214 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



Yangaro. 



Yangaro (Janjero, Zinjero), south-east of Innarya and east of Gimma-Kaka, 

 comprises a portion of the hilly slopes draining to the Gugsa. In no other country 

 are the " rights " of the reigning house better safeguarded by legal guarantees. 

 Excepting the king, his children, and the low-caste peoples who are too much 

 despised to be feared, Beke was unanimously informed that all the males were 

 partially mutilated, so as to incapacitate them for the throne. One of the king's 

 thousand privileges is the use of certain medicines which are forbidden to his subjects. 

 The people having no other animal food than beef, all suffer from tape- worm like 

 the northern Abyssinians ; but the king destroys this parasite by the use of a 

 decoction of kusso, while the common people, not daring to touch the "king's 

 medicine," have to content themselves with bitter herbs. Amongst other strange 

 stories told of this mysterious Yangaro country, the missionaries Isenberg, Krapf 

 and Massaya, relate that human sacrifices are very common, a new-born child being 

 frequently immolated to their divinities. Immediately after their birth the males 

 are said to have their breasts cut off, so that the future warriors may in no way 

 resemble the " soft sex." When the slave merchants take captives of this country 

 they never fail to throw the most beautiful into a lake, so as to render fate favour- 

 able to their voyage ; but they rarely succeed in capturing males, who usually 

 commit suicide rather than accept slavery. The name of Yangaro has often been 

 ironically confounded with that of Zinjero, which signifies "monkeys" in Amhari- 

 nian ; hence the reports often heard of a race of enslaved monkeys existing in 

 Africa. Jimma-Kaka, or Kingdom of Abba-Jifar, is one of the regions which 

 supply most slaves to the merchants or jibberti. According to Beke, nearly all the 

 slaves brought from the northern and eastern Galla territories are made eunuchs by 

 dealers settled in the town of Folia. 



Kaffaland. 



The country of Kaffa is one of those whose people still claim to be Christians, 

 although a long isolation has effected a marked change between their practices and 

 those of the Abyssinians. There are said to be only six or eight churches in the 

 country, centres of widely extended parishes and sanctuaries for the criminals and 

 oppressed classes ; the kings are buried under one of these sanctuaries. According 

 to Massaya, the Kaffa Christians are ignorant even of the name of Jesus Christ, and 

 worship the three saints, George, Michael, and Gabriel. Exceedingly scrupulous 

 in the observance of their customs, which chiefly apply to the nature of their food, 

 the people of Kaffa never eat corn of any description, and to call them " gramini- 

 vorous " is considered an insult. Their only vegetable food consists of the stalk of 

 the ensete banana, which is cultivated around all their villages. The ordinary 

 grains, such as wheat, barley, and haricots, are used merely as food for cattle and 

 the brewing of beer. They are no less exclusive as to meat-eating, the ox being 

 the only quadruped whose flesh they are allowed to eat. But the men, more 



