WHO BUILT THE RHODESIAN RUINS? 499 



through the medium of the Moors of Mozambique and Kihva before the 

 Portuguese conquered these lands.* 



These speculations of the worthy Father about Sheba and 

 Ophir may be taken for what they are worth. They really depend 

 for such value as they may possess not upon his personal veracity, 

 but upon the authenticity of the writers to which he refers us and 

 the character of their testimony. But for his own descrip'tion 

 of South-East Africa, and his witness as to what he himself has 

 seen and heard, Dos Santos is as trustworthy and truthful, I dare 

 to say, as any living missionary or civil servant, (taking into con- 

 sideration the scientific knowledge of his age, which only dilYers 

 from our own in the degree of its limitations. 



From the extracts we have given it may be fairly inferred 

 that in the i6th and 17th centuries ancient stone buildings existed 

 in various parts of South-East Africa ; that on account of their 

 antiquity and the mystery of their origin they were regarded v/ith 

 awe by the natives of that day, whose chiefs in many instances 

 used them as sanctuaries and burial-places for their deceased pre- 

 decessors, and perhaps, when their situation was suitable, as 

 military posts and guard-houses ; and that the name of Zimbabwe, 

 ordinarily applied to the Sidades or Coptes (great places) of the 

 reigning Bantu chiefs, was also extended to these royal tombs and 

 fastnesses. t 



Further we have very clear evidence that all the huts and 

 other contemporary structures of the Bantu, including the so- 

 called " palaces " of the chief, their kraals and granaries were 

 built mainly if not entirely of wood and clay or dagga, and cer- 

 tainly not of dressed stone. 



With regard to the so-called mines, the natives only under- 

 stood alluvial working, breaking and grinding stones containing 

 ore and excavation by means of -trenches, but not underground 

 working. 



The general opinion among the natives of that time was that 

 the stone buildings were of remote antiquity, and of supernatural 

 purpose and origin. 



Public Library_, 



Grahamstown. 



Atomic Weight of Nebulium. — In a paper on the 



atomic weierhts of the elements in nebuls, contributed to the 

 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, j. W. 

 Nicholson derives i.3irl--OOi as the atomic weight of nebulium 

 from considerations of the vibrations of a ring of four electrons 

 round a positive nucleus. 



* Records S.E. Africa, 7, 27^-277. 



t The writer does not concur in the distinction drawn by some 

 between the Zimbabwe (Zimbabgi,) of the elliptical temple and the 

 Zimbaoe, Zimbaohe, Zimbaoche of the royal residence. Both words are 

 the same and end with a locative termination " bwe," "che," meaning " the 

 place of — '' Zimba or the king. 



