14 DERIVATION OF THE WORD GALLA. 



alludes to the two very different people, the Shankalli 

 and the Dankalli, inhabiting the low countries of 

 Africa within the tropics ; the former living to the 

 west of Abyssinia, the latter towards the east. 

 This will be more evident when, in a future 

 chapter, I connect the elevated table land of Abys- 

 sinia with the scene of the annual festivities of the 

 gods in Ethiopia. 



It may be as well in this place, perhaps, to ad- 

 vance my own opinion as to the probable derivation 

 of the name Galla, which has been so generally 

 given to the numerous, divided, and barbarous 

 tribes which I believe have arisen from the ruins of 

 the once civilized and extensive empire of Meroe. 

 The word Galla appears to be merely another form 

 of " Calla," which in the ancient Persian, Sanscrit, 

 Celtic, and their modern derivative languages, 

 under modified, but not radically changed terms, is 

 expressive of blackness, and which was originally 

 conferred upon a dark-coloured people, as descrip- 

 tive of their appearance, by the affrighted nations 

 of a lighter complexion, whom their boldness and 

 ferocity have nearly extinguished. Thus the origi- 

 nal inhabitants of the high table land of Abyssinia, 

 a much lighter-coloured race than the Greeks, 

 called the people of the surrounding low countries 

 Galla, for the same reason that the Greeks gave 

 them the name of Ethiopians. In the Geez, or 

 Ethiopic language, these people are styled Tokru- 

 ree, blacks, and their country Tokruah ; and we 



