Native Races.

The various tribes now known as Mashonas, living principally in the hills to the north-east, east, and south-east of the high open plateau—the remnant that has escaped the process of gradual extinction at the hands of the Matabele—do not call themselves Mashonas, and no one, not even Mr. Selous, is able to suggest how this name arose. It is useful, however, as a generic term designating the various aboriginal tribes speaking dialects of one language. Each community has its own tribal name—such as Bambiri, Mabotcha, Barotse, &c. The tatoo marks differ in each clan. According to Mr. Selous the distinguishing mark of the Barotse living on the Upper Sabi is a broad open nick filed out between the two front teeth of the upper jaw, the tribal mark of the Barotse now existing on the Upper Zambesi. In Mr. Selous' opinion it is not at all impossible, or indeed improbable, that the Zambesi Barotse were originally an offshoot from the powerful Barotse nation that once occupied a large tract of country to the west of the Sabi River in Southern Mashonaland, until in the latter days of Umziligazi they were broken up by a Matabele impi, and only a small number left, who settled in the valleys concealed among the hills east of the Sabi. They seem always to have been a mild and gentle people, and a long course of savage oppression at the hands of the Matabele left them with all the spirit crushed out of them, such as we found them when we entered Mashonaland in 1890.

Concerning the native races now found scattered over a large extent of Mashonaland and the ruined and ancient gold workings, Mr. Selous is of opinion that they are descended from a commercial page 55 people who some 3,000 years ago penetrated from Southern Arabia to Mashonaland, bringing but few women with them. They were thus driven to intermarry among the aboriginal tribes, and in course of time became completely fused with them, and nationally lost.

For information regarding the important subject of the ruins of Mashonaland, the investigation of which will aid in throwing light on the past history of the country and its ancient gold-mining, I would refer the reader to the interesting works of Mr. Theodore Bent and Dr. Schlichter.