SOAPSTONE BIRDS ON PED E STA LS . ZIMBABWE
found most of them, would appear to have decorated
the outer wall of the semicircular temple on the hill.
These hirds are all conventional in design. The tallest
stood 5 feet 4 inches in height, the smallest about
half a foot lower. We have six large ones and two
small ones in ah, and probably, from : the number
of soapstone pedestals with
the tops broken off which we
found in the temple, there
were several more. Though
they are all different in
execution, they would appear
to have been intended
to represent the same b ird ;
from the only one in which the
beak1 is preserved to us intact,
we undoubtedly recognise
that they must have
been intended . to represent
hawks or vultures. The
thick neck and legs, the long
talons and the nature of the
plumage point more distinctly
to the vulture ; the s o a p s t o n e b i r d o n p e d e s t a l
decorations on some of them,
namely, the dentelle pattern at the edge' of the wings,
the necklace with a brooch in front and continued
down the back, the raised rosette-shaped eyes, and
the pattern down the back, point to a high degree
of conventionality,, evolved out of some sacred
1. Vide Frontispiece.