KUODliSl.sX KL'INS. 505 



testimony was the same. Thex- were tv])icall_\' African negro, 

 they were round or oval, the courses were irregular, and they 

 had l)ecn built on no dehnite i>lan. There were no square 

 corners, and the stones had not been dressed in the proper sense 

 of the term. The natural fracture of the rock had played a 

 large part, and the best face of the stone was ])lace(l outward. 

 All this the writer can personally conhrm, as from a careful 

 examination of Zimbabwe and its associated ruins, 1 became 

 convinced, if further c(in\-iction were needed, oi the truth of 

 Maciver's theory. What specially stritck me was the new- 

 ness of the buildings. The\- had no ancient look about them. 

 There was no sign of weathering to suggest high antiquity — the 

 faces of the stones were too fresh for that — so that they could 

 not have been more than 500 years old, and probably nntch 

 less. The following notes on the various ruins were made 

 at the time: — "The walls are very new; there is no ancient 

 look ab.out them. The courses are irregtilar. and the otttline 

 is not tmiform. The}- could not have been built with the aid 

 of a batten gauge, as no two coiu'ses have exactly the same 

 batten when carefully meastired ; thtis there could have been 

 no definite plan. The stones are only roughly dressed, the 

 natural cleavage of the rock ])laying a considerable jiart. 'J'he 

 best faces are oittward, and the others not dressed at all, and 

 hence the stones have (|tiite a fresh appearance, and there is no 

 sign of long weathering about them. The btiilding of the wall 

 really amotints to erecting two outer walls and filling in the space 

 between with fragments, withotit any attempit to lay courses. 



The " Temjjle " is not a tem])le at all; it was the residence 

 of a chief. The duplication of the walls had nothing to do with 

 worship, and was simply for the purpose of ])rotection ; the 

 stmken passage from tlie x-alley ruins to the temple proves that. 

 The supi)Osed resem])lance to the temple at -\Iarib in Arabia is 

 purely fancifttl, and the herring-bone pattern at the to|) of the 

 eastern wall to the inscription on the Marib temple is equally ima- 

 ginary. Th'e herring-bone itself is nothing remarkable, and occttrs 

 in all the ruins that I have seen, some better and more elaborate 

 than that of Zimbabwe, as for instance, Khami and Nanatali, 

 as may be seen in Maciver's book. The cones were built over 

 the graves of chiefs, hence the great cone marks the grave of 

 some great chief, and the idea still siu^vives in piles of stones 

 or low conical acctmiulations of stones over the graves of chiefs 

 in other parts of South Africa. The other ]:»art of so-called 

 temple was the residence of chief's wives, and ])Ossibh' also some 

 of his indunas. The monoliths of soapstone were not all origin- 

 ally on the walls ; they have been placed there subsequently, but 

 some were used as door-posts, as can be seen in the valley ruins. 

 Soapstone pillars with crocodiles and hawk-like Ijirds carved 

 tipon them, stood at the entrance to the kraal of the great chief 

 or great doctor. They were the totems of the tribe, and hence 

 the insignia of his office. The same thing can be seen at the 



