and it was left for Herr Carl Mauch to re-discover it about twenty years ago, and for Mr. Rider Haggard to weave the stories of the negroes regarding it into his weird romances, which, however startling they may be, are not more weird than the many tales that one hears from the negroes even now when they are collected round a camp fire after the day labours are done. The most thrilling romance and the most 'eerie' ghost story find a fitting atmosphere in Africa. The character of its people, their curious superstitions, its scenery and the unique style of its remarkable vegetation, as seen in its primeval forests and its gigantic trees-these give the atmosphere of Africa its weird tone.

Nearly three years ago some officers from the British South African Company's expedition into Mashonaland visited the ruins, and the accounts which they sent home excited a keen interest in this country, and it was considered desirable that the ruins should be thoroughly examined.

When I visited Zimbabwe with Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent last year, the appearance of the great temple was sufficient to fire the dullest imagination. After a long, hard, and difficult journey, our waggons arrived within two miles of the great temple, and we eagerly set off on foot to this goal of our four months' travelling. We arrived under its wall just as the sun was setting, and we hastily penetrated through a breach in the wall. We found the whole interior filled with the densest tropical undergrowth, through which grew great trees, from whose branches hung a network of tangled creepers and lianas. We cut a way through the undergrowth, and when the last of the daylight was lingering, we reached the base of the great tower which stood up through the dense foliage, and the scene there, in the dim light, was so awe-inspiring that it was difficult to persuade oneself that the place was not haunted by the spirits of a long-forgotten race.

We returned to our waggons in the dark, and although we lost our way in the bush and found much pain and trouble in searching for our home, yet we were happy that night when we discussed things around our fire that we had made this hasty visit to the temple, and satisfied ourselves that the troubles of our journey had been amply repaid by what we had reached.

The stone-built ruins of Mashonaland are distributed over a wide geographical area. One finds them as far west as Tati in Matabeleland, as far

south as the Limpopo, and as far north as the Zambezi. They have not been found farther eastward than the edge of the high plateau, but we need not assume that they do not exist in the low country near the Sofala coast, for they might there easily escape observation in the thick bush.

The ruins may be divided into three classes. Those of the first and most ancient class are all either circular in form, or are built on a series of circular curves. The walls are built in extremely regular level courses of masonry, but of unhewn blocks of granite about the size of our granite paving stones. The more regularly shaped blocks have been selected for the facing of the walls, and the less shapely stones have been carefully built inside. All of these buildings, which are fairly complete, have the outer wall decorated on the side which faces the sun, when either rising or setting at one of the solstices, by a pattern of a geometrical kind. The placing of this pattern is very accurate.

The ruins of the second class are rough imitations of the more ancient ones. Their courses are less even, their outlines less regular, and although they have similar geometric decorations, these are generally much less accurately oriented. Also, they are not built on the same mathematical system as the more ancient ones. They seem to be imitations of the older buildings, made not by the same people, but by another less ancient race.

The third class of ruins are of much poorer and less regular workmanship, bear no decorations whatever, and are not made on any regular plan. They have probably been built by the black inhabitants of the country, and we find Kaffirs, even to-day, constructing similar walls.

In none of the three classes of buildings is mortar used.

Besides Zimbabwe we visited three ruins of the first class, one of the second, and encountered many of the third class.

At Zimbabwe there are many ruins of each of the three classes, but I shall describe only the ruins on Zimbabwe hill, and the great temple on the plain below. The hill rises about 300 feet above the plain. On three sides it ascends steeply for about two thirds of this height, and the summit is composed of immense blocks of granite which form a broken ridge about fifty feet high. Behind this ridge on the south-west side, there is a small level plateau about fifty feet wide, and it is bounded by a precipice which falls

90 feet sheer towards the south.

The ruins stand along this little ledge or plateau and cover also another little level patch at the west end of the line of granite boulders. They occupy an almost impregnable position, for the insurmountable granite boulders and the precipice defend all but the western end, and this has been defended by a very strong semi-circular wall. There are three entrances to the enclosure. One is through a very narrow break in the line of boulders at the eastern end, the other leads by some intricate passages past one end of the great western wall, and the third is through a cleft in the precipice, which will be shown you in a photograph. These walls compose two important temples and a number of less important buildings. The thick curved western wall forms the most important part of the western temple. The eastern temple, which measures about 60 feet across, stands under a great boulder or cliff about fifty feet high. On two sides it is enclosed by cliffs, and the rest of the enclosure is formed by a curved wall. On the part of this wall which faces the sun when rising at the summer solstice, there is constructed a decoration of the dentelle kind, formed by placing the stones of two courses diamond wise. There is a great rock poised on the summit of the cliff which forms the northern wall of the temple, and it seems to have been an object of adoration to the worshippers in the temple below. This rock is about the highest point on the hill, and it is a remarkable-looking object when seen from the south side.

The temples are unique in their plan and style of architecture, and do not resemble any buildings found in other lands. The least dissimilar stone remains that I know of are the rough stone circles found so frequently in all the countries of Europe and in many parts of Asia and Northern Africa, and they are parallels to Zimbabwe only in so far as they are partly circular in form, and seem to have been devoted to purposes of solar worship and, perhaps sometimes, of astronomical observation. The Mashonaland temples are generally circular, and never present any angles, and those of the best period never contain a straight wall. They are all built of small blocks of granite which have been derived from the surrounding rock, which generally breaks up in layers, and which is traversed by joints. On no stone has a chisel mark been found, and rarely does even a hammer seem to have been used to shape the stones; and the people of Zimbabwe could probably say of their temple