CHAPTER XXVII.

Conversation with Karissa. Of the origin of the Galla. Of the word Adam.-Of Eve.-Phoenician history.-Sanchoniathon and Moses. Of the religion of the Galla.-Of Waak.-Connexion with Bacchus.-Reward of enterprise.-African ethnology.-Of the armoury of the Negoos.-Different kinds of guns. Of the ammunition.

KARISSA remained the whole day at my house, for Tinta had been obliged to send to Ankobar for a spring vice. A discharged servant of the Embassy, named Sultaun, who resided in Aliu Amba, brought two files, which I purchased from him for a few charges of gunpowder, but until the return of Tinta's messenger, I was obliged to postpone repairing the gun-lock. When the required instrument did come, it was too late to do any thing, so Karissa stayed all night, turning in upon an ox-skin, and sharing the porch of my house with Goodaloo.

The next morning (Aug. 25) I set about the business, and managed to put all to rights before noon, during which time we had a long conversation upon the origin of the Galla, and, in fact, of all other nations, for the traditions he related reached to the very remotest times. How far his

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 knowledge 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

lighter complexioned, was an Amhara, or red man. The Surdi he insisted as existing, and was contented to believe, although I did not seem to know anything about them, that I was of that race.

His fathers, Karissa said, all believed that at one period the people of the whole earth were of one colour and language, and that the first man, like Adam, was produced from clay. Here I may observe, that the Abyssinians all contend that the real signification of the word Adam is first, and is a form of Adu, the Geez for the numeral one, and as such was once used to designate the first day of the week, and the first month of the year. Kádama is also another modification of the same word, signifying before the first. A very interesting comparison can be therefore made between the Mosaical account of the Creation and that which has been preserved in Manetho as the Phoenician record of the same event; for the name of the first mortal in the list Primogenus will bear an interpretation similar to the Geez translation of Adam, or the first. That which makes the identity more striking between the two narratives is, that the name of the first woman, according to Manetho, or rather the older writer, Sanchoniathon, was on, which is the very word that is given in the Genesis of the Geez Scriptures as the name of our common mother, and which, by tracing it through its modifications in Arabic, Hebrew, and the Greek, to our own language, will be found to

394

SIGNIFICATION OF EVE.

be the original of the word Eve.

That Eon

appears to have been the word which designated the mother of mankind, we have the circumstance that it retains the signification of mother to the present day, with slight alterations depending upon dialects; for the Amhara of Tigre call the word mother, Eno, whilst in Shoa, Enart is the term employed. The connexion of the name Eve with the motive given for bestowing it, contained in the third chapter of Genesis, cannot, in fact, be perceived unless we admit this interpretation; for we are expressly told, that Adam gave his wife that name because "she was the mother of all living." To this also I may add, that by deriving the name Adam from the Geez Adu, giving that name both to the man and woman, as in the second verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis, " And calling their name Adam," occasions no confusion, as it implies simply that they were the first. I have brought home with me two or three Ethiopic manuscripts relative to the subject of the creation of the world; for I believe by a careful comparison we shall find still retained in Geez literature the original from which Sanchoniathon, and perhaps other historians, have derived the accounts, at present received, of the first creation of man; at all events, the Amhara reject the authority of Genesis, and adhere to one which accords much more with the profane historian of the Phoenicians.

To return, however, to Karissa and the Galla people, their ancient history is no less interesting, nor

RELIGION OF THE GALLA.

395

will it prove less important when we possess fuller information respecting the religion they profess. It is such a field for conjecture that I decline to enter upon the subject, except to note that they worship a limited number of principal deities, but recognising also a numerous host of demigods, whose influence upon man and his affairs are exerted most malevolently, and who can only be propitiated by sacrifices and entreaties. Waak, however, appears to be the supreme god who made the world and every inferior deity. Waak has no visible representative, but is everywhere, and exists in everything. He is the limit of all knowledge; for "Waak segallo" (God knows) invariably expresses ignorance of a fact, and the best definition of him I could get from the most informed Galla I ever conversed with upon the subject was, that he was the "unknown God." Waak is, I think, the only deity proper to the Galla people, although long intercourse with the Gongas has made them acquainted with a mythology which would show, had I only space to enter into the subject, a most extraordinary connexion with that of the ancient Egyptians. They have also derived some knowledge of one or two of the principal saints worshipped by the Greek Church, and according to their situation with respect to the Christians of Abyssinia or the Pagans of Zingero, so is their religion modified by the errors or absurdities of their neighbours, and which is another reason why I suspect that