at the buildings whose ruins we see were
their work. How long ago this happened we cannot tell, but if the
strangers came from Arabia they must have done so earlier than the time
of Mohammed, for there is nothing of an Islamic character about the
ruins or the remains found, and it is just as easy to suppose that they
came in the days of Solomon, fifteen centuries before Mohammed. Nor can
we guess how they disappeared: whether they were overpowered and
exterminated by the Kafirs, or whether, as Mr. Selous conjectures, they
were gradually absorbed by the latter, their civilization and religion
perishing, although the practice of mining for gold remained. The
occasional occurrence among the Kafirs of faces with a cast of features
approaching the Semitic has been thought to confirm this notion, though
nobody has as yet suggested that we are to look here for the lost Ten
Tribes. Whoever these people were, they have long since vanished. The
natives seem to have no traditions about the builders of Zimbabwye and
the other ancient walls, though they regard the ruins with a certain
awe, and fear to approach them at twilight.

It is this mystery which makes these buildings, the solitary
archaeological curiosities of South Africa, so impressive. The ruins are
not grand, nor are they beautiful; they are simple even to rudeness. It
is the loneliness of the landscape in which they stand, and still more
the complete darkness which surrounds their origin, their object, and
their history, that gives to them their unique interest. Whence came the
builders? What tongue did they speak? What religion did they practise?
Did they vanish imperceptibly away, or did they fly to the coast, or
were they massacred in a rising of their slaves? We do not know;
probably we shall never know. We can only say, in the words of the
Eastern poet:

"They came like water, and like wind they went."

[Footnote 6: Mr. Neal, managing director of the Company, has been good
enough to inform me that since my visit he satisfied himself that there
had been occupations by different races and probably at widely distant
dates. Many skeletons have been found, with a good deal of gold jewelry,
and some bronze implements.]

[Footnote 7: This place is described by Mr. Selous in his interesting
book, _A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa_, pp. 339-341. He thinks the wall
as well built as those at the Great Zimbabwye. To me it seemed not so
good, and a little rougher even th