MOJEJÈJE, OR “MYSTIC BAR”

There are two of these mystic bars at Zimbabwe, one being on the Motelekwe Road, a quarter of a mile east from Havilah camp and opposite Middle Kopje (Chamananga), and the other about a mile from Zimbabwe, on the path to Bingura’s. The one on the Motelekwe Road is formed by a bar of aphite crossing a granite glacis, over which the road passes, but the one on Bingura’s Path is an arbitrary line drawn across a piece of granite, over which the path crosses. Each bar is at right angles to the path. At either end of each bar is a pile of stones, which show evident signs of having been hammered upon the bar for generations past. A native on a long journey, arriving at one of these bars, will take a stone from the pile on one side and with it tap the whole length of the bar, and lay the stone on the pile on the opposite side. Natives crossing the bar in passing between their kraals and their plantations, or going a short distance only, do not tap the bars. The idea in so tapping the bar is that by so doing the back is strengthened for the journey, and also that the man they are going to see may be at home, that the food will not be cooked till they arrive, and that their journey may be successful. There is no appeal to spirits or ancestors in performing this act.