where did they get the large supply of gold, from,
which they poured into Egypt and the then known
world ? In Mashonaland we seem to have a direct
answer to this - question. It would seem to be
evident, that a prehistoric racé built the ruins in
this country, á race like the mythical Pelasgi who
inhabited the shores of Greece and Asia Minor, a race
F R A GM EN T S OF PO T T E R Y B L O W -P IP E S FROM FU RN A C E
like the mythical inhabitants of Great Britain and
France who built Stonehenge and Carnac, a race
which continued in possession down to the earliest
dawnings of history, which provided gold for the
merchants of Phoenicia and Arabia, and which
eventually became influenced by and'perhaps absorbed
in the more powerful and wealthier organisations of
the Semite.
CHAPTER VII
t h e g e o g r a p h y a n d e t h n o l o g y o f t h e
m a s h o n a l a n d r t j in s
T h e ancient geography of the east coast of Africa
is a subject fraught with difficulties on all sides.
To begin with, our authorities are not only meagre,
but they are men who had no practical knowledge
of the subject, and who knew next to nothing of
the vast extent of commercial operations which were
going on outside the limits of the Red Sea. -The
written accounts come to us from either an Alexan-
. drian or Roman source, whereas the practical knowledge
possessed by the Arabs themselves of these
outer waters is lost to us for ever. It was probably
the monopolising policy of the Semitic nations which
induced them to conceal from other countries the
whereabouts of their commercial relations, which
on the one hand extended outside the pillars of
Hercules to the Canaries' and Great Britain, and
on the other hand outside the Straits of Bab-el-
Mandeb to India, China, and the east coast of
Africa. Of these two directions the voyage to
Great Britain was undoubtedly the most adventurous,
the navigation of the Indian Ocean with a