194 NOETH-EAST ATEICA. 



mothers, their children. The hereditary enemies of the Issas are the Gadibursis, 

 also a Somali people, bold mounted marauders, who occasionally seize their flocks 

 even in the neighbourhood of Ze'ila. 



The Gallas. 



In numbers and extent of territory occupied by them, the Gallas are one of the 

 largest nations in Africa. Some of their communities are even settled on the 

 frontiers of Tigré, along the eastern slope of the Abyssinian main range. Even as 

 far as the equator, over a space of 600 miles from north to south, are scattered or 

 grouped together tribes of the same race, whilst Gallas are met with from east to 

 west throughout the region which stretches from the Upper Nile to the Somali 

 coast. But it is not yet known where the national type is the best represented, or 

 which is the most powerful tribe, the coimtry of the southern Gallas being one 

 which has been the least explored by European travellers. 



In this part of Africa an area larger than that of France is still unexplored, 

 and everything strengthens the belief that this region, stretching south of Kaffa, 

 will be the last to be visited by travellers. The only Gallas we are well acquainted 

 with are those of the northern region, who, since the middle of the sixth century, 

 have dwelt in and about the Abyssinian states. It is therefore natural that these 

 races should be studied after those of Abyssinia. According to Beke the Gallas 

 were so named by the neighbouring peoples after a river of Gurageh near which 

 they fought a great battle ; but this appellation is usually interpreted in the sense 

 of " Land-hunters," a term denoting their nomad life and conquests. They call 

 themselves Orômo, "Men," or Ilm-Orma, "Sons of Men," possibly " Brave Men ;" 

 although according to D'Abbadie this name, like the Spanish hidalgo, is synonymous 

 with " Nobles." The traditions of the tribes vary ; still the bulk of the GaUas, 

 when asked whence their ancestors came, point to the south. Their original home 

 is said to be towards the southern uplands, and the tribes near Mount Kenia are 

 said still to go on a pilgrimage to this mountain, bringing offerings to it as if to 

 their mother. It appears certain that towards the middle of the fifteenth century 

 a great exodus took place among the peoples throughout all eastern Africa, and 

 that this movement continued during the following centuries ; it has even con- 

 tinued till recently in a north-westerly direction. The Abyssinian Gallas, the 

 Wa-Humas of the riverain states of Nyanza, were to the north and west the 

 advance guard of this migration of the Orômo peoples, which according to Barth 

 and Hartmann, was probably caused by some great eruption of Kenia and other 

 volcanoes of equatorial Africa. 



In any case the " Sons of Men," whom some authors have termed Semites and 

 even " Aryans," are Nigritians, connected by imperceptible transitions with the 

 populations of Central Africa. In many points they resemble their northern 

 neighbours, the Agau, and their eastern and irreconcilable enemies the Somalis. 

 Both speak dialects of the same linguistic family, which has been provisionally 

 classed in the " Hamitic " group. According to Krapf, all the Gallas, those living 



