CHAPTER VII
OF SEVERAL NATIONS BORDERING. ON ABYSSINIA TOWARDS
THE SOUTH: AND SOUTH-EAST,
S e c t io n I.— Of the Gallos.
T h e Gallas are a barbarous and a very'numerous people who,
about the middle of the sixteenth century, appeared on the'
southern boundaries of Abyssinia, and have continued to
mate inroads into that country, and to lay wasterits southern'
provinces. According to Mr. Bruce the traditions of .the
Gallas derive them from remote regions of Africa, wh&Jpn
the. borders of the southern rains, and within the southern
tropic, they had dwelt for ages or had wandered asnoqkdes
over the country between the Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Their first incursions into Abyssinia were, according to Bruce,
contemporary with the appearance of, the warlike and nomadic
Agagi or Giagas on the frontiers of Gdngo, and these
events, connected as they are in time, have been supposed
to have depended on the same • causes. Hence somè writers
have supposed , the Gallas and the Giagas to be divisions of
one people. “ The Gallas,” says Mr. Bruce, “ appeared' first
in 1537, in-great numbers in the Abyssinian province of Bali,
and they have been uniformly for many years making a
northward progress. At first they were all on foot, but they
afterwards became a nation of cavalry. Their, principal food
was formerly thé produce of their flocks, but they have
learnt of the Abyssinians to plough the soil and to make
bread. They all agree that, when their nation advanced to
the Abyssinian frontiers, they were in the centre of the continent.
The ground beginning to rise before them, seven of
their tribes or nations filed off toward s the Indian Ocean, and
gradually made their wayjiaato Bali and Dawaro. Another
divisiQn»^ re a ^ ^ t^ ^ p fv ^ in a .•semicircle round the south
side, baths' Nile, and alWfi^its banks round Gojam and behind
fl^Agows to /the Gongas*>ancb Gaf^ts: the high woody
bahkg'offlijie-Ni],e,jhave harrier to therjsjQuthward.
The differenthorde^q&this gieUt nation gird Abyssinia round
§ || all points from east td west, making perpetual inroad's'and
laying waste th€^!<|i^jktry. •
According to the information obtained by Mr. Salt, the
Galla entered Abyssinia, from the south, by way .'of Melinda
ancfPatta, from* which places'the tribes Of this' race;stiff ‘form
an uninteritipted chain. The ras ofTigfd, who spoke thdlan-*
guage of the Galla and seemed to intimatelyAcquainted
wil!h their history, informed Mr. Salt that ho ^common bond
of union "subsists between the different t^pfelf or this hdtion^ ‘
except that of their speaking the same 'language.- Twenty
tribes'at least are independent of each Mother, and in a state' of
mutual enmity." The two larger divisions of the Galla, known
uiraer the general appellation of the Edjow, live UnSer two
icclhb rated "chieftains, Gojee and Liban. Most of these have
adopted the Mohammedan religion, and the habim bf the
Aby^Sihians. The Edj ow Galla are divided ii 111 ■ m \ < r 111111« -;
those under Gojee are called Djawi and Toluino ; those" under
Liban are styled Wochali, Woolo and Azowa. To the
north-eastward of these reside the more barbarous tribes' of
Asubo: the Maitsha and the Boren Galla dwell in Gojam.
Another tribe near the Abay, called Woldutchi,. retain the
sanguinary ferocity of their ancestors. The Woldutchi, like
the Asubo, still ride on oxen,, and .like the southern Africans
ornament themselves with the entrails of animals.* 1
The Asubo Gallas are still Pagans, and hold sacred the
Wanga-tree; the country which they inhabit is one continued
forest. The following is the account given by Mr. Bruce, of
the physical character of the G a l l a '
* Mr, Pearce saw a Galla chieftain named Welleta Shabo, drink warm blood
out of a horn, from the neck of a cow 5 a fact which Mr, Salt thinks the more credible,
since his most Christian Majesty, Louis XL. as stated by a commentator on
Philip de Commines, drank children’s blood in order to recover his health.. See
Salt’s Travels in AbyssMa, p, 301.