62 G. Elliot Smith on 



gold to exploit and local workmen capable of being employed for 

 such purposes. 



The demonstration of this fact by Mr. W, J. Perry^ is one 

 of the most useful and clarifying results of modern ethnological 

 research, and the proof of his inferences has been established 

 beyond question by Dr. Rivers, who called attention to the 

 fact that in many places in Oceania, Africa and Europe the 

 Indian or Indonesian plant taro is found growing in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the terraces. The presence of this alien plant not 

 only clinches the proof of the introduction from abroad of the 

 idea of making terraces, but also suggests that this may not have 

 happened until contact between India and the West was estab- 

 lished. This argument, however, must not be insisted upon in 

 the case of Southern Arabia, where the terraced method of 

 cultivation is probably of considerable antiquity, certainly earlier 

 than 1500 B C. It may be asked, what evidence is there that the 

 terraces south of Zambesi were made many centuries ago 1 In 

 the great diffusion of culture which began soon after 1000 B.C., 

 the building of great stone monuments and of terracing the sides 

 of hills was associated with the practice of mummification and 

 many other curious customs and beliefs. These are all found 

 intimately associated the one with the other in Mashonaland. 

 We know what chiefly attracted the Phoenicians and determined 

 the sites where they established their colonies. Pearl beds 

 guided their course and the exploitation of deposits of gold and 

 other metals was the anchor that held them to certain spots and 

 not to others. It is inconceivable that the people, whoever they 

 were, who exploited the pearl beds and the gold mines of the 

 Asiatic littoral in the eighth century B.C. are likely to have over- 

 looked the pearls of the Mozambique channel and the gold 

 deposits on both sides of it in Madagascar and Mashonaland. 

 (See map Z.) From the distinctive features of their stone 



^ " The Geographical Distribution of Terraced Cultivation and Irriga- 

 tion." Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philoso- 

 phical Society, Vol. 60, 1916. 



