Abyssinians; indeed they are said to have become so completely naturalized in Amhara, that most of the principal people speak the language of the country, and dress in the same style. This improvement in their habits is in a great measure, I conceive, to be attributed to their having adopted the Mahomedan religion, which, with all its faults, has here, at least, tended in a certain degree to humanize its followers, and has led to the abolition of those inhuman rites and practices, which heretofore had disgraced the character of the eastern natives of Africa.
The subdivisions of the Edjow Galla are numerous. Those under Gojee are called Djawi and Tolumo, while those commanded by Liban are styled Wochali, Woolo, and Azowa; to the north-east of which reside the more barbarous tribes of the Assubo. The Ras also mentioned to me, that besides these, the Maitsha, and the Boren Galla, who reside in Gojam, another tribe is found near the Abay, or White River, more barbarous in its character than any of the others, called Woldutchi, which retains all the sanguinary ferocity of its first ancestors. The Woldutchi, like the Assubo, drink the warm blood of animals,[1] adorning themselves, in the same way as some of the southern natives of Africa, with the entrails of animals, and still continuing the practice of riding on oxen.
In the course of my conversations on these subjects, I made many enquiries about the story told by Mr. Bruce[2] respecting Guanguol; but the Ras assured me this could not be correct, as he knew Guanguol well, who was very respectable in his appearance, and when he visited the court, received great attention. He told me, however, that scenes somewhat similar to that described by Mr. Bruce, were often represented by the jesters about the court; so that it seems not unlikely that the story originated from some such circumstance, if it be not an im-
- ↑ Will it be believed, that in the fifteenth century, one of the monarchs of France, Louis XI, "dranke children's blood to recover his health!" yet this is seriously stated by a commentator on Philip de Cammines, on the authority of "Gaguin," without any observation upon the barbarity of the act.
- ↑ Vide Vol. VI. p. 43-4.
