392 karissa's information. 



information was founded upon recorded history I 

 cannot say, but he referred it to the conversations 

 of some priests of Gurague, with whom the early 

 part of his life had been spent, and much of what I 

 collected upon this subject (the ethnology of the 

 inhabitants of Abyssinia) from Karissa, was by his 

 asking if such and such a thing that he had 

 heard were true. Ibrahim was as much amused 

 as I was, for, without supposing it, our Galla 

 friend was contributing considerably to the know- 

 ledge of both. 



Of the Gallas themselves, he could only tell me 

 that they originally came from Bargamo, which 

 was represented to be a large water, across which 

 the distant opposite side was just visible. That 

 their ancestors, dwelling upon the farther shore, 

 were induced to come over into Abyssinia, which 

 they soon overran and conquered. Karissa always 

 pointed to the south as the situation of Bargamo, 

 or I was inclined to suppose that by this was 

 intended the country around the shores of lake 

 Tchad, the eastern portion of which, we learn from 

 Clapperton and Denham, is called Berghamie. He 

 was very curious to know if I were of a nation of 

 whites of whom he had heard, called Surdi, and 

 which, in his system of mankind lore, constituted 

 one of the three great divisions of mankind into 

 which the whole world was divided. There was 

 no question about himself, for he was a Tokruree, 

 or black, whilst Ibrahim, although not much 



