DEBEA-LIBANOS— ROGEH— DILDILLA. 21 1 



time of the invasion of Granheh. But on settling down they adopted many of the 

 customs of the Amharinians, whom they had dispossessed ; abandoning their nomad 

 life they became agriculturists and adopted the toga, although they retained their 

 Mohammedan faith. In the northern part of Wolloland, on a rock possessing 

 excellent natural defences, the King of Shoa has founded the stronghold of Woreilla, 

 near the confines of Abyssinia properly so called. This place has become a very 

 important market for exchanges between the two realms, and here the Emperor 

 Johannes usually gives receptions to his vassals. 



All the territory south-west and west of Shoa belongs also to the Ilm-Ormas, 

 and possesses large collections of buildings almost worthy the name of towns. The 

 barren northern slopes of Mount Hierer, or Jerrer, are covered with the huts of the 

 large Mussulman village of Rogeh, or Rogieh, which, situated on one of the affluents 

 of the Awash on the confines of Gurageh, in the territory of the Galla tribe of the 

 Galen, has a large trade in coffee, and is still the chief slave-market in southern 

 Abyssinia. This trafiic is officially forbidden in the possessions of King Menelik, 

 and the captives are not publicly exposed, but they are secretly sold and sent to the 

 sea-ports, whence they are exported to Arabia or Egypt. In 1878, the explorers 

 Chiarini and Cecchi found the " current price " of the Galla slave to vary from 

 thirty or forty Maria-Theresa crown-pieces for a young and good-looking girl, to 

 four for an old woman. All the inhabitants of Rogeh, numbering some 10,000, 

 claim to be of Tigré stock, and are said to descend from two Mohammedans who 

 immigrated some centuries ago. The plain of Finfini to the west, near the sources 

 of the Awash, and at the mouth of a formidable gorge, is frequently selected by 

 the sovereigns of Shoa as the rallying-point where the armies assemble for 

 expeditions into the Galla country. Hot springs, at which the cattle drink, spout 

 forth in the plain, and the neighbouring mountains furnish an iron ore from which 

 nearly all the Shoa hardware is manufactured. The rocks in the vicinity are 

 honeycombed with grottoes, one of which has several naves with elliptical vaults, 

 separated from each other by square pillars which grow thinner towards the middle. 

 These works of art, in a country now occupied by the miserable dwellings of the 

 Katelo Gallas, are a standard by which the decadence of civilisation can be measured. 

 On the solitary Mount Endotto, west of the plain of Finfini, formerly stood a capital 

 of the kingdom of Shoa, and here the tombs of its ancient kings are still to be seen. 

 It is now the residence of a râs, or chief. In this region, one of the most fertile in 

 Abyssinia, the French explorer, Arnoux, obtained from Menelik a grant of 250,000 

 acres of land, on which he intended to establish a European colony. "When easy 

 routes through the valley of the Awash are opened between it and Tajurah Bay, 

 this region will doubtless become one of the most productive in Africa. Meanwhile 

 the graftings of wild olives and the chinchona plantations are preparing the future 

 wealth of the country. The King of Shoa has recently chosen as his residence the 

 village of Dildilla, west of Finfini ; it is one of the temporary capitals of the kingdom, 

 and is moreover placed in an excellent strategic position to watch over the Galla 

 populations. 



Beyond the Awash stretch the Galla republican confederations and small 



