586 
RUINS OF STONE HOUSES, 
Chap. XXIX. 
came to the confluence, though they carried off all the cattle of 
Mburuma. The guides confirmed this by saying that the Bazunga 
were not attacked, but fled in alarm on the approach of the enemy. 
This mango-tree he knew by its proper name, and we found seven 
others and several tamarinds, and were informed that the cliief 
Mburuma sends men annually to gather the fruit, but, like many 
Africans whoiri I have known, has not had patience to propagate 
more trees. I gave them some little presents for themselves, a 
handkercliief and a few beads, and they were highly pleased with 
a cloth of red baize for Mburuma, which Sekeletu had given me to 
pm’chase a canoe. We were thankful to part good friends. 
Next morning we passed along the bottom of the range, called 
Mazanzwe, and found the ruins of eight or ten stone houses. 
They aU faced the river, and were high enough up the flanks 
of the liill Mazanzwe to command a pleasant view of the broad 
Zambesi. These establishments had all been built on one plan— 
a house on one side of a large court, surrounded by a wall; both 
houses and walls had been built of soft gvay sandstone cemented 
together with mud. The work had been performed by slaves 
ignorant of building, for the stones were not often placed so as to 
cover the seams below. Hence you frequently find the joinings 
forming one seam from the top to the bottom. Much mortar or 
clay had been used to cover dMects, and now trees of the fig 
family grow upon the walls, and clasp them with their roots. 
When the clay is moistened, masses of the walls come down 
by wholesale. Some of the rafters and beams had fallen in, but 
were entire, and there were some trees in the middle of the 
houses as large as a man’s body. On the opposite or south bank 
of the Zambesi, we saw the remains of a wall on a height which 
was probably a fort, and the church stood at a central point, 
formed by the right bank of the Loangwa and the left of the 
Zambesi. 
The situation of Zumbo was admirably well chosen as a site 
for commerce. Looking bacl^ivards we see a mass of high, dark 
mountains, covered with trees; behind us rises the fine high 
hiU Mazanzwe, which stretches away northwards along the left 
bank of the Loangwa; to the S.E. lies an open country with 
a small round hill in the distance called Tofulo. The mer¬ 
chants, as they sat beneath the verandahs in front of their 
