The buildings appeared to be mostly circular in plan, ranging from about
thirty to fifty feet in diameter, with walls averaging three feet in
thickness, one or more of these being surrounded by an outer wall,
approximately elliptical in plan, of some five feet in thickness. There
were five of these structures still standing in a sufficient state of
preservation to render them recognisable at a distance as buildings, and
a great many more--the precise number I did not trouble to ascertain--of
which nothing but the foundations remained. I prowled about among these
intensely interesting remains for several hours, until close upon sunset
in fact, examining them and striving to puzzle out their origin, and
then made my way back to the wagon, where I found Piet and Jan rapidly
working themselves into a fever of anxiety about my prolonged absence,
and earnestly debating the propriety of instituting a search for me.

So profound were the interest and curiosity aroused within me by these
remarkable and mysterious relics of a lost and forgotten civilisation
that when Piet awakened me on the following morning with my early cup of
coffee and the enquiry whether it was my pleasure that the oxen should
be inspanned, I determined to devote at least a few hours to their
further examination, and issued my instructions accordingly. Then, as
soon as we had all breakfasted, I ordered Piet to take the sporting
double-barrel while I carried my rifle, and, with the two dogs
accompanying us, set out to complete my inspection. But, beyond the
finding of an elaborately sculptured stone sarcophagus, which we took
the liberty of breaking open, and which contained a mummified human body
and several earthenware utensils decorated with exquisite paintings--one
of which I appropriated and carried away--we discovered nothing further
that was worthy of particular mention; and about two o'clock in the
afternoon we inspanned and resumed our journey.

An hour later, however, at a distance of some three miles from the
ruins, we arrived opposite a hill of solid rock some four hundred feet
in height and about a mile long, in the face of which I observed what I
at first took to be the mouth of a cave; but, looking at it more
closely, I presently perceived alongside it a great mass of debris. My
curiosity again got the better of me, and, calling a halt, I walked over
to it and proceeded to examine it at close quarters, with the result
that I soon convinced