Abba Mooállé, the governor of Moogher and of the surrounding Galla in the west, was also formerly very inimical to Shoa; but being won over to the royal interests by the espousal of his sister, by preferment to extensive power, and by the hand of one of the despotic princesses, he was four years since converted to Christianity, when the king became his sponsor. The valuable presents which he is enabled to make to the throne, owing to his proximity to the high caravan-road from the interior, preserve him a distinguished place in the estimation of the Negoos, to whom he is little inferior in point of state. At constant war with the Galla occupying the country to the westward, between Sullála Moogher and Gojam, he hastily assembles his troops twice or thrice during the year, and making eagle-like descents across the Nile at the head of ten thousand cavalry, rarely fails to recruit the royal herds with a rich harvest in cattle.
Dogmo, who resides in the mountain of Yerrur, was educated in the palace; and his undeviating attachment to the crown has been rewarded with the hand of one of the king’s illegitimate daughters. Bótha, Shámbo, and Dogmo, are the sons of Bunnie, whose father, Borri, governed the entire tract styled Ghera Méder, “the country on the left,” which includes all the Galla tribes bordering on both sides of the Háwash in the south of Shoa. Bunnie was, in consequence of some transgression, imprisoned in Arámba; and Bótora, another potent Galla chieftain, appointed in his stead. But this impolitic transfer of power creating inveterate hatred between the two families, each strove to destroy the other. Bunnie was in consequence liberated, and restored to his government; but resting incautiously under a tree on his return, not long afterwards, from a successful expedition against the Aroosi, whom he had defeated, he was suddenly surrounded by the enemy, and slain, together with four chiefs, his confederates, and nearly the whole of his followers. His sons were then severally invested with governments; and Boku, the son of Bótora, was at his father’s demise entrusted with the preservation of the avenues to the Lake Zooai, long an object of the royal ambition.
Among the most powerful Galla chieftains who own allegiance to Shoa, is Jhára, the son of Chámie, soi-disant Queen of Moolo Fálada, who, since the demise of her husband, has governed that and other provinces adjacent. Sáhela Selássie, who it will be seen relies more upon political marriages than upon the force of arms, sent matrimonial overtures to this lady, and received for answer the haughty message, “that if he would spread the entire road from Angollála with rich carpets, she might perhaps listen to the proposal, but upon no other conditions!” The Christian lances poured over the border to avenge this insult offered to the monarch of Shoa, and the invaded tribe laid down their arms; but Gobánah, foster-brother to Jhára, and a mighty man of renown, finding that His Majesty proposed burning their hamlets without reservation, rose to oppose the measure. At this critical moment an Amhára trumpeter raised his trombone to his lips. The Galla, believing the instrument to be none other than a musket, fled in consternation, and their doughty chieftain surrendered himself a prisoner at discretion.
Upon learning to whom he had relinquished his liberty, Gobánah, broken-hearted, abandoned himself to despair, and refused all sustenance for many days. The hand of the fair daughter of the queen was eventually the price of his ransom; and on the celebration of the nuptials, the king, who, with reference to his conquest of Moolo Fálada, might have exclaimed, with the Roman dictator, “Veni, vidi, vici” conferred upon Jhára the government of all the subjugated Galla as far as the sources of the Háwash, and to the Nile in the west. Warlike, daring, and ambitious, exercising his important functions almost beyond the ken of his sovereign, and possessing from his proximity to Gojam and Dámot, the means of creating himself the leader of a vast horde, there can be little doubt, although he has hitherto evinced strong attachment to the crown, that, imitating the example of all pagan chieftains who have gone before him, he will one day profit by his opportunities to take up arms against Shoa, and may thus not improbably enact a most conspicuous part in the history of the Galla nation.
Volume Three—Chapter Seven.
The Galla Nation.
Abyssinia had long maintained her glory unsullied under an ancient line of emperors, until, in the sixteenth century, the ambitious and formidable Graan, at the head of a whole nation of Moslem barbarians, burst over the frontier, and dashed into atoms the structure of two thousand five hundred years. Defended by hireling swords, which, in a series of sanguinary conflicts, wrested the victorious wreath from the brow of the invader, and since supported rather by the memory of departed greatness than by actual strength, small portions of the once vast empire have struggled on, the shadow only of imperial dignity. But the glory had departed from the house of Ethiop, her power had been prostrated before the mighty conqueror, and his wild band; and the Galla hordes, pouring into the richest provinces, from southern central Africa, re-erected heathen shrines during the reign of anarchy, and rose and flourished on her ruins.
The history of these African Tartars is, however, veiled in the deepest obscurity. Under the title of Oroma, they trace their origin to three sisters, daughters of Jerusalem, to whom are applied traditions similar to the Scriptural chronicle of the descendants of Lot. In their own language, the word “Galla” signifies ingressi; and of themselves they affirm that Wolláboo, their father, came from beyond Bargámo, “the great water;” and that his children were nine—Aroosi, Karaiyo, Jillé, Abitchu, Ghelán, Wóberi, Metta, Gumbitchu, and Betcho-Fugook—from whose loins have sprung the innumerable clans or houses which now people the greater portion of intra-tropical Africa. But by the Moslem bigots, who form the chief curse of Ethiopia, it is said that the term by which the nation is recognised was applied to the Ilma Oroma, or seed of Oroma, by the Prophet himself, who, on sending to summon Wolláboo to become a proselyte to the true faith, received a direct refusal. “Gal La,” “he said No,” reported the unsuccessful messenger on his return. “Let this then be the denomination of the infidels in future,” exclaimed the arch impostor, “since they will not receive the celestial revelations made to me through the angel Gabriel.”