BIOLOGY. 321 



NATIVE RACES OF ABYSSINIA. 



Dr. H. Blanc, one of the Abyssinian captives, read a paper 

 upon this subject at the 1868 meeting of the British Association. 



Detailed characteristics of the following great divisions of the 

 inhabitants were given, premising that the Abyssinians differ from 

 all other native Afi'ican races, and present much analogy to many 

 European nations the offspring of divers invaders, and that there 

 never was, in all probability, a pure original Abyssinian race : — 

 the Amharas, a name applied to the majority of the people, all 

 Christians ; the Tigre people, dwelling in the north, and much re- 

 sembling the Amharas ; the people of Lasto, who combine the 

 best points in the two former ; the Shoas, each of those people 

 being Islams. The Falashas are the most important of the sepa- 

 rate tribes, and are the supposed descendants of the Jews, said to 

 have accompanied the Queen of Sheba on her return from her 

 visit to Solomon, and to have settled in the country under her son 

 Menilek, the alleged offspring of Solomon. The Kainawnts, a 

 peculiar people, have much in common with the Falashas, and 

 profess a religion which is a mixture of Judaism and Paganism, 

 though under compulsion, exercised by Theodore, they for a time 

 professed to be Christians. The Agaws, another separate tribe, 

 are of Galla origin, but whose manners are such as to have im- 

 pressed themselves favorably in Dr. Blanc's remembrance. The 

 Agaws wear the mahtab, the mark of Christianit\% but are looked 

 upon with some prejudice by the Amhara Christians. The Zalas 

 are a separate caste, industrious, and, therefore, looked on with 

 contempt by the lazy and vainglorious Amhara, but still, by the 

 help of a stick, enabled to hold his own against several Amharas 

 armed with spear and shield. The Waitos, another small tribe, 

 are noted for their predilection for the unclean hippopotamus, and 

 consequently, they are placed under a ban, though actually always 

 oblio-ins: and civil. The Figens are a border tribe, cruel, and 

 famed for their powers of incantation. The Wallo Gallas, origi- 

 nally from equatorial Africa, were, however, before Theodore's 

 rise, the most powerful people in Abyssinia. They invaded the 

 country in the sixteenth century, not only subdued and occupied 

 the fairest provinces, their present country, but often carried their 

 victorious arms to Gondar and Tigre, and imposed their rule on 

 many Christian emperors. They are a brave, handsome race, and 

 now that their great enemy is no more they bid fair, should they, 

 burying in oblivion all internal rivalries and petty jealousies, once 

 more unite, to overrun Abyssinia and impose on the debauched 

 and sensual Christians of that country the false creed of the Koran. 

 Such, said Dr. Blanc, are the several tribes and classes that con- 

 stitute the Abyssinian race. Taken as a whole, with the exception 

 of the oppressed and hard-working peasants, there is nothing in 

 them to praise or extol. 



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