of the Pleiades, but that since they had become
Mohammedans the festivals of their religion and its
calendar did not so well regulate their seed-time as
was done in old times. It has been found that
means were provided by the ancient Egyptians for
observing the meridian transits of stars ; and did we
possess detailed and carefully oriented plans of the
temples of Chaldasa and Assyria, there is little doubt
that we should find that the meridian had been
observed there also.
Thus it is evident that the several means which
were adopted at Zimbabwe for observing the motions
of the heavenly bodies were used in other countries
also, and in all cases they seem to have been used
for regulating the time of celebration of religious
•festivals as well as the ordinary affairs of fife. Forms
of nature worship analogous to that practised at
Zimbabwe seem often to have been accompanied in
other countries by an observation of the heavenly
bodies. It is also worthy of note that the stars
which were observed at Zimbabwe seem all to have
been northern ones, and the' builders of these temples
probably acquired the habit of observing these stars
in the northern hemisphere. To this we shall refer
again.
What El Masoudi says of the temples of the
Sabseans of Mesopotamia does not, of course, directly
apply to the temples at Zimbabwe ; but in the plans
of those temples one is reminded of the multiform
temples which he describes, and of the mysteries
involved in some of their architectural features which
he could not fathom, for in these temples of Mashona-
land there are some curious evidences of design in
plan. A glance at the plan of the great temple
suggests that the architects had carelessly drawn a
great ellipse on the ground and built round it, getting
occasionally out of line and leaving occasional doorways
; but when one realises the wonderfully careful
nature of the masonry, and the great accuracy with
which the comparatively rough stones have been laid
in regular courses, and been forced to combine to
produce regular foriiis, and when a careful*plan of
the whole building has been made, then it is seen
that what were regarded as careless irregularities
in construction are, in reality, carefully constructed
architectural features, which doubtless had some
religious significance to the worshippers, but whose
meaning remains a mystery to us.
The walls which are lightly shaded in the accompanying
plans are much inferior in construction to
the more darkly shaded walls, for while the latter
are built in most regular courses, and the stones are
most carefully packed in the whole thickness of the
walls, the former, though sometimes having the exterior
courses laid with some regularity, are most
carelessly built in their interior, and the stones seem
to have been laid in anyhow, and consequently there
is a great difference in the durability of these walls ;
and while it would almost be possible to drive a cart
along the top of the better-built part of the outer
wall, one can only creep along the top of the worse-
built portion while risking a fall. Besides, the better