330 ORIGIN OF ZIMP.AP.WE-CULTURE. 



mining known to the world, ultimately dissolved itself in washing 

 river sand, and finally gold-washing as a general industry became 

 abandoned, and the ores scratched for were only tliose of copper 

 and iron. 



The stages of decay in culture are also shown in the imported 

 cult of worship and ceremonial passing into oblivion before the 

 erection of any of the decadent types of building. Like all 

 intrusions of foreign worship introduced on African soil, the 

 conservative forms of religious practice of the negroid re- 

 asserted themselves and swamped it in overburden and ultimate 

 oblivion. 



The change in culture, invariably from the com])aratively 

 perfect to the altogether crude, is also demonstrated in the 

 location and association of relics and finds. 



In the :\latebeleland ruins, as in all decadent ruins, and also 

 in the debris banks of " subsequent squatters " at the old Zim- 

 babwe type of buildings, the relics and finds are totally inferior 

 in design, material, and workmanship to the class of relics found 

 on the buried original floors of the Zimbabwe Temple. This is 

 an obvious fact known to a hundred examiners, local and 

 Europeans. The extraordinary profusion of highly ornate gold 

 articles on the original floors of the Temple ultimately is replaced 

 by a profusion of crudely made iron, copper, and brass articles 

 found in the debris of " subsequent sc|uatters " at Zimbabwe, and 

 also on the original floors of all deeadent ruins. Dr .Macjver 

 mainly worked in decadent ruins. He found certain Kafir 

 structures, ergo, he argues, all the buildings in Rhodesia are purely 

 Kafir; he finds certain Kafir articles in such ruins, ergo, he 

 argues, all the relics are purely Kafir. 



Ihit what completed my conversion from vhe evolutioii 

 theorv may be stated as follows : 



{a) There is a complete absence of rudimentary structures 

 leading U]:» to Zhnbabwe and the older ruins, and no rudimentary 

 conical towers. There can be no evolution without rudimentary 

 stages. 



ib) The Zimbabwe-culture is displayed on cnie defined area 

 of South Africa only, and the area of buildings strictly corre- 

 sponds to. and is coterminous with, the area of the pre-historic 

 rock mines. 



( (■ ) The Karanga, who, according to definite historical 

 records, have occupied this area for 700 years, if not goo years, 

 and who are of Nyanji origin, as Dr. Kivingstone, Sir H. H. 

 Johnstone. Werner, and other authorities claim, never laid one 

 stone upon another, or worked rock for gold in the country of 

 their origin. 



( d) The ethnological evidences advanced by all Soutli 

 African authorities, from John Barrow in 1797 to Dr. Passargt 

 in 1907. explicitly show there could have been no natural anc 

 unaided evolution of any Bantu people which could have pro 

 duced. within Dr. Maciver's medi?eval and post-mediaeval period 



