The Ruined Cities of ZululandWalmsley, Hugh Mulleneux
History
The Ruined Cities of Zululand
Walmsley, Hugh Mulleneux
South Africa -- Description and travel; Zululand (South Africa)
as a stirrup, so that with one arm round the mother's neck, the child is
carried easily and safely, the mother having the free use of her hands.
This is the more necessary, as much of the labour is done by the women,
the maize or manioc being all ground up by them, the instruments used
and the mode of using them being exactly that shown forth in the old
Egyptian symbolical sculpture. Among the males the Jewish custom of
circumcision prevailed, and these were two points which struck Wyzinski
particularly. The tribe was not indigenous, but under the control of
Machin, chief of Manica, and was made up of a mixed race, being partly
of the blood of the Makoapa, who owned Knobneusen as their chief, partly
of that of a fierce and treacherous race called Banyai.
This native kraal of Busi is pleasantly situated. To the northward, far
away in the distance, a lofty hill called "Morumbala," near whose base
flows the "Zambesi," while to the southward the mountains of Nyamonga
and Gorongoza stretch away into the horizon. Thick forests of trees,
many of them of tropical growth, sweep around, while the plains are rich
in luxuriant vegetation. The cedar, the ebony palmyra, mohonono,
mashuka, acacia, mashanga, and the dwarf custard-apple, grow abundantly,
while a bright red bean, called the mosika, together with maize, is much
cultivated. Iron is found and worked on the hill-sides, after a very
homely fashion, while coal actually crops up out of the ground, and is
picked out by the women, who use only a hoe.
The copper and brass ornaments are procured, in the way of trade, from
the Portuguese of the Zambesi; but gold is plentiful and its value
known, the women washing it out of the ground in quantities, sometimes
even finding it in pure nuggets. All this seemed strongly to confirm
the missionary's firm belief that in this neighbourhood was once found
and exported gold, cedar, and other riches. Elephants were numerous in
the forests, and the ivory was sold to the Portuguese. It was to a
grand elephant hunt the head of the tribe had been called, and, with the
exception of the brave and his escort of fifty warriors who had
accompanied the white men, none but the women remained in the kraal.
A week passed by, and at its expiration the shouts of the men, and the
shrill screams of the women, heralded the return of the head warrior
Umhleswa, and told that the hunt had been a successful one.
Volume 1, Chapter X.
THE RUINED CITIES OF ZULU LAND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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