RHODESIAN RUINS. 5 1 5, 



on the Klein Tati River, and I could see no signs 

 at any of these places that the builders had worked 

 from any detinite plan laid down beforehand. The walls of 

 these various buildings are ovals, and not even then are they 

 uniform in height or thickness. They twist in and out in such 

 a manner as to convince one they were built piecemeal. This is 

 furtlier strengthened by the blind courses and other indications 

 of haste and want of intelligence. In fact, only their great 

 thickness prevents them from falling into ruins. Signs of rapid 

 decay are evident everywhere. 



A more detailed description of the ruins at Seiukwe may 

 be of interest, as they have not previously been described. The 

 hill itself is the middle one of three fairly high kopjes running 

 east and west from the eastern bank of the Klein Tati River, 

 and is about 200 feet in perpendicular height. The northern 

 and western sides are precipitous, or very steep slopes. The 

 rock itself is an outcrop of ejiidiorite. and is part of a large 

 intrusion, covering several square miles of country. The walls 

 are built of slabs and fragments of this rock. No special pains 

 have been taken to dress the stones, which are of all shapes, 

 but mostly roughly triangular or oblong. The rock is hard and 

 tough, and it requires considerable force to detach a large frag- 

 ment. The walls are built on rotighly the same plan as Khami, 

 but the stones are not so well dressed. Following the natural 

 features of the hill, first a wall in the form of a retaining wall 

 with a considerable batten has been built right round the hill. 

 At the top there is a fairly high parapet. Between this and the 

 hill the ground has been filled in with fragments and chips, and 

 over that is a la}-er of ashes and refuse of various kinds. Very 

 often the walls have been built up against projecting rocks, and 

 these have been utilised for the platforms with the aid of earth 

 and stones in very much the same wa}' as at the Acropolis, 

 Zimbabwe. Some of the terraces are as much as 30 feet 

 broad, and as the hill is quite a mile in circumference the amount 

 of labour needed to accomplish the building of such was im- 

 mense. There are entrances here and there with traverses as 

 at Khami, and the foundations of the huts are visible in several 

 cases, built of the same kind of blocks as the walls. The hill 

 must have been taken by assault, as the walls are pulled down at 

 various points, and pieces of calcined pottery and rock are 

 met with frequently, showing where the huts had been burnt 

 down.* Near the top there is a second terrace similar to the 

 first, but not so large or so well built. Every advantage has 

 been taken of the defensive features of the hill. I cannot see 

 any signs of great antiquity or of great skill in building, and 

 if the hill were cleared of bush much of interest would hk 

 found. I cannot think that the hill was abandoned before the 

 Matebele incursion in 1840. Where the buildings are better 



* T found a portion of a grinding stone on this hill, similar to those 



of to-dav. 



