432 OF THE GONGA PEOPLE. 



It is very interesting to remark how readily the 

 Galla appear to adapt their national habits to the 

 circumstances in which they are placed. This seems 

 to be a kind of instinct in man, or perhaps is an 

 element of that moral development which seems 

 to determine those occasionally mysterious inroads 

 of a new people, who seem to have sprung up at 

 once to exert the most extensive changes in the 

 history of nations, and which then subsides again 

 for another term of ages. Such was the appearance 

 of the Mongols in Asia, and of the Goths in 

 Europe ; such was the appearance of the Arabians 

 after Mahomed; and such are the Gallas of the 

 present day, who are gradually appropriating to 

 themselves the whole of the Abyssinian empire. This 

 moral principle, however, whatever it may be, seems 

 to promise an abundant harvest of converts to the 

 zealous and intelligent missionary, who shall first 

 appear as the professed apostle of Christianity 

 among them. 



Besides the Gallas whom I saw at Musculo's, 

 were several Zingero and Kuffah slaves, and as 

 these are the principal representatives of the 

 Gonga people, of whom I have frequently spoken, 

 I shall take this opportunity of more particularly 

 describing them. The Gongas are a mysterious 

 people, of whom rumours alone had reached the 

 civilized world in the remotest antiquity, and the 

 same obscurity continues at the present time to 

 hang over this interesting and secluded nation. 



