The copper used in most instances is pronounced to be pure metal and free from the usual alloys. The metal in these is of so pliable a nature that _spearheads_ can be easily twisted by hand into almost any shape. One spearhead was copper and tin, but the latter was present in very small proportion. Several articles once thought to be bronze are now pronounced to be of copper only. A small piece of a bar of tin was found on an intermediate floor. _Copper wire_, mostly in the form of bangles, is very plentiful on intermediate floors, also large _cakes of copper_ and _copper slag_, but so far the actual remains of copper-smelting furnaces _in situ_ have not been met with at Zimbabwe, though judging by the amount of copper slag and _copper ore_ found at the extreme east of the Acropolis ruins, copper-smelting was carried on in that locality during the period when the gold scorifiers made of native pottery were being used. Here were found portions of clay _cupolas_ which had been used for copper-smelting, circular and deep, about the size of a small teacup. The fine and delicate _copper chain_ found in Renders Ruins is believed to be of Arab origin, and used to suspend the lamp-holder found with it. Pieces of a small _copper box_, and several solidly made _copper bangles_, and _copper finger-rings_ in snake form with the extremities coiled, were also found in Renders Ruins on the same level where the copper chain and several articles of Arab origin were discovered. 4. IRON ARTICLES Objects made of iron are found in all floors, but mainly on intermediate and upper floors. Makalanga iron tools, ornaments, weapons, and iron slag are found in great profusion on the upper floors, especially in the black surface mould and among grass and shrub roots. Modern native-made _iron hoes_ are as a rule without any sign of bevel to strengthen the blade, but iron hoes with a peculiar bevel down the centre of the blade on both sides are found among native articles of a rather superior character and at slightly lower depths. These latter have a depression stamped down the centre of the blade which raises a bevel on the opposite face, while on the opposite side another depression has been stamped parallel with the raised bevel on that side, thus providing a rib on each face, which greatly strengthens the hoe. This class of bevel has been pronounced by experts to be an old form employed also in other parts of the world, and local authorities on Makalanga iron-work assign this make of hoe to several generations ago, while the Makalanga themselves state that such hoes are found in very old deserted villages of their people, but have not been made during their time, but used to be so made by their fathers’ fathers. [Illustration: PLATE 2. Methuen & C^o]