The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland: being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891 ... With a chapter on the orientation and mensuration of the temples by R. M. W. Swan

Front matter

MASHONALAND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. First Edition, 8vo. November 1892 ; New and Cheaper Edition, with additional Appendix, crown Svo. August 1893. Pitl. I1..I, fj t't.t-Oir Pr,.rr,.,ltn,,.. „t thr Rt^-.tl l„„yi-.tnhti,tl .SoriVty , 1892. F5WeJlir Itrh .tixtl Ud, .',<,,,.,,- THE RUINED CITIES OP MASHONALAND BEIXG A RECORD OF EXCAVATION AND EXPLORATION IN 1S01 BY J. THEODORE BEN1\ F.S.A. F.R.G.S. AUTHOR Oif 'THE CYCLADES, OR LTFE AMOXUST THE IKSL'LAB GRS-EKS ' ETC. WITH A CHAPTER ON THB ORIENTATION AND MENSURATION OF THE TEMPLES BY E. M. W. SWAN NEW EDITION LONDON LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. AND NEW YOEK : 15 EAST IO" STEEET 1893 All riijhlt rettrced

Preface

■j , i THE SECOND EDITION In looking over this work for a second edition, I find little to add to tlie material as it appeared in the first, and next to nothing to alter. Sir John Willoughby has kindly supplied me with details con cerning five weeks' excavation which he carried on the summer following the one which we spent there, the results of which, however, appear only to have produced additional specimens of the objects we found — namely, crucibles with traces of gold, fragments of decorated bowls, phalli, &c. — but no further object to assist us in unravelling the mystery of the primitive race which built the ruins. No one of the many reviewers of my work has criticised adversely my archæological standpoint with regard to these South African remains : on the contrary, I continue to have letters on the subject from all sides which make me more than ever con vinced that the authors of these ruins were a northern MASHONALAND VI race coming from Arabia — a race which spread more extensively over the world than we have at present any conception of, a race closely akin to the Phœni cian and the Egyptian, strongly commercial, and eventually developing into the more civilised races of the ancient world.

Professor D. H. Miiller, of Vienna, endorses our statements concerning the form and nature of the buildings themselves in his work ' Burgen und Schlosser' (ii. 20', to which he kindly called my attention ; and Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen has also favoured me with the following remarks on certain analogous points that have struck him during an archæological tour in Egypt this last winter : — The Hotels Gods over the Mines in Mashonalaiid. A curious parallel and possible explanation to the birds fnund in Mashonaland over the works at Zimbabwe seems to me to be afforded by the study of the mines and quarries of the ancient Egyptians. During my explorations in Egypt this winter I visited a large number of quarries, and was much struck by noticing that in those of an early period the hawk nearly always occurs as a guardian emblem.

Of this we have several examples. In the Wady Magharah, the mines of which were worked for copper and turquoise by the ancient Egyptians of tlie period of the Third and Fourth Dynasties, especiallv by Senefrn, Kufu, and Kephren, the figure ofthe hawk is found sculptured upon the rocks as the special emblem of the god of the mines. Another striking example of this connection of the hawk with the mines is afforded by a quarry worked

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION VII for alabaster, which I visited in February of this year. The quarry is situated in the Gebel-Kiawleh, to the east of tho Siut road. It is a large natural cave, which has been worked into a quarry yielding a rich yellow alabaster, such as was used for making vases and toilet vessels. Over the door were sculptured the cartouches of Teta, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty, but, as may be seen from the accompanying sketch, in the centre of the lintel was a panel on which is sculptured the figure of a hawk. This quarry was only worked during Sixth and Twelfth Dynasties, as in the interior were found inscriptions of Amen-em-hat II. and Usortesen III. A third example of this association of the hawk and the mines is afforded by a quarry of the period of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

In the mountains at the back of the plain of Tel el-Amarna is a large limestone quarry. On one pillar of this great excavation extending far into the hill is sculptured the cartouche of Queen Tii. On another column we have the hawk and emblems of the goddess Hathor, V^- , to whom all mines were sacred. This seems to show that the hawk was the emblem of the goddess Hathor, to whom all mines were sacred, as we know from the inscription at Denderah, where the king says, ' I bestow upon thee the mountains, to produce for thee the stones to be a delight to see.' And it must be remembered that the region of Sinai was especially sacred to the goddess Hathor. This association of mines with Hathor especially explains the birds, as, according to Sinaitic in scriptions, she was in this region particularly worshipped.

Here were temples to her where she was worshipped as 'the sublime Hathor, queen of heaven and earth and the dark depths below ' ; and here she was also associated with the sparrow-hawk of Supt, ' the lord of the East.' This association with Sinai, and also with Arabia and Punt, which is attached to the goddess Hathor, and her connection with the MASHONALAND mines in Egypt, seems to me to be most important in con nection with the emblem of the hawk in the mines at Zimbabwe. According to the oldest traditions of the Egyptians there was a close association between Hathor, the goddess of Ta- Netu, ' the Holy Land,' and Punt. She was called the ' Queen and Ruler of Punt.' Now, Punt was the Somali coast, the Ophir of the Egyptians ; but, at the same time, there was undoubtedly a close association between it and Arabia, and indeed, as Brugsch remarks, there is po need to limit it to Somali land, but to embrace in it the coasts of Yemen and Hydramaut. ' Here in these regions,' he says (' Hist.

Eg.' p. 117), 'we ought to seek, as it appears to ns, for those mysterious places which in the fore ages of all history the wonder-loving Cushite races, like swarms of locusts, left in passing from Arabia and across the sea to set foot on the rich and blessed Punt and the " Holy Land," and to continue their wanderings into the interior in a northerly and western direction. We may also bring this connection between Punt, Sinai, and Egypt more close in the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, when we see on a rock-cut tablet at Sinai, in the Wady Magharah, the dual inscription of Hatsepsu and Thothmes III., who present their offerings to the " lord of the East, the sparrow-hawk Supt, and the heavenly Hathor." ' With all these facts before us there seems little doubt that the association between the hawks and the mines and miners is a very ancient one, and may be attributed to either ancient Egyptian, or rather, I think, to very ancient Arabian times ; for, as we know from the inscriptions of Senefru, the builder of the Pyramid of Medum, the mines in Sinai were worked by ' foreigners,' who may have been Chaldeans or ancient Arabians. Another point which seems to me to throw some additional light upon this subject, and again imply a possible

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION IX Arabian connection, is the remarkable ingot mould discovered at Zimbabwe. The shape is exactly that of the curious ob jects, possibly ingots of some kind, which are represented as being brought by the Amu in the tomb of Khemmhotep at Beni Hasan, an event which took place in the ninth year of the reign of King Usortesen II., of the Twelfth Dynasty. The shape is very interesting, as it has evidently been chosen for the purposes of being tied on to donkeys or carried by slaves. The curious phalli found at Zimbabwe may also resemble the same emblems found in large numbers near tbe Speos Artemidos, the shrine of Pasht, near to Beni Hasan, and may have been associated with the goddess Hathor. There are many other features which seem to me to bear out a distinctly Arabo-Egyptian theory as to the working of this ancient gold-field, and future study will no doubt bring these in greater prominence. w R „ T.osnAW,v W. St. C. Boscawex.

Certain critics from South Africa have attacked my derivations of words. I admit that the subject is open to criticism ; almost anyone could state a derivation for such words as Zimbabwe, Makalanga, Mashona, and they would all have about the same degree of plausibility. Some people write and tell me that they are quite sure I am right ; others, again, write and tell me that they are quite sure I am wrong. Such being the case, I prefer to let the derivations stand as I originally put them until positive proof be brought before me, and for that I feel sure I shall have to wait a long time. J. THEODORE BENT. 13 Great Cumberland Place : May 26, 1893. CONTENTS

Part I On The Road To The Ruins

chap. rime I. The Journey up by the Kalahari Desert Eoutb . 3 II. First Impressions of Mashonaland 31 III. Camp Lite and Wop.k at Zimbabwe . . . .00 part n DEVOTED TO THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE RUINED CITIES IV. Description of the various Ruins 95 V. On the Orientation and Measurements of Zimbabwe Ruins, by R. M. W. Swan 141 VI. The Finds at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins . . . 179 VII. The Geography and Ethnology of the Mashonaland Ruins MASHONALAND

Part III Exploration Journeys In Mashonaland

cmp. pao]_ VIII. Down to the Sabi River and Matindela Ruins . 247 IX. Fort Salisbury and the Old Workings and Ruins of the Mazoe Valley ....... 279 X. Our Embassy to the Chief 'Mtoko 301 Xs. The Ruined Cities in Mangwendi's, Chipunza's, and Makoni's Countries 336 XII.

The Journey to the Coast ...... 301 APPENDICES A. Notes on the Geography and Meteorology of Mashonaland, by R. M. W. Swan 389 B. List of Stations in Mashonaland Astronomically Observed, with Altitudes, by R. M. W. Swan . ... 398 C. Addenda to Chapter V., by R. M. W. Swan . . . 401 D. Trogress in Mashonaland summarised from November 1891 to May 1893 40_ INDEX ILLUSTEATIONS I'AQR Mr. Theodore Bent 3 Making Thongs of Oxhide 19 Wooden Pillow 30 Ancient Egyptian Pillow in the British Museum . . . 37 Wooden Dollasses or Divining Tablets . . . . .38 Bone Dollasses 39 Gourds for Baling Water 40 Wooden Mortar, Bowl, and Porridge Bowl . . . . 41 Woman's Girdle, with Cartridge Cases, Skin-scrapers, and Medicine Phials attached 44 Wooden Hair Comb, Chibi's Country 45 Granary Decorated with Breast and Furrow Pattern . 46 Wooden Pillow representing Human Form . . . . 47 Iron Skin-scraper, and Needles in Cases . . . .48 Mrs. Theodore Bent 61 Umgabe and his Indunas 67 Hatchet . . . ' 70 Carved Knives 71 Bone Ornaments 72 Wooden Snuff-boxes 74 Boy beating Drum MASHONALAND PAGX Drum Decorated with ' Breast and Furrow ' Pattern, and Plain Drum 78 Flaying the Piano 80 Makalanga Piano SI Hut at Umgabe's Kr.AAL with Euphorbia behind . . .89 At Cherumbila's Kraal 91 Ruin on the Lundi River 'J 7 General View of Zimbabwe 101 Main Entrance of Circular Ruin at Zimbabwe . . . 106 Large Circular Ruin, Zimbabwe 107 Pattern on Large Circular Ruin at Zimbabwe . . . 109 Large Round Tower in Circular Ruin, Zimbabwe . . . 113 Round Tower and Monolith Decoration on the Fortress at Zimbabwe 123 Approach to the Acropolis 125 The Platform with Monoliths, etc., on the Fortress at Zimbabwe . 127 Approach to the Fortress by the Cleft, Zimbabwe . . 133 Baobab Tree in Matindela Ruins 136 Walled-up Entrance and Pattern on Matindela Ruins . . 137 Map of Zimbabwe District 143 The two Towers 149 Coin of Byblos showing the Round Tower .... 150 The Triple Walls at Zimbabwe . 153 Within the Double Walls, Zimbabwe 171 Soapstone Bird on Pedestal 180 Soapstone Birds on Pedestals _ iyi Front and Back of a Broken Soapstone Bird on Pedestal . 183 Bird on Pedestal 134 Bird on Pedestal from the Zodiac of Denderah . . . 185 Miniature Birds on Pedestals . . ' 1B7 Ornate Phallus, Zimbabwe ; and Phœnician Column in the Louvre ILLUSTRATIONS XV PAO V Long Decorated Soapstone Beam in two Pieces . . . 190 Decorated Soapstone Beams ...... 191, 192 Collection of Strange Stones 193 Fragment of Bowl with Procession of Bulls . . . . 194 Fragment of Bowl with Hunting Scene 195 Bowl with Zebras 196 Fragment of Soapstone Bowl with Procession . . .. 197 Fragments of Soapstone Bowls with Ear of Corn and Lettering 198 Letters from Proto-Arabian Alphabet 199 Letters on a Rock in Bechuanaland, copied by Mr.

A. A. Anderson 199 Soapstone Bowls 200, 201 Fragment of Bowl with Knobs 202 Soapstone Cylinder from Zimbabwe 202 Object from Temple of Paphos, Cyprus 203 Glass Beads, Celadon Potteby, Persian Pottery, and Arabian Glass 205 Fragment of Bowl of Glazed Pottery . . ■ . . 206 Fragments of Pottery 207 Top of Pottery Bowl, Pottery Sow, and Whorls . 203, 209 Weapons 210 Iron Bells and Bronze Spear-head .... 211,212 Battle-axes and Arrows 2.3, 214 Gilt Spear-head 216 Tools 217 Ancient Spade 218 Soapstone Ingot Mould, Zimbabwe 218 Ingot of Tin found in Falmouth Harbour . . . . 219 Soapstone Object . 219 Bevelled Edge of Gold-smelting Furnace . . . . 220 a MASHONALAND XVI F.\r,s Crucibles for Smelting Gold found at Zimbabwe. . . 221 Fragments of Pottery Blow-pipes from Furnace . . . 222 Metzwandira 249 Chief's Iron Sceptre, and Iron Razor 253 Rock near Makori Tost Station 254 Knitted Bag 255 Larder Tree 256 Reed Snuff-boxes and Grease-holder 257 Decorated Hut Boor . . . 259 Straw Hat 260 Decorated Heads 262 Chief's Tomb . . 271 Interior of a Hut 274 Household Store for Grain, with Native Drawings . . 275 Native Drawings 276 Native Bowl from the Mazoe Valley 286 Ruin in Mazoe Valley 293 Three Venetian Beads; one Copper Bead; three old White Venetian Beads; Bone Whorl, Medicine Phials, and Bone Ornaments 297 Tattooed Women from Chibi's, Gambidji's, and Kunzi's Countries , . . 304 Wooden Bowl from Musungaikwa's Kraal 305 Makalanga Iron Smelting Furnace 303 Goatskin Bellows and Blow-pipe for Iron Smelting . . 309 Woman's Dress of Woven Bark Fibre . . , . . . 310 Bracelets 313 Wooden Platter from Lutzi 310 Earring, Stud for the Lip, and Battle-axe . . . . 320 Powder-horn _ 32i A Collection of Combs . _ 3^2 Wooden Spoon.

Lutzi , t _ ILLUSTRATIONS XVII Bushman Drawings near 'Mtoko's Kraal . . . 332, 333 Mangwendi's Kraal 338 Bushman Drawings from Nyanger Rock 345 Chipunza's Kraal 349 Decorated Post 358 Map of Matabele, Mashona, and Manica Land . Frontispiece

Part I On The Road To The Ruins

B CHAPTEE I THE JOURNEY UP BY THE KALAHARI DESERT ROUTE In a volume devoted to the ruined cities of Ma shonaland I am loth to introduce remarks in narrative form relating how we got to them and how we got away. Still, however, the incidents of our journeyings to and fro offer certain features which may be interesting from an an thropological point of view. The study of the natives and their customs occupied our leisure moments when MR. THEODORE BENT not digging at Zimbabwe or travelling too fast, and a record of what we saw amongst them, comes legiti mately, I think, within the scope of our expedition. B Por the absence of narrative of sport in these pages I feel it hardly necessary to apologise. So much has been done in this line by the colossal Nimrodswho have visited South Africa that any trifling experiences we may have had in this direction are not worth the telling.

My narrative is, therefore, entirely confined to the ruins and the people ; on other South African subjects I do not pretend to speak with any authority whatsoever. Three societies subscribed liberally to our ex pedition — namely, the Eoyal Geographical Society, the British Chartered Company of South Africa, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science — without which aid I could never have un dertaken a journey of such proportions; and to the officers of the Chartered Company, with whom we naturally came much in contact, I cannot tender thanks commensurate with their kindness ; to their assistance, especially in the latter part of our journey, when we had parted company with our waggons and our comforts, we owe the fact that we were able to penetrate into unexplored parts of the country with out let or hindrance, and without more discomforts than naturally arise from incidents of travel.

Serious doubts as to the advisability of a lady undertaking such a journey were frequently brought before us at the outset ; fortified, however, by previous experience in Persia, Asia Minor, and the Greek Islands, we hardly gave these doubts more than a passing thought, and the event proved that they were wholly unnecessary. My wife was the only one of our party who escaped fever, never having a day's illness during the whole year that we were away from home. She was able to take a good many photographs under circumstances of exceptional difficulty, and instead of being, as was prophesied, a burden to the expedition, she furthered its interests and contributed to its ultimate success in more ways than one. Mr. Eobert McNair Wilson Swan accompanied us in the capacity of cartographer ; to him I owe not only the maps and plans which illustrate this volume, but also much kindly assistance in all times of difficulty.

We three left England at the end of January 189] , and returned to it again at the end of January 1892, having accomplished a record rare in African travel, and of which we are justly proud — namely, that no root of bitterness sprang up amongst us. We bought two waggons, thirty-six oxen, and heaps of tinned provisions at Kimberley. These we conveyed by train to Vryberg, in Bechuanaland, which place we left on March 6. An uninteresting and un eventful ' trek ' of a week brought us to Mafeking, where we had to wait some time, owing to a deluge of rain, and from this point I propose to commence the narrative of my observations. Bechuanaland is about as big as France, and a country which has been gradually coming under the sphere of British influence since Sir Charles Warren's campaign, and which in a very few years must of necessity be absorbed into the embryo empire which Mr. Cecil Ehodes hopes to build up from the Lakes to Cape Town.

At present there are three degrees of intensity of British influence in Bechuanaland in proportion to the proximity to headquarters — firstly, the Crown colony to the south, with its rail way, its well-to-do settlements at Tarings, Vryberg, and Mafeking, and with its native chiefs confined within certain limits ; secondly, the British protec torate to the north of this over such chiefs as Batu en, Pilan, Linchwe, and Sechele, extending vaguely to the west into the Kalahari Desert, and bounded by the Limpopo Eiver and the Dutchmen on the east ; thirdly, the independent dominions of the native chief Khama, who rules over a vast territory to the north, and whose interests are entirely British, for with their assistance only can he hope to resist the attacks of his inveterate foe King Lobengula of Matabeleland.

Two roads through Bechuanaland to Mashonaland were open to us from Mafeking : the shorter one is by the river, which, after the rains, is muddy and fever-stricken ; the other is longer and less fre quented ; it passes through a corner of the Kalahari Desert, and had the additional attraction of taking us through the capitals of all the principal chiefs : consequently, we unhesitatingly chose it, and it is this which I now propose to describe. We may dismiss the Crown colony of Bechuana land with a few words. It differs little from any other such colony in South Africa, and the natives and their chiefs have little or no identity left to them. Even the once famous Montsoia, chief of the Ba-rolongs of Mafeking, has sunk into the lowest depths of servile submission ; he receives a monthly pension of 25.., which said sum he always puts under his pillow and sleeps upon ; he is avaricious in his old age, and dropsical, and surrounded by women who delight to wrap theirswarthy frames in gaudy garments from Europe.

He is nominally a Christian, and has been made an F.O.S., or Friend of Ally Sloper, and, as the latter title is more in accordance with his tastes, he points with pride to the diploma which hangs on the walls of his hut. From Mafeking to Kanya, the capital of Batuen, chief of the Ba-Ngwatetse tribe, is about eighty miles. At first the road is treeless, until the area is reached where terminates the cutting down of timber for the support of the diamond mines at Kimberley, a pro cess which has denuded all southern Bechuanaland of trees, and is gradually creeping north. The rains were not over when we started, and we found the road saturated with moisture ; and in two days, near the Eamatlabama Biver, our progress was just one mile, in which distance our waggons had to be un loaded and dug out six times.

But Bechuanaland dries quickly, and in a fortnight after this we had nothing to drink but concentrated mud, which made our tea and coffee so similar that it was impossible to tell the difference. On one occasion during our midday halt we had all our oxen inoculated with the virus of the lung sickness, for this fatal malady was then raging in Khama's country. Our waggons were placed side by side, and with an ingenious contrivance of thongs our conductor and driver managed to fasten the plunging animals by the horns, whilst a string steeped in the virus was passed with a needle through their tails. Sometimes after this process the tails swell and fall off; and up country a tailless ox has a value peculiarly his own. It is always rather a sickly time for the poor beasts, but as we only lost two out of thirty-six from this disease we voted it successful.

I think Kanya is the first place where one realises that one is in savage Africa. Though it is under British protection it is only nominally so, to prevent the Boers from appropriating it. Batuen, the chief, is still supreme, and, like his father, Gasetsive, he is greatly under missionary influence. He has stuck up a notice on the roadside at the entrance to the town in Sechuana, the language of the country, Dutch, and English, which runs as follows : ' I, Batuen, chief of Ba-Ngwatetse, hereby give notice to my people, and all other people, that no waggons shall enter or leave Kanya on Sunday. Signed, September 28th, 1889.' If any one transgresses this law Batuen takes an ox from each span, a transaction in which piety aud profit go conveniently hand in hand. Kanya is pleasantly situated amongst low hills well clad with trees.

It is a collection of huts divided into circular kraals hedged in with palisades, four to ten huts being contained in each enclosure. These are again contained in larger enclosures, forming separate communities, each governed by its hereditary sub-chief, with its kotla or parliament circle in its midst. On the summit of the hill many acres are covered with these huts, and there are also manjin the valley below. Certain roughly-constructed walls run round the hill, erected when the Boers threatened an invasion ; but now these little difficulties are past, and Batuen limits his warlike tendencies to quarrelling with his neighbours on the question of a border line, a subject which never entered their heads before the British influence came upon them. All ordinary matters of government and justice are discussed in the large kotla before the chief's own hut ; but big questions, such as the border question, are discussed at large tribal gatherings in the open veldt.

There was to be one of these gatherings of Batuen's tribe near Kanya on the following Monday, and we regretted not being able to stop and witness so interesting a ceremony. The town is quite one of the largest in Bechuana land, and presents a curious appearance on the summit of the hill. The kotla is about 200 feet in diameter, with shady trees in it, beneath which the monarch sits to dispense justice. We passed an idle afternoon therein, watching with interest the women of Batuen's household, naked save for a skin loosely thrown around them, lying on rugs before the palace, and teaching the children to dance to the sound of their weird music, and making the air ring with their merry laughter. In one corner Batuen's slaves were busy filling his granaries with maize just harvested. His soldiers paraded in front of his house, and kept their suspicious eyes upon us as we sat ; many of them were quaintly dressed in red coats, which once had been worn by British troops, and soft hats with ostrich feathers in them, whilst their black legs were bare.

Ma-Batuen, the chief's mother, received us some what coldly when we penetrated into her hut ; she is the chief widow of old Gasetsive, Batuen's father, a noted warrior in his day. The Sechuana tribes have very fuDny ideas about death, and never, if possible, let a man die inside his hut ; if he does accidentally behave so indiscreetly thejr pull down the wall at the back to take the corpse out, as it must never go out by the ordinary door, and the hut is usually aban doned. Gasetsive died in his own house, so the wall had to be pulled down, and it has never been repaired, and is abandoned. Batuen built himself a new palace, with a hut for his chief wife on his right, and a hut for his mother on the left. His father's funeral was a grand affair ; all the tribe assembled to lament the loss of their warrior chief, and he was laid to rest in a lead coffin in the midst of his kotla.

The superstitious of the tribe did not approve of the coffin, and imagine that the soul may still be there making frantic efforts to escape. All the Ba-Ngwatetse are soldiers, and belong to certain regiments or years. When a lot of the youths are initiated together into the tribal mysteries generally the son of a chief is amongst them, and he takes the command of the regiment. In the old ostrich-feather days Kanya was an important trading station, but now there is none of this, and inasmuch as it is off the main road north, it is not a place of much importance from a white man's point of view, and boasts only of one storekeeper and one missionary, both men of great importance in the place. After Kanya the character of the scenery alters, and you enter an undulating country thickly wooded, and studded here and there with red granite kopjes, or gigantic boulders set in rich green vegetation, looking for all the world like pre-Baphaelite Italian pictures.

Beneath a long kopje, sixteen miles from Kanya, nestles Masoupa, the capital of a young chief, the son of Pilan, who was an important man in his day, and broke off from his own chief Linchwe, bringing his followers with him to settle in the Ba- Ngwatetse country as a sort of sub-chief with nominal independence ; it is a conglomeration of bee-hive huts, many of them overgrown with gourds, difficult to distinguish from the mass of boulders around them. When we arrived at Masoupa a dance was going on — a native Sechuana dance — in consequence of the full moon and the rejoicings incident on an abundant harvest. In the kotla some forty or more men had formed a circle, and were jumping round and round to the sound of music. Evidently it was an old war dance degenerated ; the sugar-cane took the place of the assegai, many black legs were clothed in trousers, and many black shoulders now wore coats ; but there are still left as relics of the past the ostrich feather in the hat, the fly whisk of horse, jackal, or other tail, the iron skin-scraper round the neck, which repre sents the pocket-handkerchief amongst the Kaffirs with which to remove perspiration ; the flute with one or two holes, out of which each man seems to produce a different sound ; and around the group of dancing men old women still circulate, as of yore, clapping their withered hands and encouraging festivity.

It was a sight of considerable picturesque ness amid the bee-hive huts and tall overhanging rocks. Masoupa was once the residence of a missionary, but the church is now abandoned and falling into ruins, because when asked to repair the edifice at their own expense the men of Masoupa waxed wroth, and replied irreverently that God might repair His own house ; and one old man who received a blanket for his reward for attending divine service is reported to have remarked, when the dole was stopped, ' No more blanket, no more hallelujah.' I fear me the men of Masoupa are wedded to heathendom. The accession of Pilan to the chiefdom of Masoupa is a curious instance of the Sechuana marriage laws. A former chief's heir was affianced young ; he died at the age of eight, before succeeding his father, and, according to custom, the next brother, Moshulilla, married the woman ; their son was Pilan, who, on coming of age, turned out his own father, being, as he said, the rightful heir of the boy of eight, for whom he, Moshulilla, the j'ounger brother, had been instrumental in raising up seed.