RIIODKSIAN RI"1NS. 5O9 



been abandoned by its occupants after the incursion nf the 

 Abotshangana (Shangans). This seems to be Ijorne out ii\ a 

 reference to Wihnot's " Monomotapa." P'ather Xicokn) of 

 Tete writes (,1586} : — 



The Zimbas or ^Nluzimbas arc new people who from iheir ntitive 

 kraals have entered Ethiopia, killing everything, eating human Hesli. Thev 

 are to this country what the Goths, Huns, and A'andals were to F.urope. 

 They advanced quickly through many lands, and as they met with no 

 resistance desolated all. The natives hide their jirovisions. and join 

 -these barbarians to escape death and their tieth. They ran through 

 three hundred leagues on the shores, entered ^ilonomotapa. entrenched 

 themselves, and went out on excursions. The Portuguese forlilied them- 

 selves on the Zamliesi, at ])laces distant sixty leagues from the other, 

 one of these places being Sena and another Tete, both under the cn^ders of 

 the Captain-General of Sofala. Tiiese ])laces serve as factories to cillect 

 gold.* 



It is strange that Wihuot (Hd nut see the intphcation of this 

 quotation himself. Here lies the true explanation ijf the 

 abandonment of these fortified towns by the irruptions of 

 maraudins: hordes like the Alautatees and Tembus of more 

 recent times. This must have occurred often in the history of 

 Monomotapa, and 1 am inclined to think that the actual abandon- 

 ment of Zimbabwe was considerabl}- later than the date of the 

 aboVe passage, possibly as late as the attack of the Shangans. 

 This was ]\Iaciver"s explanation, and I have little doubt that it 

 is the correct one. The destruction of Varoswe ( Abalozi) 

 civilization was not at all accomplished liy one tribe, or at one 

 time. It probably extended over several centuries, and may well 

 have begun before Father Nicolao wrote, and ended by the 

 arrival of the Matabele in 1840 or thereabouts. It may be 

 assumed that after each successive attack of barbarians rebuild- 

 ing and reconstruction would be hurried, and hence would cause 

 a decline in workmanship. It is said that down to the time of 

 Augustus, Rome still showed signs of the haste with which it 

 had been rebuilt after being burnt by the Gauls. This would 

 readily account for the diiTerences of style and execution ob- 

 served in the various ruins, and is borne out l)y vrhat Chapa 

 says of Thaba's ka Mambo. 



I now pass on to my second informant, a Shangan named 

 Bote from Alount Silinda in Mashonaland. one of Zwengcuda- 

 ba's people, who came from Natal about 1836, and attacked the 

 Makaranga in Rhodesia. He is an intelligent native, and has 

 been employed for some time as a teacher. He says that he 

 merely rej^eats what he has heard the old people, both ?^lakaranga 

 and Matabele, says many times. This is his story: 



The Makaranga sav that thev paid men (Arabs) to 1)uild these places 

 for them to worship their Amadhlozi (ancestral spirits) m: that they 

 were built a long time ago. so long that they cannot name the chief under 

 whom they were -built. Thev also say that one of the men who lielped 

 to build some of the palaces like Zimbabwe came back long afterwards, in 

 the early days of Lobengula, to look for the m ines where they used to 



* Wilmot : " iSIonomotapa," 21,3. 



