Gallas

Gallas, a race of people inhabiting that part of Africa which lies to the south and west of Harar and south of Shoa, between 9° and 3° S. lat. and 34° and 44° E. long. Their racial affinities are not yet conclusively settled; the best authorities regard them as belonging to the Ethiopic branch of the Hamites, and their language as a descendant of the ancient Geez of Abyssinia. Individually they are of average stature, with strong, well-made limbs, skin of a light chocolate brown, hair frizzled but not woolly. Though cruel in war, they are of frank disposition, and faithfully keep their pro- misses and obligations. They are distinguished for their energy, both physical and mental, especially those tribes, to the south and south-west, which pursue pastoral avocations, notably the breeding of horses, asses, sheep, cattle, and camels, and those which live by hunting, especially the elephant. These same tribes are mostly still heathens, though Mohammedanism is rapidly making way amongst them. The more northerly tribes who dwell about Harar profess a crass form of Christianity, derived from Abyssinia, and for the most part practise agriculture, raising cotton, durra, sugar, and coffee. The total Galla population, who call themselves Argatta or Oromo, is approximately estimated by Reclus at 3½ millions; the northern tribes are put by Paulitschke at 1¼ million. Politically they are divided into a great number of separate tribes (Itu, Arnssi, Nole, Jarso, Ala, Emia, Walamo, Borana, &c.), which are frequently at war with one another. But their inveterate century-long foes are the Somali on the north-east and east, who have gradually driven back the Gallas from the shores of the Red Sea and the extremities of the Somali peninsula, regions which were occupied by them in the 16th century, just as on the other side the Abyssinians and Shoans have beaten them back southwards. The country they now inhabit is, generally speaking, a plateau that slopes south-eastward to the Indian Ocean, and has a hilly, well-timbered surface. On the north, from Harar to the Hawash, stretches the watershed dividing the rivers that flow to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from those that drain south-eastwards to the Indian Ocean, and culminating in two limestone massifs (7250 feet), called Concuda and Gara Mulata. The watershed separating the rivers Webi (with its tributary the Erer) and Wabi (also called Juba), which flow south-east to the Indian Ocean, from the feeders of the Upper Nile region, skirts the western side of the Galla territory. This region, with plenty of rains and running streams, a rolling surface diversified with hill-chains, and abundant vegetation, is well cultivated, and yields wheat, barley, beans, sorghum, sweet potatoes, flax, lentils, cotton, and coffee. Its average elevation is 7200 feet. Amongst all the western tribes inhabiting this region slavery is a recognised institution. See Paulitschke, Ethnographie und Anthropologie der Somal, Galla, und Harari (Leip. 1886), and in Globus, 1889, and Cecchi, Fra Zeila alle Frontiere del Caffa (2 vols. Rome, 1885).