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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Two or three sit by the Isafuba game-holes, and of course disputations at once ensue. Others settle down to work of their own, such as grass-hat making, carving sticks with chevron patterns, drying tobacco leaves, crushing snuff, dressing skins, or performing the duties of barbers. The boys are most industrious when engaged upon their own work. Others are off to inspect their bird and game traps, of which they seem to have at least a hundred within a short distance from the camp, while the rest sit and watch whatever happens to be going on.

Down the side of Makuma Kopje, where Mogabe’s kraal is situated, come young men in twos and threes, some of them with musical instruments, such as Makalanga pianos, a flute, and a one-stringed harp with gourd attached to increase the sound, and of course all are singing. These on descending Makuma disappear in the ten-foot grass which fills the valley till they are near the camp. Other young men come from Chenga’s kraal in the opposite direction two miles away. These latter are the boys to work. Our best workmen come from Chenga’s, for Mogabe’s men have not been improved by tips and favours from visitors to the ruins; besides, belonging to the kraal of the paramount and dynastic chief, they deem themselves to be somewhat superior to all direction or reprimand by white men. Though Mogabe’s people know “how to be happy though Makalanga,” Chenga’s people seem to be even more genuinely contented with their environment.