We were now once more in the country of Mangwendi, a chief of considerable power, so nearly equal to ’Mtoko, they told me, that the two neighbours, like well-matched dogs, growl but do not come to close quarters. The noticeable characteristic of this part of the country and all the way down to Manicaland is the number of ruined fortified kraals which one comes across, culminating, as if to a central head, at Chipunza’s. These spots have been long deserted and are now overgrown with jungle. We visited one of these just after entering Mangwendi’s territories; there is something about them which recalls the Great Zimbabwe—the triple line of fortifications, the entrances slightly rounded; but then the stonework is uneven, the walls being built of shapeless stones, roughly put together with mortar. Here we see none of the even courses, the massive workmanship, and the evidences of years of toil displayed In the more ancient ruins; the walls are low, narrow, and uneven. Are we to suppose an intermediate race between the inhabitants of Zimbabwe and the present race, who built these ruins? or are we to imagine them to be the work of the Makalangas themselves in the more flourishing days of the Monomatapa rule? I am decidedly myself of the latter opinion. No one who had carefully studied the Great Zimbabwe ruins could for a moment suppose them to be the work of the same people; yet they are just the sort of buildings an uncivilised race would produce, who took as their copy the gigantic ruins they found in their midst. For the next few weeks we were constantly coming across these ruins, and the study of them interested us much.