Galla people

“ The Galla tribes are a tall, finely formed people, who have bright, expressive eyes, and a deep brown complexion. The tribes of the various sections differ widely in their characteristics. Those occupying the southern borders of Abyssinia are brave warriors and keen traders. They are either Mohammedans or professed followers of the Christianity of Abyssinia. The southern Galla tribes are all heathen. ”

“ Even the Galla, a barbarous and stranger nation, hostile to the Abyssinians, and differing in language and religion, still agree with them in a hearty belief of the possibility of practising witchcraft, so as to occasion sickness and death at a very great distance, to blast the harvests, poison the waters, and render people incapable of propagating their species. ”

“ As far as I could ascertain from the Ras, who spoke the language of the Galla, and seemed to be intimately acquainted with their history, it appeared that no common bond of union subsists between the different tribes, except that of their speaking the same language; twenty tribes, at least, being known perfectly independent of one another, each ruled by its peculiar chief, respectively at enmity among themselves, and the character of the people essentially varying, according to the districts in which they have settled. ”

“ Some tribes, and notably the Wollo Galla, have been converted to Mahommedanism and are very bigoted adherents of the Prophet. In the north, where the Galla are under Abyssinian rule, a kind of superficial Christianization has taken place, to the extent at least that the people are familiar with the names of Maremma or Mary, Balawold or Jesus, Girgis or St George, &c.; but to all practical intents paganism is still in force. The serpent is a special object of worship, the northern Galla believing that he is the author of the human race. ”

“ The majority, however, may be described as a mixed Hamito-Semitic people, who are in general well formed and handsome, with straight and regular features, lively eyes, hair long and straight or somewhat curled and in colour dark olive, approaching to black. The Galla, who came originally from the south, are not found in many parts of the country, but predominate in the Wollo district, between Shoa and Amhara. It is from the Galla that the Abyssinian army is largely recruited, and, indeed, there are few of the chiefs who have not an admixture of Galla blood in their veins. ”

“ It is not a port, but a very tolerable road, where you have very safe riding, under the shelter of a low desert island called Crab Island, with a few rocks at the end of it. But it must be remembered, the people are Galla, the most treacherous and villanous wretches upon the earth. They are Shepherds, who sometimes are on the coast in great numbers, or in the back of the hills that run close along the shore, or in miserable villages composed of huts, that run nearly in an east and west direction from Azab to Raheeta, the largest of all their villages. ”

“ They are quite distinct in appearance from the surrounding tribes. The type is a tall (5 ft. 8 in.) , large-limbed, square-shouldered negro, bull-necked, bullet-headed, with a very low forehead and coarse features; colour very dark; but they have a jolly expression, and were some of the pleasantest natives I ever dealt with. It was curious to see even amongst these people, who live a life apart from their surroundings, the occasional delicate features, gazelle-like eyes, light colour, lithe limbs, and genteel nonchalance of the Galla influence. ”

“ If so, and Waak can 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 ”

“ The people are originally of those Galla west of the Abay. Yasous the Great, when at war with that people, who, in many preceding reigns, had laid waste the provinces of Gojam and Damot, and especially Agow, when he passed the Abay found these people at variance among themselves; and the king, who was everywhere victorious, being joined by the weakest, advanced to Narea, and, on his return, transplanted these Galla into Maitsha, placing part of them along the Nile to guard the passes. ”

“ The coast of Africa, from the Red Sea to the River Juba, which is as far as the equator, is inhabited by a tribe called Somauli, who are reckoned to be descendants from the aborigines of the country, and were early subjected to the laws of the Koran, by the Arab merchants trading with them. They are a mild people, of pastoral habits, and confined entirely to the coast; the whole of the interior of this portion being occupied by an untamable tribe of savages, called Galla, perhaps the most uncultivated and ferocious people in existence. ”

“ If force had failed, perhaps negotiations might succeed. It was known that the two fugitives were still living in some of the villages belonging to the relations of Mahomed, awaiting the return of a messenger they had sent to the Galla Queen Mastiate, whose camp was a few days distant. The Magdala chiefs, therefore, proposed to the Gallas in their power that if they could induce their relations to give up the two fugitives, with the things they had taken away with them, they would set them all—men, women, and children—free, and restore the cattle that had been plundered. ”

“ A language anterior to Malay, vernacular in Gilolo. Wallace: “Malay A.,” appendix. H. C.
Galgai.
A sub-dialect of the Caucasus, same as Ingush.
Galibi.
American: a form of the word Carib, belonging more especially to French Guiana.
Galilean.
A dialect of Aramaic. See Matth. xxvi., 73.
Galla.
African: spoken by the Gallas, i.e. “mountaineers,” a numerous people in Abyssinia and over a wide extent from the E. coast inwards, and S. till it reaches the Kaffir. See Tutschek: “Dictionary and Grammar,” Munich, 1844-5. ”

“ They are evidently the remains of conquered peoples forming isolated ethnological groups amid the invading hordes of the Galla nation. In the open Orômo country still exist a few groups of Amharinians who have preserved the Abyssinian language.
The Gallas are usually of middle height, or about 5 feet 4 inches, although men are found amongst them as tall as the Scandinavians. They are broad-shouldered and slender-waisted, the young men having chests which would delight a sculptor; the legs are shapely, the feet small and always well arched. ”

“ The Galla, physically speaking, are a fine race of men, tall, muscular, and well formed. In the colour of their skin they vary considerably, as may be supposed, from the differences of situation and of neighbourhood in which they have located themselves. The Edjow Gallas, to the north of Angotcha, are, I understand, of a lighter colour 431 than the real Amhara or red man, but it is probable that some mistake exists as regards this statement. The Gallas of Limmoo are very dark-coloured, but they live in a country considerably more elevated than that of the Edjow Gallas. ”

“ The king of the western Galla is stiled Lubo, the other Mooty. At this assembly, the king allots to each their scene of murder and rapine; but limits them always to speedy returns in case the body of the nation should have occasion for them. The Galla are reputed very good soldiers for surprise, and in the first attack, but have not constancy or perseverance. They accomplish incredible marches ”

“ They are so merciless as to spare not even women with child, whom they rip up in hopes of destroying a male. The western part of these Galla, which surrounds the peninsula of Gojam and Damot, are called the Boren Galla; and those that are to the east are named Bertuma Galla, though this last word is seldom used in history, where the Galla to the westward are called Boren ”

“ The Gallas, like the Danakil, and the Danakil, like the Somauli and Gallas, are a pastoral people—pastoral, locomotive, wild, and intractable—with manners that remind us of the Arab of Asia, the Kaffre of Southern Africa, or of the Berber of the Desert of Sahara; and it is these whom they resemble, more or less closely, in their forms—more or less closely in their social constitution. Like all such populations, they fall into numerous tribes, each under the influence of their chief; with the spirit of blood, or pedigree, running strong amongst them. ”

“ Large droves of wild shaggy horses, and clusters of fiery savages were grouped on the plain outside. The ringing shout of the warrior mingled with the neigh of his war-steed, and the din and the clatter of household avocations resounded from the interior of every hut. To add to the bustle, the Galla females were running from house to house, with their long raven tresses streaming over their bare shoulders; whilst their short leather petticoats, with embroidered flounces, displayed the well-shaped limbs and the graceful form, for which the tribe are so justly famed. ”

“ Roving in his native pastures, where his manners are unadulterated by the semi-civilisation of Abyssinia, the equestrian Galla is an object worthy the pencil of Carle Vernet or Pinelli. Tall and athletic, his manly figure is enveloped in a toga, such as graced the sons of ancient Rome, and his savage, wild, and fiery features, are rendered still more ferocious by thick bushy hair arranged either in large lotus-leaved compartments, or streaming over the shoulders in long raven plaits. But grease and filth form his delight ”

“ Like the barbarous nations who were made the weapons of Divine chastisement upon the corrupted empire of Rome, they also brought darkness and ignorance in their train, but were unable to eradicate the true religion. Throughout the regions included between the Nile, the Háwash, and the Gochob, which may properly be termed Galla, none but their own tongue is spoken; whereas to the south of the last-named river, the intruding population have lost their language and become gradually incorporated with the aboriginal possessors of the soil. ”

“ I had reminded him of the threats of the Galla medicine men. I had tried to persuade him that the safest place for him would be a small pension in the West End, one of those select affairs kept by a major’s widow, which does not flare the names and pedigrees of its distinguished visitors as advertising matter in the dailies.
But Durand had only laughed.
“My dear Johnny, you don’t know the West Coast as I know it. Nor do you know the Gallas as I know them. A Galla, for sake of revenge, will climb a minaret with his bare feet, and track the mists of dawn to their home. ”

“ Cantering over the tiny plain—a scanty level of an hundred yards—the wild Galla enters the scene of confusion, his long tresses streaming in the wind, and his garment blue with the grease of ages. A jar of honey, or a basket of butter, is lashed to the crupper of his high-peaked saddle; the steed is lean and shaggy as the rider, and the snort and the start from either proclaim undefined terror and amazement at the strange sights, and the rugged rocks and precipices, unknown to the boundless meadows of their own green land. ”

“ The king, however, either considering this small body of Galla coming at this unseasonable time, and the panic that was so artificially spread, as a feint to throw him off his guard when a real invasion might be intended, or with a view to cover his own designs, summoned all the men of the province of Gojam to meet him in arms at Ibaba the 7th day of January, being the proper season for preparing an expedition into the country of the Galla. He himself in the mean time retired to Dek, an island in the lake Tzana, there to stay till his army should be collected. ”

“ They traffic in elephants' teeth, panthers' skins and silk. They have islands in the sea, from which they collect cowries to adorn their persons, and they use them in traffic one with another, at an established rate. [3] Adjoining to these lies the land of the Dum-a-dum." (Here we certainly have a description of the Galla.) "It is situated on Nile, bordering on the Zinji. The inhabitants are Infidels, and the Tartars among the blacks, consisting of savage tribes of freebooters, who continually take captive and plunder every thing that falls in their way. In their country the river divides ”

“ Having been plundered of all their cattle, the local Galla communities have been compelled to take to the chase, to agriculture and trade, pursuits altogether repugnant to the great bulk of the nation. ”

“ The formation of head and general physiognomy is totally different from all other tribes that I have met with in the neighbourhood of the White Nile. They have high foreheads, large eyes, rather high cheekbones, mouths not very large, well-shaped, and the lips rather full. They all have a remarkably pleasing cast of countenance, and are a great contrast to the other tribes in civility of manner. Altogether their appearance denotes a Galla origin, and it is most probable that, at some former period, an invasion by the Gallas of this country originated the settlement of the Latookas. ”

“ Moslems, ever fond of philological fable, thus derive the word Galla. When Ullabu, the chief, was summoned by Mohammed to Islamise, the messenger returned to report that "he said no,"--Kal la pronounced Gal la,--which impious refusal, said the Prophet, should from that time become the name of the race. [3] Others have derived them from Metcha, Karaiyo, and Tulema, three sons of an AEthiopian Emperor by a female slave. They have, according to some travellers, a prophecy that one day they will march to the east and north, and conquer the inheritance of their Jewish ancestors. ”