amongst the Kaffir races of to-day. Some of the
words in common use amongst the Kaffirs in Masho-
naland are very curious. Anything small, whether
it be a child or to indicate that the price paid for
anything is insufficient, they term piccanini; the
word is universal, and points to intercourse with
other continents. The term Morunko, or Molungo,
universally applied to white men, is probably of
Zulu origin, and has been connected—with what
reason I know not—with Unkulunkulu, a term to
denote the Supreme Being. At any rate it is distinctly
a term of respect, and certainly has nothing
to do with the Mashona language, in which Muali or
Mali is used to denote God.
Finally, at long last, after exactly three months to
a day of ‘ trekking ’ in our ox waggons, the mighty
ruins of Zimbabwe were reached on June 6, 1891,
and we sat down in the wilderness to commence our
operations, with the supreme delight of knowing that
for two months our beds would not begin to shake
and tumble us about before half our nights were over.
CHAPTER III
CAMP L IF E AND WORK A T ZIMBABWE
O u r camp was pitched on slightly rising ground
about 200 yards from the large circular ruin at
Zimbabwe, and was for the space of two months a
busy centre of life and work in the midst of the
wilderness. There were our two waggons, in which
we slept; hard by was erected what our men called
an Indian terrace, a construction of grass and sticks
in which we ate, and which my wife decorated with
the flowers gathered around us—the brilliant red
spokes of the flowering aloes, which grew in magni-
ncent fiery clusters all over the rocks, the yellow
everlasting (Helipterum incanum), which grew in profusion
in a neighbouring swamp, wreaths of the
pink bignonia, festoons of which decorated the ruins
and the neighbouring kraal. Besides these she had
the red flowers of the Indian shot (Canna indica),
which was found in abundance on the hill fortress,
fronds of the Osmunda regalis and tree fern, the white
silky flowers of the sugar tree (Protea mellifera), and
many others at her disposal, a wealth of floral decoration
which no conservatory at home could supply.
Our tent was our drawing-room ; and in addition