Conversation on medical matters with the Negoos.--Of Guancho.--
The State prison.--The construction of its defences.--Good
medicine for captives.--Its probable effect.--Of the Gallas.--
Their invasion.--Of the Gongas.--Abyssinian slaves.--Conclusion.
A very singular circumstance connected with our conversation respecting
the health of the brother of the Negoos was, that neither Bethlehem
or myself recollected at first, that all the near relations of Sahale
Selassee were incarcerated in prison, according to ancient Abyssinian
custom, and which, I believe, was also practised in the kingdom of
Judea, to secure, by this cruel policy, the monarch from personal
danger, and the country from the evils inflicted by civil war, that
might otherwise arise by the ambition or simplicity of the other
branches of the Royal family, either acting itself or admitting of
being acted upon by the arts of others.
The Shoan prison for these unfortunates is a high conical hill,
called Guancho, situated midway between Aliu Amba and Farree, and
is the residence of the Wallasmah Mahomed, who fills the office of
State gaoler, as well as collector of duties upon that frontier of
the kingdom. Here, at the period of this interview with the King,
were confined five princes of the blood Royal, some of whom had been
prisoners for as many as thirty, or thirty-four years.
From personal inspection of their apartments, an opportunity afforded
to no other European besides, I can state that the close and rigorous
confinement, said to have been imposed upon these captives, is much
exaggerated; and, although the separate sleeping apartments at night
were not more than seven feet in all their dimensions, still they were
only composed of sticks, such as the common garden rods for raising
peas in England, and a strong man leaning hard against them must
have fallen out through the wall of his cell. Only two of the royal
prisoners wore chains; these were on one hand and leg of the same side,
and were long enough to admit of the freest motion. A long-thatched
_wort bait_, or meat-house, contained their families; for not only did
the King remember his captive brethren on days of festival, by sending
them oxen, and honey-wine, but they were allowed to marry, and their
wives lived with them in their confinement. I took a ground plan of the
whole establishment, and the Wallasmah, who was too old to accompany
me on my survey, when I was in the only place that looked like a
dungeon at all, a vault about twenty feet square, cut out of the summit
of the hill, stamped several times upon the roof to intimate that
his sitting-room was over this secure place. In this dismal dungeon,
however, no person had been confined for the last six or seven years,
although it was being then prepared, by a second door being put up,
for the occupation of the unfortunate Samma-negoos, an ex-frontier
governor, who had assisted his brother, a denounced rebel, to escape to
Argobba, where he is now entertained by the Mahomedan Prince of that
country, Beroo Lobo. When I visited Guancho, this prisoner occupied a
small den of sticks, not four feet wide in any direction, and his hands
and feet were chained close together, so that his removal to the larger
subterranean cell will, at all events, afford him some opportunities of
exercise, though he will then be deprived of light and fresh air.
Although, therefore, the Royal prisoners did not enjoy life in a valley
of delight, they certainly did not drag out a miserable existence upon
the hill of despair. This would have been adding unnecessary cruelty to
an exigency of State policy; an evil that would, I am convinced, have
long before corrected itself, by the frequent escapes that would have
been attempted, especially in a place that afforded such opportunities
for obtaining personal freedom. An Abyssinian Baron Trenck would only
have to wrench open the thin bar of soft iron which constitutes fetters
in that country, and by three successive jumps through, not over,
as many fences of rotten sticks, he would be as free as the wildest
Galla, into whose country a walk of a few hours would take him. I did
not show any lucifer matches, for I recollected that the Portuguese
traveller Bermudez, had been confined in this very prison, and I did
not know whether an act of incendiarism might not at a future time be
available as a means of escape; for, it must be understood, at the time
of this visit I had been threatened if I attempted to leave Shoa with
the Embassy on their return to Aden, to be confined in Guancho, so
desirous was the Negoos of detaining me with him.
Guancho, the State prisoners, nor the anxiety of his Majesty that
I should remain in his service, can be entered into now; this is
anticipating the occurrence of events, the relation of which must be
excused from the increasing contraction of my limits, that prevents me
from holding but a little more pleasant converse with my reader, who,
I hope, so far has been conducted with an amused interest through the
scenes of Dankalli and Abyssinia life, in which I was a participator
during my sojourn in those countries.
Recalled to a recollection of the circumstances of the condition of the
Royal relations, by a remark of the Negoos, Bethlehem turned to me,
and commented upon the sanitary observances I had been recommending
for the benefit of my supposed patient, as he was a prisoner, and I
then learnt, that the Negoos was consulting me upon the subject of a
disease, to which he was himself subject. The symptoms that he had
detailed plainly indicated a great determination of blood to the
head, and among other things which I had suggested as preventives of
the occasional giddiness, dimness of sight, &c., which was complained
of, was frequent exercise by walking, and recommended that this should
be for some distance regularly every morning and evening. It was this
which had led the Negoos to make some playful remark in his character,
as his brother’s representative, that this indeed would be a pleasant
medicine for him, and which reminded the interpreter that if I went on
prescribing in that way I might say something unpleasant to the Royal
ear. Perhaps the unconscious shrug, with which I acknowledged our error
operated upon the mind of the monarch more than any direct appeal that
I could have made in favour of his unhappy relatives, and expressed
more real sorrow than the cold interpretation of Bethlehem could have
conveyed.[13]
The monarch soon after changed the subject by alluding to the bad
state of my own health, and of the necessity of my remaining quiet in
Aliu Amba until the termination of the wet season, which was expected
about the middle of the present month. He did not forget to recommend
to me the study of the Amharic language during that time, so that in
the next expedition against the Galla, to which he had already invited
me, I might be able to converse with him. The Negoos did not detain
me much longer, but after telling me not to miss seeing the Muscal
(at Debra Berhan on the 24th), if it were possible for me to come, he
dismissed me, glad enough to escape from the fatiguing interview.
I returned to Musculo’s house a great deal too tired to think of going
on to Aliu Amba directly, but made up my mind to stay until an hour or
two before sunset, to arrive in that town just in time for bed, and
so escape the houseful of inquiring friends, who would have thronged
around me with compliments and congratulations on my return.
To amuse me some portion of the time, Musculo introduced three of four
slaves who had been brought from the more interesting countries around
Shoa, and none of whom, as regards their political relations with that
country, demand a more particular notice than the Gallas. These appear
to surround Shoa on every side, except towards the north, where the
Amhara inhabitants of the Argobba appear to have their country in that
direction, continuous with the Shoan province of Efat; but even here a
narrow belt of debateable land, by the mutual jealousies of the rulers
of the two kingdoms, is left to the undisputed possession of some
unsettled Adal Galla tribes.
I have several times, in the body of this work, represented these
people as being the mixed descendants of the Dankalli and Shankalli
people, and although this descent has been modified in some situations
by contiguity to nations differing very considerably, both physically
and morally, from each other, still all the numerous tribes that
stretch on the eastern side of the table land of Abyssinia, from the
neighbourhood of Massoah to an unknown distance in the south, speak
one language, and practise nearly similar customs. The first disputed
question respecting the Gallas is their origin, which is generally
supposed to be foreign to the continent they now occupy, and from the
name _Calla_ resembling a Hebrew word signifying milk, it has been
presumed that they were a white people of that nation, who have become
changed in colour by a long residence in their present inter-tropical
possessions. Modern travellers continue in supporting this supposition,
but in recording my dissent I ask no one to adopt my opinion, I owe
it to my readers to state my ideas upon a subject I have studied a
little, and upon which I presume they require information. It is not,
therefore, to attract attention by opposing received opinion, which I
would much rather avoid, but for the sake of exciting discussion among
abler men than myself, that I here throw out suggestions respecting the
Gallas, as on other subjects I have done before.
The origin of the name Galla, from the Arian word _calla_, black,
appears easy and natural, and I have therefore adopted it, but shall
feel greatly indebted to any learned ethnologist who will correct me if
I am in error. The country their presumed parents occupied, is that in
which, from its situation, no other complexioned people could reside,
whilst that law of nature continues to exist which has imposed a black
skin upon men living in a very hot country.
We find, however, these so-called blacks in geographical situations,
quite at variance with that betokened by the dark colour of their
skin, and more particularly upon the elevated plateau of Abyssinia,
the natural country of the pale yellow Gonga, where their appearance
presents an apparent anomaly, which, fortunately, history enables us
to explain. The first intrusion of the Amhara I have in another place
endeavoured to show was in the time of the Egyptian king, Psammeticus,
and to trace their history, in connexion with the changes consequent
upon their colonization of the left banks of the Abi and the Abiah,
would be most easy and interesting; for the present generation possess
sufficient documentary evidence, to supply the necessary materials; but
until some indefatigable scholar takes upon himself this task, I have
no hope of seeing that obscurity dispelled which hangs over the earlier
history of mankind, and which is intimately connected with the earlier
history of Abyssinia. With this part of my subject, however, at present
we have nothing to do, and must call attention to the fact, that
the first recorded appearance of the Galla in Abyssinia, as hostile
invaders, was in 1537, during the reign of the Emperor David, otherwise
called Onag Segued. By this must be understood that it was at that
time they first found themselves able to assert their independence.
A more favourable opportunity could not have been afforded them
than that offered, when the Mahomedan King of Adal, Mahomed Grahne,
conquered and overran considerable portions of the ancient empire.
To the distractions and misfortunes that then harassed the Christian
Court the Gallas contributed, led on by sheer destiny, I believe, for
they quietly took possession with their herds of the countries that
had been devastated during the long civil sectarian war which, at the
time of Grahne, had assumed a national character from the divisions
of the Christian and Mahomedan Amhara, being then under two distinct
monarchial governments. These two kindred people mutually destroying
each other, were unable to offer any resistance to the lawless and
barbarous intruders who were alone benefited by the struggle for
supremacy between the professors of these two faiths.
The Adal conquerors, however, lost a great deal more by the war than
the defeated Christians of the table land; for occupying a country
of much less elevation than Abyssinia, the Gallas naturally located
themselves first upon the lands so much more suited to their habits
and constitutions, and accordingly, the Dankalli, closing from the
north, whilst the Shankalli came up from the south, their progeny soon
swept from the face of the country their Amhara predecessors; and the
red man of America retreats no faster before civilization, than on
this coast of Africa, the latter has been extinguished by the advance
of the barbarian Gallas. Only one town remains of the once mighty
kingdom of Adal, the city of Hurrah, the former capital of Mahomed
Grahne, before whose time Christianity was here at least tolerated
and professed by numbers of its inhabitants. Within the last century
another lingering remnant of this population of Adal has been entirely
driven out. Owssa, now exclusively Mahomedan Dankalli, was formerly
the capital of Amhara kings of Adal, and the traditions of the present
occupiers record the late residence in that country of a Christian
population. After the death of Mahomed Grahne and the expulsion of the
Jesuits from Abyssinia, the attention of its princes was first directed
to the increasing evil of Galla intrusion, and they then endeavoured
unsuccessfully, to recover those portions of the table-land upon which
they had established themselves.
It is admitted that the Gallas entered Abyssinia, through the natural
breach in its surrounding rampart on the east, where the denuding
operation of the Hawash has constructed a favourable high road for the
journeyings of a nation. Had a similar facility existed to the south,
such as would be afforded, for example, by the débouché, of a river
from the table land in that situation, we may be assured that the
national integrity of the Gonga people, who, in the north, were unable
to contend against the intruding Amhara, would have found it very
difficult to contend with the more warlike Galla; yet who, it will be
found, have made less impression there than in any other situation upon
the whole table land.
It appears that Fatagar, Efat, Shoa, then Damot, (which at that period
extended to the south of the river Abi,) were successively taken
possession of, a succession of conquests which prove that the course
of the Hawash, was the principal natural direction this people took in
their wanderings.
In Shoa and Efat they appear to have been early civilized. One of the
most characteristic traits of the Galla people is, the facility with
which they appear to adopt the religious creeds of their neighbours;
and the adjoining kingdom of Amhara, the central stronghold of the
Christian religion, afforded numerous opportunities of conversion, and
perhaps other favourable circumstances then existed of which we are now
ignorant; but the result has been a closer amalgamation of the Gallas
with the Amhara people in Shoa than, I believe, any other country of
Abyssinia presents. Whilst, therefore, an exceedingly corrupt dialect
of the Amharic language is there spoken, the dark colour of their skin
attests their close consanguinity with the Galla invaders, coming from
the low hot country immediately at the foot of the Abyssinian scarp in
this situation.
The Galla, physically speaking, are a fine race of men, tall, muscular,
and well formed. In the colour of their skin they vary considerably, as
may be supposed, from the differences of situation and of neighbourhood
in which they have located themselves. The Edjow Gallas, to the north
of Angotcha, are, I understand, of a lighter colour than the real
Amhara or red man, but it is probable that some mistake exists as
regards this statement. The Gallas of Limmoo are very dark-coloured,
but they live in a country considerably more elevated than that of
the Edjow Gallas. The Shoans themselves, who are considerably more
Galla than Amhara, are a very dark brown, although several light red
individuals, not born in Shoa, but more to the north, as I was told by
Sheik Tigh, are to be found among them.
In the expression of the Galla countenance there is that which reminds
the observer more of their Shankalli than of their Dankalli origin. The
form of their heads is long, the sides being flat, with very contracted
but not receding foreheads. The lower parts of their faces have the
full negro-form development of the lips and jaws, although the teeth
are regular and well set, without the inclination forwards I have
observed in several negro skulls. Their hair is coarse and frizzly.
It is generally worn in long narrow plaits, that hang directly down
upon the neck and shoulders. In Shoa it is customary to dress it with
considerable care, and it is then sometimes arranged in most fantastic
forms, the head being adorned all over with numerous small collected
tufts, and at others, three monstrous heaps of hair on the sides and
top make the head and face look like a huge ace of clubs. Their natural
dispositions are very good, and their courage is undoubted.
It is very interesting to remark how readily the Galla appear to adapt
their national habits to the circumstances in which they are placed.
This seems to be a kind of instinct in man, or perhaps is an element
of that moral development which seems to determine those occasionally
mysterious inroads of a new people, who seem to have sprung up at
once to exert the most extensive changes in the history of nations,
and which then subsides again for another term of ages. Such was the
appearance of the Mongols in Asia, and of the Goths in Europe; such was
the appearance of the Arabians after Mahomed; and such are the Gallas
of the present day, who are gradually appropriating to themselves the
whole of the Abyssinian empire. This moral principle, however, whatever
it may be, seems to promise an abundant harvest of converts to the
zealous and intelligent missionary, who shall first appear as the
professed apostle of Christianity among them.
Besides the Gallas whom I saw at Musculo’s, were several Zingero and
Kuffah slaves, and as these are the principal representatives of the
Gonga people, of whom I have frequently spoken, I shall take this
opportunity of more particularly describing them. The Gongas are a
mysterious people, of whom rumours alone had reached the civilized
world in the remotest antiquity, and the same obscurity continues at
the present time to hang over this interesting and secluded nation.
With the evidence I collected during my travels in Abyssinia, it will
not be presumption in me to call attention to a few facts that appear
to me calculated to throw some little light upon this subject, and
which may probably excite a greater desire to become better acquainted
with the hidden secrets of man’s history contained in the heart of
Africa.
The Gongas, in the era of the celebrated Egyptian king Psammeticus,
occupied the whole table-land of Abyssinia. Neither Amhara, or Galla,
had, as yet, appeared upon their naturally defended and very extensive
fortress. In their social institutions the great principle of foreign
policy, was the exclusion of strangers; and their isolated situation,
easily enabled them to effect this. One character of civilization, the
geography of the desert-surrounded table-lands of Africa, is eminently
calculated to prosper and promote, that peculiar social condition, the
consistency and continuance of which, requires little or no intercourse
to be kept up with the rest of mankind; the isolated members of which,
live contented among themselves, uninfluenced by wants which could
only be gratified by the products of other lands. In such African
communities, no inland seas, or navigable rivers, afford that facility
of intercourse which is enjoyed (as it is presumed) by the inhabitants
of more highly favoured countries. Protected also from foreign invasion
by vast and almost impassable deserts, individual enterprize could
scarcely be tempted to keep up a communication with a people so
situated, provided that they adhered to the principles of contentment,
and did not allow themselves to be seduced into a desire for foreign
luxuries; an unwise indulgence in which, first leads to molestation
from commercial intruders; who, breaking up the seclusion, open a path
to military invasion, which usually ends in the loss of country and of
personal freedom.
We hear of the Gongas in ancient history under various names, but
they were principally characterized by the cautious manner in which
they communicated with those merchants, with whom nature imperatively
commanded them, at least, to have some intercourse to exchange the
productions of their country, for what was an absolute necessary of
life to them, and of which they had no supply but from abroad; I need
scarcely mention, that this was salt. In return for this, it appears,
that gold was principally given to the traders; and for ages, this
commerce was carried on, with no more communication than was necessary,
through the medium of the following practice. “This country of Sasu
is very rich in gold mines. Every year the King of Axum sends some
of his people to this place for gold. These are joined by many other
merchants; so that, altogether, they form a caravan of about five
hundred people. They carry with them oxen, salt, and iron. When they
arrive upon the frontiers of that country they take up their quarters,
and make a large barrier of thorns. In the meantime having slain and
cut up their oxen, they lay the pieces of flesh, as well as the iron,
and salt, upon the thorns. Then come the inhabitants, and place one or
more parcels of gold upon the wares, and wait outside the enclosure.
The owners of the flesh, and other goods, then examine whether this be
equal to the price or not. If so, they take the gold, and the others
take the wares; if not, the latter still add more gold, or take back
what they had already put down. The trade is carried on in this manner,
because the languages are different, and they have no interpreter; it
takes about five days to dispose of the goods which they bring with
them.”[14] Heeren, in his Historical Researches, connects the country
where this system of barter was practised, with that of the Macrobians,
or long-lived Ethiopians, mentioned by Herodotus. By an ingenious
conclusion, he supposes that the altar or table of the Sun which
characterized the latter people was the market-place, in which, at a
later day, the trade with the strangers was transacted. My observations
have also led me to the same conclusion, but I am able more distinctly
to authenticate this, and to suggest additional and more direct
evidence of its being the actual fact.
The worship of the Gongas, which has continued to the present time, is
the adoration of the river that flows through their country, as being
part of the sacred Nile. The Abi, or Nile of Bruce, is worshipped by
the modern Adjows, whilst the Gibbee, or Abiah, is the object of a
similar devotion among the Pagan Gongas of Zingero, and of Kuffah. We
are enabled from our knowledge of the former river to presume, that
its singular course determined in the first instance, a reverence,
which, when the increasing encroachments of foreign foes had made this
river a convenient defence to the pressed Gongas, was soon elevated to
the character of a protecting deity. That its singular course should
have thus attracted attention arises, I believe, from the circumstance
of its encircling an extensive province, and going around it, as the
sun was supposed to revolve around the earth. The zodiac, or track of
the sun through the heavens, was typified by the form of a serpent,
and this I have always understood to have been the source of that
serpent-worship which characterized so many of the earlier and more
civilized nations of the earth. In no country, was this idolatry more
prevalent than upon the plateau of Abyssinia, and _Arwè_, the great
serpent, it will be recollected figures considerably in the earlier
history of the Amhara, who appear to have in some measure adopted the
religion of the Gongas, when they took possession of the countries upon
the left hand of their _father_, their _king_, their _sun_, by all of
which names, it is usual, even at the present day, to designate the
river Abi.
The great serpents of classic mythological history, the Hydra,
the Python, and others unnamed, destroyed by Apollo and Hercules,
all allude evidently to the worship of the serpent in Africa being
superseded by that of the sun. The relation of these gods to that
luminary is generally admitted, and _Hiero Calla_, fortunately for
my derivation of the word _Galla_, the sun of the _blacks_, is the
interpretative analysis of the name of Hercules. In the modern Dankalli
language no other word is used for sun but _Hiero_, and it enters
into the name of several names of places; Hyhilloo, the scene of the
celebrated battle between the forces of Lohitu and the Muditu, is
translated by the Dankalli to mean the hill of the sun.
The head of a sculptured Hercules is invariably portraited with the
frizzly hair of the Dankalli, whilst antiquarian ethnologists will be
interested to observe the persistance of national character preserved
in the flowing locks and ample beard usually given to Jupiter, his
European counterpart.
That which increased the celebrity of the northern portion of the
table-land of Abyssinia, and established the superiority in dignity
of its stream, was the circumstance of its flowing through the lake
Tzana or Dembea. No little light breaks upon the subject when it is
understood, that the literal interpretation of these two words in very
different languages, is the same, both signifying the lake of the sun.
Dembea, let me observe, is a word in use in Abyssinia that belongs to
the same language as _Abi_, _Assa_, _Galla_, _Nil_, and others, that
to avoid confusion, I have called _Arian_. That so many proper names,
should all be derived from an Asiatic language in a country where no
representatives of the modern people who speak it can now be found, is
only to be accounted for, by supposing that the African original of
the Arian family of man yet continues in some of the secluded oases of
Intra-tropical Africa, to reward by their discovery future enterprize.
Bahr Dembea, or the Lake of the Sun, would give a very appropriate
designation to the plateau upon which it is found. It was that, and
the course of the Abi, which occasioned the country visited by the
messengers of Cambyses to be called the Table of the Sun. It was also
the presence of these singularly situated geographical features,
and their supposed reference to the sun’s track in the zodiac, that
determined the reputed sanctity of this portion of Ethiopia in the
classic ages.
The connexion of the ancient Persian empire with its Ethiopic tributary
kingdoms, did not extend so far as the country of Sasu, and the fate
of Cambyses, in his attempted conquest of that country, would be, I
have no doubt, an instructive lesson to his successors. The claims
of these monarchs to supremacy in Ethiopia appears, in fact, to have
been founded upon former family connexion with some father-land in
Africa, not situated upon the plateau of Abyssinia, then inhabited by
the Gongas, but in another desert-surrounded country, of the same
character; probably, that which surrounds the sources of the Bahr ul
Abiad.
The African origin of other ancient nations can also be most easily
demonstrated, and the historical accounts of their descent from gods,
which have come down to us, although they consist of exaggerated and
distorted relations, in consequence of having been derived from the
ignorant translation of hieroglyphical records, in which it would
appear that the earlier history of Africa was preserved; still we are
able to gather from these mythological enigmas everything that is
necessary to connect their origin with a common centre of divergence,
which I believe to have been the country around the sources of the Nile.
In the same manner the worship of the rivers in India, and of the
dragon monster in China, seem to have originated from Ethiopia; the
emigration which carried the first colonies of serpent worshippers to
these countries having probably flowed in a direction from the south,
as Europe and Western Asia appear to have been civilized by colonists
from the north of the same point of dispersion.
It is most interesting to trace the intimate connexion at an early
period of the, at present, widely separated and even physically
distinct varieties of man; and did not a cautious policy restrain me, I
would attempt to demonstrate the original unity of nations now the most
dissimilar upon novel evidence, which, to be satisfactory to others,
must, however, receive farther corroboration than my own individual
observations.
One illustration of the light African explorations promise to throw
upon this subject I cannot refrain from advancing, as it is such
a striking evidence of the presumed fact of even ourselves having
originated from a colony of African emigrants; and that the ancient
British temple of _Abury_, or _Abibury_, near Stonehenge, derived its
name from the same religious worship being there celebrated as was
once general on the plateau of _Abyssinia_, and which, in fact, is
so called from exactly the same cause. The deductions of classical
learning materially assist a traveller, whose pursuits, so different to
a closet student, do not allow him to assume the character of a learned
critic or commentator. Dr. Stukeley, known by his inquiries into the
ancient religion of the Druids, has proved, I think incontestably,
the true character of the temple at _Abibury_, and demonstrates it
to have been constructed in the form of a serpent, bearing upon its
back a circle. He referred the religion, that directed such a form to
be assumed in the sacred architecture of this people, to an Egyptian
origin, and freely speculates, in consequence, upon the African origin
of our ancestors, which is asserted by our most ancient historians,
but who have been in consequence considered to be apocryphal. In
these traditions it is affirmed that Britain was first inhabited by
a celebrated descendant of Shem, singularly enough the same, who is
considered by biblical ethnologists to have been the common father of
no less a respectable people, than the modern Dankalli; Affer, the
son of Abraham, having led a colony of Africans to our shores, where
he introduced the worship of the sun, and established the religion
of Druidism. I recommend to my reader the perusal of Stukley’s work
upon “Abury, a Temple of the Ancient Britons,” and then to compare
the parallel, but more magnificent temple of nature upon the plateau
of Abyssinia, where the _serpent Arwè_, or in profane language the
river Abi, bears upon its back the lake of the _sun_, most curiously
identifying the peculiar worship of that luminary by the ancient
Ethiopians with the same adoration which was professed by the Druids
in Britain, but who, from their situation, were obliged to construct
the winding avenue of stones at Abibury to represent the same mystical
hieroglyphic of the serpent and the sun. The name given to this work
was _Abi_, the _father_, or _king_, as it was also of the river-symbol
in Abyssinia; hence the name _Abibury_, the latter portion of which
word is of Saxon origin; and added, subsequently to the decline of
Druidism.[15]
Returning to the Gongas and their connexion with the Sasu of Cosmas,
it is singular to observe in what manner the seclusive integrity of
that country was first sapped, and then in a great measure overthrown.
Within the last two centuries, the Adjows of Northern Abyssinia, the
representatives of the Gongas in that situation, were said to continue
the original practice of their fathers with respect to commercial
transactions. But these must have been a tribe now extinct, as, from
what I can learn, it is only in the extreme south where the custom
is still persisted in, and it is among these that the most ancient
authentic record (uninspired) of the antediluvian world will be found.
It is here, too, that the original name of this people, Sasu, is
preserved in the modern word Susa, of whom, as a nation, we scarcely
possess any information more than sufficient, to warrant the mere
assertion that such a people now exist highly civilized, and using a
peculiar written character dissimilar to any with which the literati of
Europe are acquainted.
Of the Sasu traders in the time of Cosmas, we are told they carried
with them oxen which, on their arrival in the country, they killed, and
hung up the raw flesh on the thorns, as a kind of merchandise. It will
be remembered that I have previously stated the intoxicating effects of
this kind of food upon the Amhara, and I have therefore no difficulty
in supposing that the Gongas were tempted by this kind of dissipation
into the intercourse with the traders, just as in modern times, “fire
water” for Indians, and opium for the Chinese are employed to effect a
similar object. This receives further confirmation from the fact, that
the secluded Gongas of the present day live entirely upon vegetables,
the ensete plant and grain forming the principal food. In Zingero and
Enarea, broken in upon by the Mahomedan and Christian religions, the
inhabitants have adopted the use of animal food, but even among them
a party of the older faith exists who continue the original mode of
living of their fathers, and who are contemptuously styled, for that
reason, “grain eaters.”
The Gongas that I have seen are of short stature, not exceeding five
feet four inches, are delicately made, and of a pale yellow complexion.
The aperture of the eyelid in some were quite straight, but in others
it was obliquely divided. Their hair was straight and strong. A
triangular formed face, the forehead being low and long, and the chins
very pointed. I could not convince myself, as I looked at their whole
appearance, but that they were of the same race as the Hottentots of
the Cape, differing only in so much as that the latter are in a very
degraded state. Many remarkable customs practised by both nations
could not have been merely coincidental; and one, that of voluntary
semi-emasculation, is too extraordinary not to be referred to the same
origin of imposition. Of the identity of the two people there can
be no doubt, and there is no ethnological fact I observed during my
journey of which I am so well satisfied as this.
The remains of this interesting people in Northern Abyssinia are the
Adjows and the Falasha, and if future travellers will expend their
resources in exploring Northern Abyssinia, in preference to the far
more important examination of its southern portion, they cannot occupy
themselves more advantageously to science than by examining into the
customs and characters of the Adjows. I consider it would be a waste
of time that could be occupied much better in another direction, or I
would, for my own satisfaction, visit the country for this purpose; but
as it is far from difficult and constitutes an excellent probationary
journey, I recommend aspirants for fame in the field of African
discovery to make this their trial excursion.
One more remark upon the Southern Gongas of Enarea, Zingero, and
Kuffah, and I must close this notice of a very interesting race of man;
and that is to explain the apparent anomaly of their country, situated
at such an elevation above the level of the sea as I presume it to be,
producing cotton and grapes in profusion.
The observations of that indefatigable and enterprising traveller,
Dr. Beke, has proved that the river Abi, after flowing a distance of
scarcely one hundred and thirty miles, has excavated a valley five or
six thousand feet below the general level of the table land, whilst the
opposite summits of the bounding sides are distant between thirty and
forty miles. We may look in vain over every portion of the known world
for a similar effect of denudation, and this again illustrates the wide
field of novel facts which is promised to science, by an examination of
the unknown interior of Africa.
On the artificial terraces and natural slopes of these extensive
valleys the vegetables of all climates can be successfully cultivated,
and the theoretical centre of successive elevations from whence,
according to the hypothesis of Linnæus, all vegetation spread over the
rest of the earth, appears to exist in the natural phenomena presented,
by the surface geography of the Abyssinian table mountain. The country
of the Gongas is similarly excavated by the deeply cut channel of
the Gibbee, or the Red Nile, which, much larger than the Abi on the
northern portion of the plateau, will have a greater extent of denuded
valley for the production of those vegetables of a hot climate, the
presence of which have been such an argument in favour of those, who
contend that the water-shed of the Gibbee must be towards the lowlands
in the South, where it is presumed these vegetables could only have
been cultivated.
The other slaves I examined at Musculo’s, were a few Amhara from
Gurague, but who contributed but little to my previous information,
upon the subject of their character and country. I noticed there
were no Dankalli among those brought down for my inspection; and was
given to understand that none of these people were ever brought into
Abyssinia as slaves; and if they were, no one would purchase them,
for they would neither remain with their masters, nor would they
work. Even in this, their true Circassian origin is betrayed; for,
although their morality does not prevent them from selling their own
daughters, this caste of mankind cannot be enslaved. The superiority of
this mentally endowed race is manifest, even in their most barbarous
state; and I have been led, therefore, to disbelieve the general
presumption, that the Negro is universally the type of man in his most
degraded condition. From what I have observed myself, the Dankalli,
the Shankalli, and the Bushmen, are the lowest grades of the three
varieties of the human race, the Arian, or Circassian, the Amhara,
or Negro, and the Gonga, or Mongolian, all of whom have a height of
civilization, and a depth of barbarism distinct from each other;
and that, however, the Bushman may be improved, he will only become
a civilized Chinese, and that a Negro may by education be made an
ancient Egyptian, but would never by that alone become the enlightened
Circassian, that his neighbour, the Dankalli, could, certainly, be
made.
I have now exhausted, not my subject, the numerous ideas upon which I
have latterly been most inconveniently obliged to crowd together, but
the very limited space that I had proposed to myself in my ignorance of
book-making, as being sufficient to contain all I had to say respecting
my journey, and the ideas and incidents which occurred to me during my
sojourn in Abyssinia. Much to my surprise, the manuscript has grown
under my hand, and the greatest difficulty that I have had, has been to
arrive at the period I have done, before I laid down the pen.
From this date, however, September the 3rd, having returned to Aliu
Amba, from Ankobar, I was confined some time entirely to my bed, during
which period my note-book presents such a series of entries, “no
better to-day,” that I have taken the opportunity thus afforded me of
concluding my narrative.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] About two months after this interview the captive
princes of the blood Royal were liberated from
Guancho, in accordance with a vow made by the Negoos
whilst lying upon a bed of sickness, under the
impression that death was approaching, and that such
an act would propitiate heaven favourably for his
recovery. It was a spontaneous act, nor can any just
claim be made by any one to have instigated the Negoos
to take this step. During his illness he refused the
aid and medicine of the Embassy, and it was a topic
of public conversation, that a monarch possessed of
such abilities, and so excellent a disposition as
Sahale Selassee, should be so under the influence of
suspicion, as even in the extremity of his illness on
this occasion, he should have refused the proffered
assistance of European skill and knowledge, of which
he had had such evidences of superiority.
The attention of our Embassy was first called more
particularly to the subject when the Ambassador and
Captain Graham were desired to attend at the palace
the day when the liberated captives came before their
generous king. During that interview, when his heart
felt naturally the pride of having acted in the manner
he had done, Sahale Selassee turned to the English
officers, whom he knew were compiling a book, and
asked for a compliment, by saying, “Will you write
this down?”
I shall make but one more remark, that if indirect
influence is to be exaggerated into direct
instigation, then I certainly claim to be considered
as the liberator of the Shoan princes; for I possess
evidence of the regard entertained for me by Sahale
Selassee, and I have more than once hinted to his
Majesty the difference that existed between the policy
of European courts, as regarded the younger branches
of royalty, and that which was observed in Shoa. To
his courtiers, also, who conveyed to his ears every
word that was said, I always denounced the custom of
imprisonment as most absurd and cruel.
[14] Cosmas, pp. 138, 139. This author wrote about A.D. 535.
[15] Abi was also the title of prince among the ancient
Himyaritic nation, and, slightly changed, is still
given to the kings of the countries to the south of
Shoa; for example, Aboo Bogaboo, king of Enarea; Abba
Wabotoo, king of Kuchah.
Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London
Transcriber’s Note:
Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent
hyphenation in the text. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left
unchanged. Misspelled words were corrected.
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
end of the chapter. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside
down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected.
Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were
added.