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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 
are remarkably well made, and notorious for their strength and agility. They 
speak the Tigré dialect. The people of Shoa as a rule are darker and taller than 
the Amharas, but speak the same language. In Tigré and Shoa a large portion of 
the people are Mohammedans. Besides these four sections of Abyssinians there 
are several separate tribes. Of these, the Fulashas are the most important; they 
are found in great numbers in Wolkait, Waggara, and Koura, and are undoubtedly 
of Jewish descent. To this day they have retained many of the customs of their 
race, observing the Sabbath and being very particular in their food and other ob- 
servances of the Mosaic law. Another tribe are the Kainawnts, a peculiar people 
inhabiting the district at the north-western extremity of Lake Tana. They re- 
semble in appearance the Falashas, and are not improbably a derivation from the 
same tribe. They observe the Jewish Sabbath, and retain some of the Jewish 
prejudices. Although they have a sacred language of their own they speak Am- 
haric. They are a quiet and inoffensive people, but so brave in the defence of their 
homesteads and sanctuaries that they are but seldom molested by their crafty but 
cowardly neighbours the Amharas.- A third tribe are the Agaws, who are of Galla 
origin, and inhabit districts at the southern end of Lake Tana and to the westward 
of Lasta. They are fairer in skin than the Amharas, have handsome features and 
are remarkable for the delicate form of their hands and feet, and for the fine tex- 
ture of their hair. The land of the Agaws, bordering on the district of Damot, is 
one of the finest provinces of Abyssinia. These Agaws form a wealthy and 
powerful tribe. When Mr, Rassam’s mission (of which the author was a member) 
passed through their country their hospitality knew no bounds, and their amiable 
and courteous manners and pleasing smiling faces will ever be remembered. 
Although they have Christian churches and priests they are not looked upon 
as orthodox by the Amharas. They are a courageous people in defence of their 
homes, and the Emperor Theodore always took care to leave them alone. A 
fourth people, the Zalans, are rather a caste than a tribe; they inhabit Dembea, 
isolated in small villages, tending their herds of cattle, and are uncouth in ap- 
pearance. The Waitos, a fifth tribe, inhabit the shores of Lake Tana, and are 
despised on account of their predilection for the flesh of the hippopotamus. They 
are expert fishermen and ply the lake in their bulrush canoes. ‘Their hair is short 
and woolly, but they have no further resemblance to the negro Shankalas. A sixth 
tribe, the Figens, inhabit a well-wooded country, south of Lake Tana, abounding 
in elephants, which they hunt, and bring the ivory twice a year to the markets of 
Godjam, A seventh and last tribe are the Wallo gallas, a large, wealthy and 
aaa tribe inhabiting the fine plateau that extands from the Bechilo to Shoa. 
hey came originally from equatorial Africa about the middle of the sixteenth 
century, and are a brave race, professing the Mohammedan religion. Now that 
their great enemy Theodore is no more they bid fair to overrun Abyssinia, and 
impose on the debauched and sensual Christians the false creed of the Koran. 
There is nothing to praise in the character of the Abyssinians in general. 
Beggars infest the land; the priests are ignorant and bigoted. The people 
are adepts at low treachery, lazy, pretentious, and pompous. If their timorous 
nature made them recoil from the daring act of murdering the white men, their 
guests, they enjoyed at least for a while the idea of their importance, and swag- 
gered, full of pride, before the few helpless individuals their king detained in cap- 
tivity and in chains. 
On the Past and Present Inhabitants of the Cyrenaica. 
By Commander Lryprsay Brinn, RV, 
During service in the autumn of 1867 and the spring of the present year, the 
author was instructed to proceed to the African coast, between Berenice on the 
west and the Egyptian frontier on the east, a region embracing Lybia and that fertile 
strip of Africa called the Cyrenaica. It is the author’s object to give a sketch of 
the condition and nature of the tribes now settled among the plateaux and ruined 
cities, and to describe the traces that remain of earlier civilizations, Aithoueh 
Cyrene, the capital of the Greek colony, is almost buried, it yet presents on the 
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