heads, we got grass cut on which to lay our rugs-
occasionally we found it necessary to encamp on
spots over which a grass fire had passed, and then
we got hopelessly black, and lived like sweeps until
we reached a stream, where we could wash ourselves
aud our clothes.
Lutilo, with the village of Luti perched upon one
of its lower precipices, is quite a grand mountain,
almost Alpine in character, with exquisite views over
the distant Sabi and Manica Mountains. Here we
tarried for almost a whole day to visit an insignificant
set of ruins a few miles distant, called Metemo, but
which formed a link in the great chain of forts
stretching northwards. It had been built in three
circles of very rough stone, somewhat ingeniously put
together on the top of a rounded granite hill, but hopelessly
ruined. So we only tarried there a while to
make a plan, and to rest, and enjoy the lovely view.
The country around here is very thickly wooded,
and on our return to our camp a herd of deer passed
close to us, a species known to the Dutch as Swart-
vit-pens, or «swarthy white paunches,’ but we failed
to get one, a matter of considerable regret from a
commissariat point of view, for meat is scarce in
the villages about here, and our tinned supplies were
getting low.
We struck our camp at Lutilo rather late in the
afternoon, and only got as far as a river called the
Nyatzetse, the crossing of which involved the unloading
of our animals. On the way we passed
through two villages, where the inhabitants were
busily engaged in building huts, for it was evidently
a new encampment, and in making beer, which was
too new to drink; the land around was being freshly
turned up for their fields, after the approved Maka-
langa fashion. First they clear a space of jungle,
leaving the larger trees, and pile up the brushwood
round the roots, then they set fire to the heaps, and
when it is consumed the tree is killed, and more
easy to cut down.
The next day brought us at a very early hour to the
site of the Matindela ruins, which was to be our halting-
place for a few days. The ruins certainly are fine,
but far inferior to those of Zimbabwe; they are
perched on the top of a bare granite rock about 150
feet high, a most admirable strategical position.1 In
the centre of them we pitched our tents for our
welcome halt of three days, and made ourselves as
1 For description of ruins, vide Cliap. IV.