CHAPTERXXVII.
Conversation with Karissa.—Of the origin of the Galla.—Of the word Adam.—Of Eve.—Phœnician 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.
Conversation with Karissa.—Of the origin of the Galla.—Of the word Adam.—Of Eve.—Phœnician 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.
Karissaremained 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 anything, 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 hisinformation 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 fromBargamo, 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 ofBargamo, 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, calledSurdi, 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 muchlighter complexioned, was an Amhara, or red man. TheSurdihe 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, signifyingbeforethe 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 Phœnician record of the same event; for the name of the first mortal in the listPrimogenuswill bear an interpretation similar to the Geez translation of Adam, orthe 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 Æon, 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 tobe the original of the word Eve. That Æon 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 themotherof all living.” To this also I may add, that by deriving the nameAdamfrom the GeezAdu, giving that name both to the man and woman, as in the second verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis, “And callingtheirnameAdam,” occasions no confusion, as it implies simply that they werethe 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 Phœnicians.
To return, however, to Karissa and the Galla people, their ancient history is no less interesting, norwill 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 saintsworshippedby 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 thatoriginally the unknown god Waak, was alone the object of pure Galla worship. It is singular that very ancient travellers, Cosmas Indicopleustes, for example, surround the then known world by aterra incognitawhich is inscribed as Wak-wak; whilst Edrisi, the old Arabian geographer, makes this the name also by which he describes the present Galla countries, and which d’Lisle, by an interesting Gascon provincialism, as it aids me in my interpretation, makes this word Bake-bake, and places it to the south of Abyssinia, I have been led therefore to believe that the worship of the most ancient god of India, which European nations in the classic ages adopted under the name of Bacchus, was supposed to characterize the inhabitants of the regions that were so designated, and hence the reason of describing unknown countries as lands ofWak-wak. If so, andWaakcan be by future travellers identified by other particulars with the Bacchus of the ancients, it will be a most important corroboration of the origin of the Galla with an Asiatic people who invaded Africa at a very early period. It is not one volume that would exhaust this subject; nor is it one journey that can give a traveller a just right to impose his opinions upon his readers. The dissipation of a deal of obscurity respecting the earlier history of man, and, in fact, of his original nature, and of his primeval institutions, will be the glorious reward of future enterprise; and since the days of Columbus,no subject of more stirring interest, or of greater importance has been discussed, than the probability of finding in Central Africa a country characterized by the civilization of China, but more purely sustained in its original excellence by its isolated position, surrounded by burning deserts, that like “flaming swords,” turn every way to keep the way of “the tree of life.” To me, it almost appears such a community of man is shadowed out in the mystical language of the sacred historian; and though I do not expect to find a paradise, still there is that in Central Africa that will well reward those adventurous spirits who will press on to explore its unknown portions.
The empty iron-bound chest taught the man who opened it, industry; and even if no wonderful discovery be made, knowledge, must result from a journey across the mysterious continent.
I return again to Karissa and his system of ethnology, for out of the question of my being one of the nation of whites, orSurdi, a conversation grew, by which I perceived the very simple system of the original separation of man that is entertained by the Abyssinians, and their ideas upon which are singularly confirmed by what is observed in our own extent of knowledge. This is, that originally three families of man occupied three distinct countries, each divided by their respective seas; and that Tokruree, the blacks, were separated from the whites by a white sea; which I find actually tomean the Mediterranean, so called by Arabian geographers, from being supposed to belong to the white people. The red people, again, were the Asiatics, the Assyrians of Jewish historians; and the sea which separated them from Tokruree, or Africa, was, and is called to the present day, the Red Sea, from the reason of its being situated upon the borders of a country inhabited by a red race of men; whilst the black people, had also their particular sea, which is that which intervenes between India and Zanzibar, and which still bears that name in Arabic and Indian geographies. This simple division of the earth seems to have been the popular idea of ethnology at a very early period; for all the various names of Alps, Albania, Albion, and numerous others, of Latin and Greek combination, having reference to this colour, prove that the ancient designation of Europeans was “the whites,” and which appears to have been as general and as familiar a term to use, as is the word blacks, or Negroes, or Tokruree, when, at the present day, we speak of those coloured inhabitants of Africa; whilst on the other hand the derivation of Asia from Assa, a word which signifies red, is both easy and natural. Of the word Tokruree, and its Geez signification, my reader must be well aware that it meansblacks, or Negroes, and is the significant and expressive designation of those people.
After some more conversation upon the samesubjects, as the day was drawing to a close, Karissa took up his musket, and made preparations for departing; but before he went insisted upon my promising to ask the Negoos that he might be allowed to accompany me to Enarea when I went, to which place he undertook to conduct me, through Gurague, with perfect safety, and would only require such a present as I could give him, upon our return to Shoa. The journey would not require more than one month to accomplish it, including all detentions and necessary delays. It only required, he said, the permission of the Negoos; who, in that case, would send an affaro, or servant, to see me safe upon my journey, and to bear the royal commands for assistance to his governors or friends. It was this appointment of affaro Karissa desired, and none other could have been better qualified, had circumstances been so ordered as to have admitted of my proceeding farther; but situated as I was, worn out by disease, and reduced to my last seven or eight dollars, I could hold out no hope to Karissa beyond saying that I should apply to the Negoos for permission to go to Enarea, and if I went he should be sure to accompany me.
I learned from this man that Sahale Selassee possesses at least one thousand firearms, of which three or four hundred are European muskets. Of these the British Embassy had presented three hundred, and before its return one hundred andforty more had been brought up by M. Rochet d’Hericourt. With the Kafilah I accompanied there were more than fifty pistols, all of which were given by the Ambassador to the Negoos. These small weapons were quite unsuited to Amhara soldiers, who like long shots about as well as any military, it has ever been my fortune to observe in actual combat. The pistols, however, were not altogether useless, for, by the orders of the sagacious monarch, several of the best matchlocks were immediately new stocked and fitted with the locks of the former, and were thus rendered much more available as fire-arms.
There are no less than four descriptions of guns in the armoury of the Negoos. The first and most ancient being termedballa quob, are immense long old-fashioned affairs. Each require three or four individuals to hold, whilst another runs up with a lighted stick to discharge it; when those who stand behind, find it most desirable to get out of the way, for the recoil throws it several yards out of the hands of the gunmen. The second kind is calledballa matatchah, and is the common matchlock; many of these, I was assured, were formerlyballa quob, but that a Gypt several years before had visited Shoa, and so far benefited the Negoos by reducing his long pieces into something like portable guns. The next kind, and most in favour, were the English and French muskets,calledballa dinghi, and only to those whom he most favoured did the monarch trust these much prized arms, every one of which is valued by him at twenty dollars, the price of two beautiful young horses. Theballa tezarb, or percussion guns, are those which have come to the Negoos by the voluntary contribution of strangers, or the direct application of the monarch for the coveted weapon at whatever price may be demanded. My single-barreled fowling-piece was destined to the same resting-place with nearly all the valuable stock of private fire-arms brought up to Shoa by the members of the Embassy, who found it very difficult to retain more than one or two guns each for their own use. The less valuable of theseballa tezarbare distributed among the superior courtiers as great marks of favour, and besides, two or three favourite pages have occasionally lent to them, by the Negoos, guns for their amusement; and he rewards them also for such petty services as cannot well be paid in any other manner, by scanty donations of four or five percussion caps at a time. These constitute a good coin in the precincts of the palace, and a great deal of attention and civility may be commanded in exchange for a few caps.
The Shoan gunpowder, as I have before described, is very bad, and also, from the want of lead, all manufactured bullets are made of small pieces of iron, hammered into a round form. Many of thegunmen, however, are obliged to substitute small round pebbles, as the Negoos never distributes to each more than five or seven of the iron ones, on occasions even of the most extensive expeditions.