The ruined cities of Mashonaland: Being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891 — John Shaqi
The ruined cities of Mashonaland: Being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891Bent, J. Theodore (James Theodore)
History
The ruined cities of Mashonaland: Being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891
Bent, J. Theodore (James Theodore)
Extinct cities -- Zimbabwe -- Mashonaland; Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city)
Not only has Khama himself established his reputation for honesty, but
he is supposed to have inoculated all his people with the same virtue.
No one is supposed to steal in Khama’s country. He regulates the price
of the goat you buy; and the milk vendor dare not ask more than the
regulation price, nor can you get it for less. One evening, on our
journey from Shoshong to Palapwe, we passed a loaded waggon by the
roadside with no one to guard it save a dog; and surely, we thought,
such confidence as this implies a security for property rare enough in
South Africa.
The aspect of Palapwe is very pleasant. Fine timber covers the hill
slopes. A large grassy square, shaded by trees, and with a stream
running through it, has been devoted to the outspanning of the many
waggons which pass through here. There are as yet but few of those
detestable corrugated-iron houses, for the Europeans have wisely
elected to dwell in daub huts, like the natives. Scattered far and wide
are the clusters of huts in their own enclosures, governed by their
respective indunas.
High up on the hillside Khama has allotted the choicest spot of all to
his spiritual and political adviser, Mr. Hepburn, the missionary. From
here a lovely view extends over mountain and plain, over granite kopje
and the meandering river-bed, far away into the blue distance and the
Kalahari. Behind the mission house is a deep ravine, thick set with
tropical vegetation, through which a stream runs, called Fotofoto,
which at the head of the gorge leaps over steep rocks, and forms a
lovely cascade of well-nigh a hundred feet; behind the ravine, on the
rocky heights, baboons and other wild animals still linger, perturbed
in mind, no doubt, at this recent occupation of their paradise.
Everything in Khama’s town is conducted with the rigour—one might
almost say bigotry—of religious enthusiasm. The chief conducts in
person native services, twice every Sunday, in his large round kotla,
at which he expects a large attendance. He stands beneath the
traditional tree of justice, and the canopy of heaven, quite in a
patriarchal style. He has a system of espionage by which he learns the
names of those who do not keep Sunday properly, and he punishes them
accordingly. He has already collected 3,000l. for a church which is to
be built at Palapwe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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