500 KIKJDESIAN RUINS. 



Acropolis ruins. < 'nly the .granite pillars appear to have been on 

 the walls at the beginning."^ 



The valley ruins were the dwellings of the common people. 

 This is evident from the construction. There is no sign of the 

 later and decadent walls. The slipping of the foundations in 

 two cases has been mistaken for such. The sunken i)assage was 

 for communication with the fortified kraal of the chief in case 

 of attack. It would be easy to assault the dwellings on the plain, 

 and everything inside stiggests native occupation, and at a fairly 

 recent date. 



The Acroi)olis occupied a ])osition of strength in case of 

 attack. There were sunken ])assages comnmnicating with the 

 hill, ddie traverses have rotmd corners, anfl the rock passage 

 was suggested bv the natural cleft in the rock, while tlie west 

 passage is similar to that between the tem])le and the valley 

 ruins. There are probably other passages undiscovered. All 

 the buildings, temjjle, and valley ritins. were originall}- enclosed 

 bv a low ring -wall, of which only the portion l)el(jw the Acropolis 

 now remains. Large ])its now full of water remain to show 

 where the clay was dug from to fill u]) the floors on the Acropolis 

 and other ruins. These are quite visiljle in tlie southern and 

 western valleys. 'I^he floors were raised as the occu])ati()n la>t/ed, 

 and thus the walls had to be raised. This is evident on the Acro- 

 polis. The so-called cement is nothing more than native dagga, 

 and is simplv granite soil. Excavations were being carried on at 

 the time of my visit, l^vo native axe-heads had been found 

 8 feet below the present surface of the grotind. They are indis- 

 guishable from axes used to-day in the cotmtry, and on the Zam- 

 besi. Two native hut foundations were also uncovered. The 

 marks of the floors with the smearing as to-day, and the corrti- 

 gation of the poles of which they were built, still remain. The 

 soil inside the walls and forming the platform upon which these 

 huts rested was carried u\) on the heads of the occupiers, and is 

 exactly similar to the granite soil at the bottom of the hill. This 

 had been worked into a paste with cow-dung, and formed the 

 cement of which the floors had been made. The successive 

 smearings could Ije seen. This siliceous granite soil sets as 

 hard as cement. 



There was no stratification of the floors to be seen. They 

 presented a uniform appearance as far as the excavations had 

 gone, which indicated continuous occupation l)v natives, who 

 threw out their rubbish and ashes and gradually raised the sur- 

 face. One was also able to see where huts had been burnt down 

 accidentally or otherwise, and then rebuilt, and also where fires 

 had been lighted for domestic purposes. The excavations in 

 some cases had reached the granite foundation, but the toj) of 

 the hill is very irregular, being comjjosed of granite Ijoulders, 

 some of enormous size. 



'■'" Monoliths or pillars are not confined to the Rhodesian ruin-, jjut 

 have been found at Ilife, in Nigeria, where the people speak of them as 

 '■ Sta\-es of the Gods.'' ( Frolieniiis : "Tlie Voice of Africa.'' 1. jqS. 



