THE GONGAS(?).
Present locality.—The valleys of the Rivers Abai and Godjeb.
Original locality.—Enarea, and a large tract south of Abyssinia.
Area.—Discontinuous; the division being effected by the invasion of Galla tribes.
Dialects.—1. Kaffa. 2. Woratta. 3. Wolaitso, 4. Yangaro.
Vocabularies.—Those of Dr. Beke, published in the Transactions of the Philological Society.
The Gonga tribes are in the same relation to the Abyssinians as the Mandara to the Bornúi, i. e. the occupants of the most southern part of the geographical area known; the parts immediately beyond either being terræ incognitæ.
If, however, the current notions respecting the geographical structure of Central Africa be correct, and if the views here exhibited respecting the coincidence between the Negro type in the way of physical conformation and the geographical conditions of a fluviatile low-land be well-founded, the tribes of the interior should depart materially from the tribes already described; a probability which has been indicated in the notices of the Mandara and Mobba Africans.
Nay more, inasmuch as the stock next in order of notice is a stock with a preeminently encroaching frontier, it is probable that the true affiliations of the southern Abyssinians may be lost through the encroachments of the Gallas and Kaffres, and the consequent extinction of the tribes representing them.