Ba-tsipi, the men of iron (or those who reverence iron tribally), know nothing of the reason of the words they use when praying for success in the chase. O Thou of the broken leg,' they cry, 'thou who didst fall from heaven, give us food!' This is evidently a hymn descended to them through thousands of years. Hearing such things carries one back into the times of the ancient classics, as I felt once in '74 when hearing a case as British Resident in the Wanskei. It was a charge of murder for alleged witchcraft against Umhlonhlo, the chief of the Pondomisi, and a woman giving evidence told me how, in the subsequently murdered woman's hut, where the lightning spirit had enveloped her, she had, in her sleep, been embraced by the 'thunder bird,' the eagle, the veritable bird of Jupiter Tonans, which produced a sort of possession, by the power of lightning, the worst effect of witchcraft. I may explain that the murdered woman was believed to have dealings with this bird, and her crime was causing the lightning to strike close to the chief's hut.

But these beliefs found in Mashonaland, these temples and praying sticks, carry one further back than any written history goes. Zimbabwe (which in the Mashona language means the 'house of stone') is clearly a hermaphrodite temple, or temple to the dual generative principle (as Baal and Ashtaroth) as well as to the heavenly bodies and all manifestations of the powers creative of man and Nature. It would be a good thing for some one systematically to visit and to make measurements and plans of the many other temples and altars which exist in that country, so that these might be compared with ruins in other parts of the world, especially those of Phoenician origin. There is a peculiar feature in some of these which I shall attempt to describe. An oval stone platform was built, about twelve to fifteen feet high and eighty long, with perpendicular walls, upon a granite rock foundation. Upon this was built another smaller oval platform, and on that two round altars, with steps and a central pillar to each. There was Zimbabwe' ornamentation on the wall over a narrow platform-like projection along one side of the ruin.

The very peculiar feature of this ruin was that seven well-like circular holes had been made in the platform round about the altars. These holes were about eight inches in diameter at the top but widened as they went down till they reached the solid rock at a depth of from twelve to fifteen feet, where they were twelve or more inches in diameter. They were lined with stone, cut in segments of a circle to fit into their sides. There were no monoliths in this case. In another ruin these holes were larger and proportionately wider at the bottom.

In Bent's book he gives an illustration of an iron smelting furnace, faintly and conventionally showing the female form. All the furnaces found in Rhodesia are of that form, but those which I have seen (and I have come upon five of them in a row) are far more realistic, most minutely and statuesquely so, all in a cross-legged

sitting position and clearly showing that the production or birth of the metal is considered worthy of a special religious expression. It recognised the Creator in one form of his human manifestation in creation. The magistrate of Gwello, when he had his first house built in wattle and daub,' found that the Makalanga women, who were engaged to plaster it, had produced, according to a general custom, a clay image of the female form in relief upon the inside wall. He asked them what they did that for. They answered benevolently that it was to bring him good luck. This illustrates

the pure form of the cult of these people, who worship the unknown and unseen God by reverencing his manifestation (in this instance) in the female side of the creative principle.

I do not pretend to any extensive reading on the subject of the widespread and ancient prevalence of this cult. I only give facts as I have picked them up, showing something of a present local phase of this religion. With regard to the praying sticks I may mention that I saw a reference in Lemprière and also in an article in a German Konversations-Lexicon' to the caduceus of Mercury, as having been of Phoenician origin, and originally simply a forked stick with some band wound about the top of it, just like the praying or wishing sticks now used by these tribes; also that sometimes a pair of leaves was represented as growing out of the stick opposite each other near the fork, and that afterwards these leaves came to be represented as wings. Mercury Caducifer, the quick messenger between the gods and men who carried answers to prayer and gave fertility, carried this symbol and wore similar wings in his ankles and on the fillet round his head. The writer of the article in the Konversations-Lexicon ' to which I have referred says that the forked stick appears to be identical with the "wishing stick" of our forefathers as mentioned in the sagas,' which was evidently a praying stick used in appeals to the Deity. They remind one also of certain metal emblems with wings similarly situated which have been found in the excavations at Pompeii and which illustrate the same principle. They likewise recall the rods which Jacob peeled and placed before the flocks of his father-in-law as well as the representation of the Phoenician god of 'teeming flocks and fruitful fields' which, in after ages, was used to mark the boundaries of properties, &c., in Roman times, but the fundamental idea of which was originally identical with the cult of Hermes and other ancient gods. Thus the use of these praying sticks and the other customs and modes of thought which I have mentioned add further links to the chain of evidence furnished by the ruins in Rhodesia of a near connection between northern ancient religions and those held by the people who built the temple of Zimbabwe, and which religious ideas in their present phase appear to be still spread through a wide extent of country around the ruins.

JOSEPH MILLERD ORPEN.

NATURE VERSUS THE CHARTERED

COMPANY

ALTHOUGH from the earliest times, and in almost every country, the efforts of mankind have been constantly directed towards overcoming natural obstacles, and moulding the forces of human nature afresh for human purposes, there has never been, perhaps, in one country, within an equal period, a time when nature has seemed to oppose the progress of human civilisation as in South Africa during the last eight months. The Chartered Company and Mr. Rhodes are to-day fighting two foes, rinderpest and rebellion, each having famine as a possible ally, but of these two evils the much more deadly and powerful is the 'rinderpest,' destroying or paralysing the power of moving necessaries of human life and munitions of war, which are vital to outposts of the Empire, such as Bulawayo or Salisbury. In Rhodesia the real enemy of the Chartered Company not only to-day, but for the next eighteen months, will be, not the Matabele or the Mashonas, but the 'rinderpest.' It would be foolish to state that the native rising was not serious, but the rebellion is nothing like so urgent as the food question. For the past three years a white population, numbering three or four thousand, have received all the luxuries and nearly all the necessities of civilised life from a base at Mafeking, 600 miles away, these food supplies being brought up by ox wagon. The black population is also largely dependent on the trek ox' for its subsistence. The journey, after this manner, generally occupied from forty to forty-five days, each wagon carrying from seven to eight thousand pounds weight of food-stuffs. To-day the position has entirely altered. Fully ninety per cent. of the 'trek' oxen have died of this plague, and even the small percentage which have recovered are so weak and poor in condition as to make them practically useless for haulage purposes. We thus have, so to speak, a garrison of 4,000 white persons in Bulawayo and Rhodesia, let alone the black allies, to whom food can only now be conveyed by mule or donkey wagon. At first it might seem as if the substitution of the donkey or mule for the ox would make comparatively little difference; but whereas the ox can, by being outspanned' every night, find sufficient nourishment in the grass on the veldt to keep him in excellent condition, the mule

quickly dies if mealies, or some other kind of grain foods, are not given him. Donkeys answer well in places where there is good veldt, but given the hard work of haulage and no grain, they very soon break down. The result is that in the case of mules, and to some degree donkeys also, enough grain food has to be taken on the wagon to supply them for a journey of nearly six hundred miles, and thus proportionately less of human food-stuffs can be taken. In some instances the experiment has been tried of endeavouring to push the mules and donkeys up country as fast as possible, and then shooting them or leaving them to perish on arrival, but this plan seldom succeeds. In the majority of cases the animals fall before they have accomplished two-thirds of the distance.

Nature has placed yet another difficulty in the way of transport, for during the wet season, from November to February, mule sickness is very prevalent, and one of the partners of the firm of Zeederberg and Co., who run the coach service with the greatest pluck and spirit between Mafeking and Bulawayo, and who own over fourteen hundred mules, informed me that they expect every year to lose from fifty to sixty per cent. of their live stock during this period. Then there are diseases affecting oxen, horses, and mules which seem to be peculiar to South Africa, such as 'gall sickness,' 'red water,' and 'lung sickness.' There are also one or two poisonous plants, notably the poisonous lily, which, when eaten, causes almost certain death. This poisonous lily comes up just before the grass, and consequently there is always the risk of its being eaten by hungry animals. It will thus be seen under what difficulties transport work has to be carried on, even in normal times, and when, as now, there are only about five to ten oxen left for every hundred that previously existed the difficulty is enormously and immeasurably increased. The weight usually carried by mule or donkey wagon is also from 25 to 30 per cent. less than that taken by ox wagon. A span of sixteen oxen can reach Bulawayo from Mafeking with from seven to eight thousand pounds weight of food-stuffs, whereas by mule or donkey wagon seldom more than five thousand pounds weight is taken with eighteen donkeys or ten to twelve mules. 'Rinderpest' in this way has been, and will be for some time, a greater enemy to the progress of Rhodesia than the native rebellion. Two years ago the plague was rampant in Uganda and Central Africa, and where this fell disease will stop it is impossible to say, cases having been already reported as far south as Bultfontein, a place near Kimberley. As the infection is largely carried by flies, it is doubtful if even the cattle of Cape Colony, with the most vigorous policy of isolation and destruction, can be saved. In about five per cent. of the cases the animals recover, but amongst all the so-called cures nothing has yet been found really effective, and, as far as can be seen, the only practical means of stopping the plague is to adopt, cost what it may, the most drastic policy of exter

minating the cattle, diseased and healthy alike, in all districts in which the disease appears. This policy of course entails compensation in some form or other, but even the most generous, and even lavish, treatment which may be accorded to those who have lost healthy oxen may be cheaper in the long run than a pestilence which in England, twenty or thirty years ago, cost the nation upwards of seven millions before it could be eradicated. But even if this vigorous policy be adopted the difficulty still remains of dealing with the cattle of chiefs who cannot be controlled, such as Sekhome, chief of the N'Gami tribes, the chiefs of the Gazaland district, and along the Portuguese border. If in three years the

country is free from this plague, we may rightly consider South Africa lucky. In two years, however, the railway will have relegated the trek ox to the more distant parts of Rhodesia, and the chief mining districts will be in touch with civilisation and independent of the transport rider.

It might be as well to give the reader some idea of the present means of communication between Bulawayo and the south. The first 114 miles of the road-namely, from Mafeking to Gaberones-is, for the most part, fairly good-that is, good for an African road-and the coaches, when the mules are in good condition and not overworked, as at present, owing to the constant strain put upon them by extra coaches and ammunition wagons, perform the journey at the rate of four to five miles an hour, with changes of spans' about every ten miles. The next section, from Gaberones to Palla, which is about 120 miles further, is, perhaps, the worst section of the road, the sand in some places being nearly a foot deep, the country monotonous, and there being either bad water or none at all. From Palla to Palapye, another 120 miles, the road is rather better, but the last ten miles into Palapye is heart-breaking work for animals through almost the deepest part of the road, sand in dry weather and mud in wet, finishing up with two or three miles of rock and boulders, which severely try the strength of any team, the nerves of the passengers, and the fabric of all vehicles. Three wagons were hopelessly stuck five miles out of Palapye on this section when I passed on the road returning south. From Palapye to Tati, about 120 miles, is perhaps the best of the road, with the exception of one or two deep 'spruits," or drifts where there are river beds about as wide as the Thames at Richmond, dry in the autumn, winter, and spring, but roaring torrents in the summer, from November to February, and only crossed then with the utmost difficulty. From Tati to Mangwe, sixty miles, the road is fair, but there is heavy sand in places, and one or two deep drifts. From Mangwe to Figtree, which is at the northern end of the Mangwe Pass, thirty miles in length, the road passes through grand scenery, but the difficulties are consequently greater. Tremendously steep gradients, sand, and almost every species of