After a rough log had been chopped with the hatchet into a semblance of the desired shape, a common knife was the only tool used to smooth and complete the outer surface. Another knife, with its top bent into a semi-circular hook, was used with the greatest dexterity and neatness to cut and hollow out the inner surface.
When this work was done, the whole surface of the bowl, or jug, was thoroughly rubbed over with fat. This was to keep the wood from warping and splitting on account of the heat and dryness of the atmosphere.
The bowls were of various sizes. Most frequently they measured from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. In form they were mostly oval and quite shallow. The jugs, or jars, were made in the form of a cylinder, quite short, with the mouth, or neck, only about two-thirds the size of the body. These jugs held usually about a gallon; but they were made of other sizes also, to hold from a pint to five gallons.
The Hottentots also carved ivory rings. These were worn as arm ornaments. They were cut from an elephant's tooth, and from the time the carver began the operation till the completion of the perfect ring—round, smooth, and brightly polished—he employed no other tool than his knife. The process, of course, was an exceedingly tedious and laborious one.
CHAPTER XLI.
ORANGE FREE STATE.
The Dutch settlers at the Cape had always been strongly in favor of slavery; hence, when Great Britain caused the emancipation of slavery throughout her dependencies in South Africa, great dissatisfaction and discontent were felt and manifested by the Boers.
Their only desire seemed to be to get into a country where they might not only steal land from the original owners, but capture and enslave the natives of the sections they chose to invade; in fact, to do as seemed best in their own eyes, irrespective of what others might think, and regardless of the laws of humanity and brotherly love. Accordingly, a large number migrated, with their wagons and various possessions, in a northerly direction across the Drachenberg Mountains and the Orange River. Here they settled in the territories now known as Natal, Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, or South African Republic.