arrival of
trained archaeologists rather than hurry on explorations by amateurs,
however zealous and well intentioned. Of the objects found, which were
courteously shown to me, some are modern, such as the bits of pottery,
apparently Indian or Chinese, the bits of glass, the bullets and
fragments of flint-lock muskets, a small cannon, and an iron hammer.
These are doubtless of Portuguese origin, though it does not follow that
any Portuguese expedition ever penetrated so far inland, for they may
have been gifts or purchases from the Portuguese established on the
coast four or five hundred miles away. So, too, the silver and copper
ornaments found, and some of the gold ones (occasionally alloyed with
copper), which show patterns apparently Portuguese, may be recent. There
are also, however, some gold ornaments, such as beads, bangles (a
skeleton was found with bangles on the legs and a bead necklace), and
pieces of twisted gold wire, which may be far more ancient, and indeed
as old as the structure itself. A small crucible with nuggets and small
bits of gold goes to indicate that smelting was carried on, though the
nearest ancient gold-workings are six miles distant. Probably here, as
at Hissarlik and at Carthage, there exist remains from a long succession
of centuries, the spot having been occupied from remote antiquity.[6] At
present it is not only uninhabited, but regarded by the natives with
fear. They believe it to be haunted by the ghosts of the departed, and
are unwilling, except in the daytime and for wages paid by the
Exploration Company, to touch or even to enter the ruins. They can
hardly be persuaded even to relate such traditions as exist regarding
the place. All that has been gathered is that it was the dwelling of a
line of _mambos_, or chiefs, the last of whom was burned here by
Mosilikatze, the Matabili king, when he conquered the country sixty
years ago. (The place does show marks of fire.) But the buildings were
here long before the mambos reigned, and who built them, or why, no one
knows. The natives come sometimes to make offerings to ancestral ghosts,
especially when they ask for success in hunting; and if the hunt be
successful, strips of meat are cut off and placed in cleft sticks for
the benefit of the ghosts.

Three hypotheses have been advanced regarding the Dhlodhlo building. One
regards them as a fortress. The objection to this is that the terraced
and ornamented wall is so far from contribut