Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of RhodesiaHall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
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Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia
Hall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city); Zimbabwe -- Antiquities
The sun will soon be coming up behind the blue Beroma Range, just
over the romantically shaped rocks at Chenga’s kraal. The peaks of
the range are already edged with the fire of the coming light. At
last a notched portion of the sun appears over the distant mountain
heights. Now everything is coloured crimson. The granite cliffs and
massive boulders, the tall grass, the ruined walls, even the mules
outspanned in the valley in front of the camp, are all crimson. The
usually dirty-coloured grass roofs of the huts are for some minutes
most gorgeously beautified. For the only time in the day the dentelle
pattern on the conical tower and on the eastern face of the Eastern
Temple, the chevron pattern on the Elliptical Temple, and the huge
herring-bone pattern on the ancient water gate, and certain of the
slate and granite monoliths, are fully bathed in rich sunshine. Other
ancient decorative patterns on the walls will have the full sun shining
upon them only at midday, while others will only be fully sun-bathed as
the sun is setting.
But at present everything is crimson. The wreaths of mist which lie
over the tall grass filling the valleys, and which just before were
blue, now connect kopje and kopje, making the Acropolis and other
summits crimson isles rising from out a crimson sea. The only objects
that decline to take on the prevailing tint are some old-world-looking
trees with green, metallic leaves. Were the picture of Zimbabwe with
this misty colouring resting over it reproduced on canvas the artist
would at once be condemned as extravagant. But Nature has more than one
colour on her palette. The crimson melts in a rich golden hue which
succeeds it. The cliffs, grass hut-roofs, and mist-wreaths become
golden. The mules are transformed to gold, and the battered old wagon
looks for once quite respectable with its golden buck-sail. But the
gold in its turn also fades, the mist-veils lift and melt away, and
the land once more regains its wonted tawny, sun-bathed appearance so
suggestive of lions.
Day has not yet had a fair chance to become commonplace, but in
Havilah Camp life is beginning to stir. Three naked boys have gone to
the spring for water, others collect wood, clean the pots, and draw
_rapoka_ meal and salt from the stores, while a tall pillar of bright
blue smoke ascends in the still air from the boys’ fire. From our
height can be seen a score of native villages, each with its column of
blue smoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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