(k) Barotse, Amangwa, and Makalanga have built walls in and near the ruins. They state that their ancestors used to construct excellent walls. [Mr. Drew, n.c., is of opinion that the Barotse now build better walls than do the present Makalanga. The Makalanga were always famous as good builders with stone.]
(l) The natives show little or no interest as to the original builders of the ruins. Some will say they were built by white men for prisons, others will affirm the ancestors of their tribe built them. Some tribes make definite claims to have built them, but Mr. Drew considers these claims to be only poetic expressions conveying the idea that such tribes had lived for so very many generations in the ruins that they knew of no occupiers before them, and so imagine that their ancestors must have built them. Of course, their claims to have built minor walls within the ruins are, in many instances, obviously well founded.
(m) The natives assert, when pressed as to who removed the relics from the ruins, that large birds came out of the sky, took them, and carried them into the heavens.
(n) “Fuko-ya-Nebandge”—the Mashonaland relic—possesses an unique history and a weird romance, and is also of great intrinsic value for such in Rhodesia as revel in researches into the history of past occupiers of this country. The image is made of pottery, and is hollow, the head (which has not been discovered) forming the stopper. It was discovered by Mr. Harry Posselt in a cave near Zimbabwe. It stands 11 in. high, and is about 16 in. long, and is marked with geometric exactness with zebra stripes all over its body. The pot is black, but the stripes are of a dull red colour. The name of it is “Fuko-ya-Nebandge” (“the king’s favourite adviser”), and for at least some generations of Makalanga it has exercised a potent magic spell over the minds of the natives. It has now been secured for the museum at Bulawayo.
The following is Mr. Posselt’s account of its discovery:—
In 1891 he was encamped at Fern Spruit, south of Victoria, near which point are some hills. His Mashona boy informed him that among these hills could be heard by anyone going near them the sound of cattle bellowing, girls talking and singing, and that up on the hills was a pot full of beads, but the local natives were too much afraid of venturing up there in search of the pot, as it would mean certain death. He did not ascend the hills, but his drivers and leaders went up, but heard and saw nothing unusual. Until 1899 he had quite forgotten the incident, but in August of 1900 he happened to be near these particular hills collecting labour for the Chamber of Mines, and conversed with a chief living there. He asked the chief the native name of the hills, and the chief told him about the pot containing the beads. He further told him that long ago a native went out hunting on the hills, and found the pot with the beads in. The chief’s story was to the effect that the native seeing the pot wanted to take the beads out, and putting his hand into the pot, the pot got hold of his hands and he could not shake it off, and he was obliged to carry the pot poised on his head with his hand still fixed inside it. When he arrived at the kraal his people prevented him entering it, as he might bring evil upon the tribe. He was consequently compelled to encamp on a stream near the kraal until his hand dropped off. He was fed secretly by some of his people. After his death, instead of being buried in the usual way, they pushed him with long sticks into a cave.
The pot was left there for some considerable time afterwards, and it was eventually discovered in another cave in the same hills, and was regarded, and still is to this day, by the natives as a mystery, and held in awe by them, and their belief was that if anyone approached the cave he would die. If the pot changed its colours to dark red it meant certain death.
After he had secured the pot the natives came from near and far to see it. One old native then told him of another pot, made like a mare zebra, and that the “female pot” contained beads that glittered, and that the pot in his (Mr. Posselt’s) possession was the “male pot.” The native was ignorant of what gold was. The two pots, so he stated, used to travel by themselves from their cave to Fulachama, a distance of eight miles, to obtain water from the stream where they drank, coming and going so often as to make a path. This Kafir asked where the “female pot” was, well knowing Mr. Posselt had not found it.
After his discovery he went to a chief who lives close by to where the pot was found. This chief used to live in Zimbabwe. He said that the chief who now lives in Zimbabwe was an enemy of his, and had supplanted him, and that he had all the relics. To compel him to disclose the place where the relics were hidden he resorted to torture, cutting off women’s breasts and putting nose reims through men’s noses. Before the ex-Zimbabwe chief was expelled from Zimbabwe he was in the habit of offering up sacrifices of black oxen, and on each occasion used to collect and display relics taken from the ruins. These consisted of “yellow metal with sharp points” brought down from the top ruin, also a yellow stick about 3 ft. 6 in. long with a knob on it, also a bowl or dish, by information most probably of silver. The stick is now stated to be in the possession of the chief.