find frequent mention of the king of metals, and always it is spoken of
as a commodity highly prized.

I have sometimes thought, however, that either we are mistaken in the
weights used by the Hebrew nation in early days, or that the arithmetic
of those times was not quite "according to Cocker." We read, I. Kings x.
and xli., that Solomon in one year received no less than six hundred
and three score and six talents of gold. If a talent of gold was, as has
been assumed, 3000 shekels of 219 grains each, the value of the golden
treasure accumulated in this one year by the Hebrew king would have been
3,646,350 pounds sterling. Considering that the only means of "getting
gold" in those days was a most primitive mode of washing it from river
sands, or a still more difficult and laborious process of breaking the
quartz from the lode without proper tools or explosives, and then slowly
grinding it by hand labour between two stones, the amount mentioned is
truly enormous.

Of this treasure the Queen of Sheba, who came to visit the Hebrew
monarch, contributed a hundred and twenty talents, or, say, 600,000
pounds worth. Where the Land of Ophir, whence this golden lady came, was
really situated has evoked much controversy, but there is now a general
opinion that Ophir was on the east coast of Africa, somewhere near
Delagoa Bay, in the neighbourhood of the Limpopo and Sabia rivers. It
should be mentioned that the name of the "black but comely" queen was
Sabia, which may or may not be a coincidence, but it is certainly true
that the rivers of this district have produced gold from prehistoric
times till now.

The discovery of remarkable ruins in the newly acquired province of
Mashonaland, which evince a high state of civilisation in the builders,