370 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



The Negro tribes along this dividing-line are altered 

 by the intermixture of northern Caucasian races, and 

 are therefore spoken of as Negroids instead of as 

 Negroes. Striking instances of these mixed Negroes 

 occur in Senegambia, where they are formed by 

 the intermingling of Negro and Berber peoples, and 

 also in East Africa, where the Waganda are a Bantu 

 tribe altered by a band of Wahuma conquerors. 



THE GALLAS. 



The Gallas, or, as they proudly call themselves, 

 the Oromo i.e. "men," or "brave men" once 

 dominated East Africa from Abyssinia to Mombasa; 

 but they are now broken up into a series of 

 separate tribes of little political importance. These 

 tribes occur in a belt nearly continuous round 

 South Abyssinia, and extend across the plateau east 

 of Lake Rudolf into the valley of the Tana. 



The Gallas, warlike pastoral nomads, form the 

 most numerous branch of the Eastern or Ethiopic 

 Hamites. 



That the Gallas as a race are Caucasians and 

 not Negroes is clear from their physical features. 

 The forehead is similar to that of many Europeans; 

 the nose is thin and sometimes aquiline, while the 

 nostrils are straight; the chin is small and slightly 

 pointed; the lips, though usually thick, are thinner 

 than in Negroes; the hair is long and frizzly; the 

 expression of the face is proud and intellectual; in 

 fact, but for the very dark colour a Galla would pass 

 unnoticed in a European crowd. 



The Galla women are famous for their beauty, 

 and they fetched the highest prices in the slave- 

 marts of Cairo, Khartum, and Zanzibar. The men 

 are also handsome, but, owing to the style in which 



they dress their hair, appear wild and ferocious. Thus Harris, who studied the Gallas of Shoa, 

 described them as "tall and athletic, wrapped in a toga, their features fiery and savage, and 

 rendered still more ferocious by the thick bushy hair arranged in lotus-leaved compartments, or 

 streaming over the shoulders in long raven plaits." Krapf, who knew the Southern Gallas before 

 their overthrow, describes them as people of "a manly appearance, large and powerfully built, 

 but with savage features, made still more savage-looking and fierce by their long hair, worn 

 like a mane over the shoulders. They are principally of a dark brown colour." 



The clothes of the Gallas are a long leather robe, which in the women is fastened round 

 the waist by a girdle decorated with coloured beads. The weapons of the tribe are spear, 

 two-edged sword, and round hide shield. The houses of the Southern Gallas are conical huts 

 of thatch; but in the north the huts are surrounded by a low stone wall, and in the towns 

 they are mainly of stone. 



The inhabitants have large herds of cattle and horses, and flocks of sheep and goats. 

 They are also agriculturists, and grow maize, rye, and wheat; and instead of the hoe of 

 their Bantu neighbours they use a wooden, iron-shod plough drawn by oxen. The staple foods 

 are meat and bread, and the beverages are beer and mead. 



Photo by K. Giinthei\ {Berlin. 



A DAHOMEYAN WARRIOR. 



