood.
As these willow trees had trunks often a foot or a foot and one-half in diameter, cutting them down was a task well calculated to test the perseverance of this people, whose only tools were small hatchets, that could make but little impression at a time upon anything so formidable. Yet often a fallen tree might be found hacked through by these apologies for hatchets.
The tree once felled was cut into desired lengths, according to the utensils destined to be carved from the pieces. The soft, tough nature of the wood made it especially valuable for the purpose.