The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-06-26
SOUTH AFRICAN RUINS.
Yours tru
H. j. BLACK,
A. G. z. A.

Buildings at ZImbsbwe That May Be
of King SoIOmou's Time
1t would seem that. at some far dis
tant date, people more civilized than
any of the present Kafir tribes had PEN
etrated into the region we now call
Mashonaland, and had maintained it.
self there for considerable period.
Remains of gold workers are found in
many parts of that country, and even as
far as the southwestern part of Mata-
beleland-remains which show that
mining must have been carried on, by
primitive methods, no doubt, but still
upon a scale larger than we can well
deem within the capabilities of the
Kafir tribes as we now see them. There
are, moreover, in these regions, and
usually not far from some old gold
working, pieces of ancient buildings ex-
ecuted with a neatness and finish, as
well az with an attempt at artistic eff
feet, which are entirely absent from the
rough walls, sometimes of loose stones
sometimes plastered with mud, which
the Kafirs build to-day.
These old buildings are, with one ex-
ception, bits of wall inclosing forts or
residences. They are constructed of
small blocks of the granite of the coun-
try, carefully trimmed to be of one size,
and are usually ornamented with sim
pie pattern, such as the so-called her
ringbone" pattern. The one exception
is to be found in the ruins of ZiInbabwe,
in southern Mashonaland. Here a wall
30 feet hiph, and from 6 TO II or IA feet
thick, incloses a large elliptical space,
filled with other buildings, some of
which were apparently intended for the
purpose of worship. There are no in
scriptions of any kind, ard few objects,
except some rudely carved headsof birds,
to supply any indication as to the eth
biological affnities of the people who
erected this building, or as to the nature
of their worship. Such indications as
we have, however, suggest that it was
some form of nature worship. including
the worship of the sun. Weknow from
other sources (including the Egyptian
monuments and the Old TESTAMENT
that there was from very early times
trade between the Red Sea and some
part of East Africa; and we know also
that the worship of natural forces and
of the sun prevailed among the early
Semites, the view that the builders of
Zimbabwe were the Arab or some other
Semitic stock, is at least highly plausi-
BILE.
Two things are quite clear to every
one who examines the ruins, and COM
pares them with the smaller fragments
of ancient building already mentioned.
Those who built Zimbabwe were a race
much. superior to the Bantu tribes,
whose mud huts are now to be found
not far from these still strong and solid
walls; and those other remains scat
tered through the country were either
the work of that superior race. or, at
any rate, were built in imitation of their
style and under the influence they had
left. But whether this race was driven
out, or peaceably withdrew. or became
by degrees absorbed and lost in the sur
rounding Bantu population, we have no
data for conjecture. If they came from
Arabia they must have come more than
70 centuries ago, before the days of No
manned; for they were evidently not
Mussulmans, and it is just as easy to
suppose that they came in the days of
Solomon, Is centuries earlier. James
Bryce. NJ. P. in Century