Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/21

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Temporary occupation in remote times of part of South Africa by people well advanced in civilisation.—Extensive gold-mining operations carried on by them.—Relics of their skill.—Construction of enormous stone buildings by them.—Description of Great Zimbabwe.—Entire disappearance of the miners and builders.—Reoccupation of the same territory after a long interval by other partly civilised people.—Great difference between their culture and that of the earlier occupants.—Their industry along the Inyanga range.—Investigations of ruins by archaeologists.—Mysterious disappearance of the strange people.—Total absence of any influence exerted by these people upon the Bushmen or the Hottentots.—-Possible effect of their work upon some of the interior Bantu.—Extent in 1505 of the Bantu occupation.—Mohamedans in South Africa.—Condition of these people.—Particulars concerning them.—Classes of inhabitants south of the Zambesi in 1505.