Читать книгу Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia. An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia онлайн

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The Law of Moses adapts the rules and customs and ideas and forms of worship of far greater antiquity than the Mosaic times. So the new faith of every age borrows from the old, and the mighty processions of civilisations and faiths which have encircled this earth from very far back beyond the days of Abraham go on their even course.

But we must leave the temple and return to camp. There is still the great Zimbabwe owl sitting on his favourite bough near the “high place.” The six-foot python crawls in and out of the stones of the ancient altar. Brightly coloured lizards bask on the once consecrated walls. Blue jays, honey-birds, and doves here find a shelter. The trees, orchid-clad and lichen-festooned, throw a weird shadow over all. Possibly ancients are sleeping near.

As one passes out through the entrance into the full glare of an African noontide, one feels as if one had just returned from the far distant mystic past to modern life, for a naked Makalanga waits there with the message that Sunday lunch was cooked and waiting.