t, and behind it and above it the great Babyan Peak
towered up towards the heavens. The space of ground, embraced thus in
the arms of the mountain, as it were, was laid out, as though by the
cunning hand of man, in three terraces that rose one above the other. To
the right and left of the topmost terrace were chasms in the cliff, and
down each chasm fell a waterfall, from no great height, indeed, but of
considerable volume. These two streams flowed away on either side of
the enclosed space, one towards the north, and the other, the course
of which we had been following, round the base of the mountain. At each
terrace they made a cascade, so that the traveller approaching had a
view of eight waterfalls at once. Along the edge of the stream to our
left were placed Kaffir kraals, built in orderly groups with verandahs,
after the Basutu fashion, and a very large part of the entire space of
land was under cultivation. All of this I noted at once, as well as the
extraordinary richness and depth of the soil, which for many ages past
had been washed down from the mountain heights. Then following the line
of an excellent waggon road, on which we now found ourselves, that wound
up from terrace to terrace, my eye lit upon the crowning wonder of the
scene. For in the centre of the topmost platform or terrace, which may
have enclosed eight or ten acres of ground, and almost surrounded by
groves of orange trees, gleamed buildings of which I had never seen the
like. There were three groups of them, one in the middle, and one on
either side, and a little to the rear, but, as I afterwards discovered,
the plan of all was the same. In the centre was an edifice constructed
like an ordinary Zulu hut--that is to say, in the shape of a beehive,
only it was five times the size of any hut I ever saw, and built
of blocks of hewn white marble, fitted together with extraordinary
knowledge of the principles and properties of arch building, and with so
much accuracy and finish that it was often difficult to find the joints
of the massive blocks. From this centre hut ran three covered passages,
leading to other buildings of an exactly similar character, only
smaller, and each whole block was enclosed by a marble wall about four
feet in height.

Of course we were as yet too far off to see all these details, but the
general outline I saw at once, and it astonished me considerably. Even
old Indaba-zimbi, whom the Baboon-woman had been unable to move, dei