259 
GIBBA 
rebuilt. A comfortable shed, however, was provided for us 
among the ruins, and we received every possible attention from 
the chief Aristi, or bailiff, left in charge of the estate. 
Here, for the first time, I was gratified by the sight of the 
Galla oxen, or Sanga, celebrated throughout Abyssinia for the 
remarkable size of their horns : three of these animals were 
grazing among the other cattle, in perfect health, which circum-? 
stance, together with the testimony of the natives, that the size 
of the horns is in no instance occasioned by disease,'* completely 
refutes the fanciful theory given by Mr. Bruce respecting this crea- 
ture. It appears by the papers annexed to the last edition of Mr. 
Bruce's work, that he never met with the Sanga, but that he 
made many attempts to procure specimens of the horns, through 
Yanni, a Greeks residing at Adowa. This old man very correctly 
speaks of them, in his letters,* as being brought only by the cafilas 
from Antalo, and I have now ascertained, that they are sent to 
this country as valuable presents, by the chiefs of the Galla, 
whose tribes are spread to the southward of Enderta. So far 
then, as to the description of the horns and the purposes to which 
they are applied by the Abyssinians, Mr. Bruce's statements may 
be considered as correct ; but with respect to the disease which 
occasions their size, probably derived from their pasture and 
climate ''the care taken of them to encourage the progress of 
this disease '' the emaciation of the animal," and the ''extend- 
ing of the disorder to the spine of the neck, which at last becomes 
callous, so that it is not any longer in the power of the animal 
* Vide Appendix to Vol. I. letters 9 and 10, from Badjerund Yanni to Mr. Bruce, at 
Gondar. 
