484 
MORAL AND POLITICAL 
present that of ancient Asia, at a period when the 
states were grown more powerful and corrupted. 
All the " corners" of Abyssinia are filled with na- 
tive tribes, characterized by the negro complexion 
and features, and some of which, particularly the 
Shankala, or Shangalla, exist still in the rudest 
form of the savage state. In this quarter, an ad- 
vance has taken place of the native tribes, particu- 
larly of the Galla, who have now obtained posses- 
sion of many of the finest provinces of the king- 
dom* 
Jn the great empires of Boraou and Cashna, with 
their tributaries and dependencies of Bergoo, Beg- 
herme, Wangara, &c. a mass of native population, 
distinguished by the negro features and complexion, 
is ruled by Musulman chiefs and monarchs. These 
states were subjected during the first era of Saracen 
power, and they have ever since continued sub- 
ject to this foreign race. Their interior organi- 
zation is very imperfectly known. Native rude- 
ness and simplicity in the mass of the nation 
seems combined with the display of pomp and 
pageantry, in the sovereign and his retainers. 
There does not appear, since the time of Edrisi, to 
have been any extension of Musulman influence in 
this part of Africa. The example of Tombuctoo 
might even lead us to infer a tendency in the na- 
tive tribes to resume the ground which they had 
formerly lost. 
