Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/112

102 be done in an open fire. Pots of this kind are, however, not much used in Damaraland, iron pots of European manufacture being preferred. Other vessels than cooking-vessels being made of wood, the potter's industry of the country is in a course of rapid extinction.

Iron and copper were the only metals known to the natives before the arrival of the Europeans, and they were both called in the Herero language by the same name. The civilized Hereros now use foreign words for copper, silver, and gold, while lead has received its name from the bullets into which it is cast. The pastoral tribes of the Hereros and Ovambandierus have but few smiths of their own, but are served by itinerant smiths from other tribes, who wander around, working in small companies, among the chiefs, till they have earned enough cattle to justify them in returning to their homes. Sometimes they are political refugees who have excited the anger or jealousy of their chiefs in Ovamboland, and are compelled to turn their backs upon their homes till a change of dynasty takes place. These Ovambo smiths brought iron from their native country, where the art of extracting that metal and copper from the ores is understood, and rich ores are found. Iron could formerly be got in Ovamboland only at the cost of great labor, and the smith then had to carry his store on his back some fifteen or twenty days' journey. The metal, therefore, commanded a very high price. As late as about 1840, a simple bracelet of iron wire was an adequate guest's present, and a large fat wether could easily be bought with a span of the old hoop-iron with which trunks were bound. The natives were greatly astonished at seeing the costly metal wasted by the Europeans in boot-nails. Iron had thus the value of a precious metal, and, rusting and changing but little in the dry climate, was worn in ornaments by the Hereros, while other tribes preferred copper and brass. The native smiths now use European iron, and seek out good steel, such as is found in files and bayonets. But iron forged in the old-fashioned way into ornaments and weapons has still considerable value.

A smith's bellows common to all the Bantu peoples consists of two wooden vessels, out of which the air is pumped into the fire through the long, straight horns of the African gemsbok. The Hottentot bellows, which is more generally used in Damaraland, is a long bag, usually made from the whole hide of a goat, at the middle and the end of which is an air-valve. The fore half of the skin is held to the ground and weighted with a stone to press upon the air, which is pumped in by means of the alternate compression and expansion of the rear half. From the point of the bellows, or neck-end of the hide-bag, the air is conducted through a clay pipe or a gemsbok-horn, or, in later times, a gun-barrel, to the fire. It is obvious that only light work can be done with such a bellows; at most, bringing a small piece of iron to a red heat. For tongs, the smiths generally use a bullet-mold, while they formerly took two straight pieces of iron, or,