our preparations for our excavations at Zimbabwe.
Tools of all descriptions we had luckily brought with
us from Port Tuli, as there were none here when we
arrived. In fact the dearth of everything struck us
forcibly, but by this time doubtless all this will be
remedied, for we were amongst the first waggons to
come up after the rains, and now Port Victoria, with
the recent discovery of good gold reefs in its immediate
vicinity, is bound to become an important place.
Prom Fort Victoria our real troubles of progression
began. It is only fourteen miles from there to
the great Zimbabwe ruins by the narrow Kaffir path,
and active individuals have been known to go there
and back in a day. It took us exactly seven days to
traverse this distance with our waggons. The cutting
down of trees, the skirting of swamps, the making of
corduroy bridges, were amongst the hindrances which
impeded our progress. For our men it was a perpetual
time of toil; for us it was a week of excessive
weariness.
For two nights we were ‘ outspanned ’ by the edge
of a deep ravine, at the bottom of which was a swampy
stream. This had to be bridged with trees and a road
made up and down the banks before our waggons
could cross over it. A few hundred yards from this
spot the river M’shagashi flowed, a considerable
stream, which is within easy reach of Zimbabwe and
eventually makes its way down to the Tokwe. On its
banks we saw several crocodiles basking, and consequently
resisted the temptation to bathe.
By diving into the forests and climbing hills we
came across groups of natives who interested us. It
was the season just then in which they frequent the
forests—the i barking season,’ when they go forth to
collect large quantities of the bark of certain trees,
out of which they produce so much that is useful
for their primitive lives. They weave textiles out of
b a rk ; they make bags and string out of b a rk ; they
make quivers for their arrows, beehives for their bees,
and sometimes granaries, out of bark. The bark
industry is second only to the iron-smelting amongst
the Makalangas.
At the correct season of the year they go off in
groups into the forests to collect bark, taking with
them their wives and their children, carrying with
them their assegais, and fine barbed arrows with
which they shoot mice, a delicacy greatly beloved by
them; they take with them also bags of mealies for
food, and collect bags of caterpillars—brown hairy
caterpillars three inches long, which at this season
of the year swarm on the trees. These they disembowel
and eat in enormous quantities, and what they
cannot eat on the expedition they dry in the sun
and take home for future consumption. Their only
method of making a fire is by rubbing two sticks
dexterously together until a spark appears, with which
they ignite some tinder carried in a little wooden
box attached to their girdles. At night time they
cut down branches from the trees, and make a
shelter for themselves from the wind. It is curious
to see a set of natives asleep, like sardines in a box,
one black naked lump of humanity; if one turns or
E 2