First Footsteps in East Africa by Sir Richard Francis Burton
page 100 of 414 (24%)
page 100 of 414 (24%)
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the great Cuvier.
2. The almost pure Caucasian of the northern regions, west of Egypt: their immigration comes within the range of comparatively modern history. 3. The half-castes in Eastern Africa are represented principally by the Abyssinians, Gallas, Somals, and Kafirs. The first-named people derive their descent from Menelek, son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba: it is evident from their features and figures,--too well known to require description,--that they are descended from Semitic as well as Hamitic progenitors. [1] About the origin of the Gallas there is a diversity of opinion. [2] Some declare them to be Meccan Arabs, who settled on the western coast of the Red Sea at a remote epoch: according to the Abyssinians, however, and there is little to find fault with in their theory, the Gallas are descended from a princess of their nation, who was given in marriage to a slave from the country south of Gurague. She bare seven sons, who became mighty robbers and founders of tribes: their progenitors obtained the name of Gallas, after the river Gala, in Gurague, where they gained a decisive victory our their kinsmen the Abyssins. [3] A variety of ethnologic and physiological reasons,--into which space and subject prevent my entering,--argue the Kafirs of the Cape to be a northern people, pushed southwards by some, to us, as yet, unknown cause. The origin of the Somal is a matter of modern history. "Barbarah" (Berberah) [4], according to the Kamus, is "a well known town in El Maghrib, and a race located between El Zanj--Zanzibar and the Negrotic coast--and El Habash [5]: they are descended from the Himyar chiefs Sanhaj ([Arabic]) and Sumamah ([Arabic]), and they arrived at the epoch of the conquest of Africa by the king Afrikus (Scipio Africanus?)." A few details upon the subject of mutilation and excision prove these to |
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