SOME OF THE DENIZENS OF THE ZIMBABWE DISTRICT
These are most numerous in the Elliptical Temple when the size of its area is considered, for this building abounds in bird, animal, reptile, insect, and plant life. Protected by high walls all round, it provides an area free from the disturbing effects of grass fires, sheltered from cold winds, and full of rank tropical vegetation and jungle. Here the gorgeous lapis-lazuli and turquoise blue of the jays and the brilliant scarlet and rich metallic green of the honey-sucker flash brightly in keen contrast to the white lichened walls. Yellow and grey hornbills, barn owls and owlets, wagtails, weaver birds, pigeons and doves, and little birds with yellow, white, red or blue or mottled breasts and wings, are constantly to be seen in the temple courts. One large barn owl has its usual perch on a branch near the summit of the Conical Tower, while “Go-away” birds are incessantly urging us to “Go away!”
Numerous squirrels climb the walls and spring along their summits. Chameleons, one minute pale green, the next a mottled yellow, grey, and black, climb with aristocratic movements up the orchid-clad trunks of trees, pausing at intervals to fold their front paws in a comic attitude of prayerfulness. Large and small lizards of brilliant colourings, mainly magenta, Prussian and electric blues, and a startling orange, bask upon the ancient stones. Puff-adders, grass snakes, and mambas haunt the place, the latter climbing the highest trees and ascending steep, smooth sides without any apparent necessity for picking their way up rough surfaces. Pythons have been seen, and a python’s nest with about two dozen white leathery eggs, from which the young had been recently hatched, was found in the centre of the temple. On commencing work here in May, 1902, scores of cast-off snake skins of all sizes up to 5 ft. in length were found all about the temple. Scorpions which hide under the stones suggest to one the necessity of being careful in sitting down. Centipedes and large millipedes, snails with white spiral shells from 6 in. to 9 in. long, frogs, which on wet days persistently urge us to “Work! work!” abound, while after sundown crowds of large night-moths and bats flutter in the air. Brilliant butterflies, dragon flies, and fire flies, gigantic spiders, spiders which make their trap-doors of clay, hornets, bees, beetles, mosquitoes, and other stinging insects, and those which assume imitative forms. Tortoise-shells and porcupine quills were found, but no tortoise or porcupine. The number of skeletons of wild animals found in the grass was sufficient to suggest thoughts of Noah and his zoological cargo.
The birds of the Zimbabwe district include quantities of blue jays, hornbills, honey-birds, honey-suckers, bee-eaters, several sorts of rollers, crested kingfishers, South African thrushes and babbling thrushes, shrikes, swifts, swallows, and martins, weaver birds, owls, corncrakes, night jars, woodpeckers, larks, wagtails, doves, pigeons, white storks, herons, secretary birds, bush crows, vultures, hawks, guinea-fowl, sand grouse, quails, and partridges, while paaw (bush bustard) is sometimes met with.
Two ostriches with black and white feathers once approached within 100 yds. of Havilah Camp. A covey of African grey parrots fled over the huts going south in the springtime. One bird of the plumage and shape of an ordinary skylark soars high in the air, remaining in one position, but instead of singing it flaps its wings loudly for some minutes together. It is best heard just before sunrise.
During the dry season game animals are not plentiful in this locality, but when the grass has started to grow after a veld fire they arrive in fairly good numbers. Reed buck, sable antelope, and springbok have been within sight of the camp.
Lions for some years past have not been seen at Zimbabwe, though they are in continuous residence on the Livouri Range, some eight miles to the west, and also at one or two other places about the same distance from Zimbabwe. But with the advent of buck they are known to come within two or three miles of our camp. Their spoor has frequently been seen on the road between Zimbabwe and Victoria, and they have recently killed donkeys within five miles of Zimbabwe. On one occasion only have we heard lions roaring, and they must have been almost two miles away. Jackals are a nuisance, and come to the camp for poultry. Large leopards have been shot in the neighbourhood during the author’s stay at Zimbabwe.
Natives state that within their time herds of tusker elephants have been wont to frequent the Zimbabwe Valley, and they point out certain trees which have been damaged by them. The elephants have now gone south-east. The traces of two ivory trading stations of the late sixties are still to be seen at Zimbabwe.
Eagles soar above Zimbabwe Hill and the topmost line of cliffs. Two eaglets fallen from the nest were found in the Acropolis ruins, one each spring. One died of its injuries, and the other lived for two months at our camp. The boys were fond of feeding “the big chicken,” and it eventually died in consequence of its gluttony. Hawks abound on the hill, and there are also kites and owls. Large black crows with a white patch on the back of the neck, and with vulture-shaped beak, also crows with white breast and wing tips, but with a raven-shaped beak, are constantly flying round the hill. Here are also wild tebie cats and tiger cats, ant-bears, conies, squirrels, and at least five species of large baboons. The constant parading of the latter to and fro on the summit has formed a well-beaten track. These creatures bark and cry—the crying is exactly like that of a human being. Toward noon they usually descend to the valley and romp about on the open granite spaces. So destructive are these particular baboons that the local Makalanga have been obliged to abandon their gardens on the south side of the hill. Their spoor has been frequently found within our camp. The reptiles here are large pythons, mambas, iguanas, and lizards of all colours.
The plant life found in the temple was very rich and diversified, and each specimen was of larger growth and bloom than those of the same species growing outside the walls. Here are many sorts of elegant ferns, but mostly small, including maiden-hair fern, also the ordinary bracken. Stag’s-horn moss and plants of carnose foliage grow in the joints of the walls. Beds of scarlet cannæ, Cape gooseberries, raspberries, crimson and mauve gladioli, convolvuli, large and small, white, purple, yellow, and mauve, verbenas, heliotrope, azaleas, also a flower exactly like the daffodil, and arums or St. John’s lilies, flags, mauve-flowered peas, a blue flower like borage, and blue and yellow ground orchids, covered the surface of the interior. Nettles and nettle trees, stinging plants, and thorns of all sorts formed prominent features in the vegetation of the temple. The trees within the walls were numerous, and included varieties of hard and soft woods. Some were of gigantic girth and height, rising to 60 ft. Wild fig-trees and evergreen hardwoods predominate. The “Zimbabwe creeper,” a climbing plant peculiarly local, is a great feature in all the ruins at Zimbabwe, and so far has not been found elsewhere in Rhodesia. This creeper resembles jessamine in leaf and stalk, only it has light pink, bell-shaped pendent flowers growing in clusters at the end of each spray, these being about the shape and size of a foxglove flower. Orchids with yellow flowers grow on the trees, from which are also suspended lichen festoons some 3 ft. long. The monkey-rope trees once interlaced the tops of the trees with their runners and created a semi-darkness in the temple even at brightest noontide.
On the hill tobacco, once cultivated here by the natives, now grows wild. Large beds of scarlet cannæ, Cape gooseberries, hemlocks, and blackjacks are seen in most parts of the hill, while every flower of the veld is represented. Monkey-ropes, wild vines, wild orange, fig, nut, greengage, currant, and raspberry flourish here. The kafir-baum, which flowers profusely when leafless early in the spring, and abounds at Zimbabwe, provides a striking contrast of brilliant scarlet to the grey granite cliffs in front of which it flourishes. The flat-topped umbrella trees (mimosa) impart an odd effect to the hill. The Zimbabwe creeper grows very extensively on the north and west sides of the hill. Cacti, euphorbia, and liliums, also bulbous plants, are multifarious, while tall aloes give an old-world appearance to the hill.
Palms with fronds 10 ft. long, tree-ferns 8 ft. high, and large areas of Osmunda regalis (royal fern) are to be seen in most of the glens and gorges of this locality. The blue lotus lily (Nymphæa stellata) grows in most pools of water, while the yellow everlasting flower (Helipterum incanum) is plentiful, and the bright red sealing-wax-coloured flower (Erythrina kaffra) shots the veld grass as daisies do an English meadow. The sugar bush (Protea mellifera) though present is not found in quantity. Bamboos grow in the neighbourhood, also sugar-cane, and wild cotton. The mahobohobo is not indigenous to the country, but is the most usual tree found here. Its area covers many square miles of this district. Like the wild fig, the mahobohobo fruit ripens in the spring only.
CHAPTER V
ZIMBABWE NATIVES
Natives and the Ruins—Natives (general)