DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0221
THE FOLK-LITERATURE OF THE GALLA
205
Concerning the religion of these hunters, accounts are also scarce. Massaja 1 says,
“ They have fewer religious ceremonies than the pagan Galla, but they have a conception
of the deity and an obscure idea of the immortality of the soul and the final aim of human
life. They follow many dogmatic traditions found in the Bible.” Ruppel’s notes which
concern the northern group state that they have no religious ceremonies nor do they practice
circumcision. Heuglin, quoting Riippel, adds that according to the Amara, who, however,
do not give consistent information, the Wdyto have no religion. My Amara informant said
to me, “Their religion is similiar to the Falasd religion (Abyssinian Judaism).” By
this, he meant that the Wdyto do not follow the official religion of Abyssinia. On the con-
trary, Mittwoch 2 states that the Wdyto have many customs common to the Mussulmen;
they use some Arabic phrases, e.g. Alhamdu li’llah, “ Praise be to God! ” but they have no
knowledge of the Koran, and they are not reckoned as membres of the same religion by
either Mussulmen or Christians. They celebrate the feast of ‘ Arafah,3 the well-known
Islamic holiday occurring on the tenth of the month Dulhiggah, which is the most solemn
religious feast of the Mussulmen of East Africa. Rava,4 after saying that the Christians
call the Wdyto Mussulmen, and the Mussulmen call them Christians, both in a disparaging
tone, adds: “However, the basis of their religion is clearly Moslem.” I do not understand
why Rava thinks so: the facts which we know, —■ no circumcision, and the eating of flesh
impure alike to the Moslems and the Christians of Abyssinia,—definitely deny this hypoth-
esis. Probably Rava gives the literal reports of the natives without analysis. It is note-
worthy that he mentions that a Wdyto said to him, “ We are Mussulmen, but we eat the
hippopotamus and we think we have the power to make it pure.” All these facts induce
me to believe that while the hunters (fWdttd, Wdyto, etc.) have in general kept their ancient
paganism of which we know nothing, in many places they have accepted some of the forms
of the religions of the peoples who surround them, without understanding the real meaning
of these customs. Anyone who knows what a strange mixture of Paganism, Islamism, and
Christianity was practiced in many Galla tribes after the Amara conquest will not be sur-
prised at the present indeterminate state of Wattd religion.
The clothes of the hunters of the central group are thus described by Cecchi5: “ The men
wear conical hats of monkey fur, and like the Galla of the poorer classes, they fasten
around the body a large apron made of calfskin, of leopard or antelope hide.6 The women
1 Op. cit., vol. 5.
2 ‘ Proben aus amarischen Volksmunde,’ op. cit.
3 Cf. A. Werner, ‘ The Utendi of Mwana Kupona,’ (Harv. Afr. Stud., Cambridge, 1917, vol. 1, p. 147-181).
Evidently yaumu li-arafa is not “ the day of judgment ” but the aforesaid holiday. The importance of the ’Arafah
in the life of the East African Mussulman has been pointed out to me by a Moslem Amara, a native of WSllo who
called the feast of the Cross, the greatest feast of the Abyssinian Christians, “ Ya-Kristyan Ardfd, the ’Arafah of the
Christians.”
4 Al Iago Tsana, op. cit.
6 Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 368.
6 Also worn by the Amara countrymen who call it slrara. (Cf. Guidi, Vocabolario amarico, op. cit.) The Galla
call it dakku. See song 71.
205
Concerning the religion of these hunters, accounts are also scarce. Massaja 1 says,
“ They have fewer religious ceremonies than the pagan Galla, but they have a conception
of the deity and an obscure idea of the immortality of the soul and the final aim of human
life. They follow many dogmatic traditions found in the Bible.” Ruppel’s notes which
concern the northern group state that they have no religious ceremonies nor do they practice
circumcision. Heuglin, quoting Riippel, adds that according to the Amara, who, however,
do not give consistent information, the Wdyto have no religion. My Amara informant said
to me, “Their religion is similiar to the Falasd religion (Abyssinian Judaism).” By
this, he meant that the Wdyto do not follow the official religion of Abyssinia. On the con-
trary, Mittwoch 2 states that the Wdyto have many customs common to the Mussulmen;
they use some Arabic phrases, e.g. Alhamdu li’llah, “ Praise be to God! ” but they have no
knowledge of the Koran, and they are not reckoned as membres of the same religion by
either Mussulmen or Christians. They celebrate the feast of ‘ Arafah,3 the well-known
Islamic holiday occurring on the tenth of the month Dulhiggah, which is the most solemn
religious feast of the Mussulmen of East Africa. Rava,4 after saying that the Christians
call the Wdyto Mussulmen, and the Mussulmen call them Christians, both in a disparaging
tone, adds: “However, the basis of their religion is clearly Moslem.” I do not understand
why Rava thinks so: the facts which we know, —■ no circumcision, and the eating of flesh
impure alike to the Moslems and the Christians of Abyssinia,—definitely deny this hypoth-
esis. Probably Rava gives the literal reports of the natives without analysis. It is note-
worthy that he mentions that a Wdyto said to him, “ We are Mussulmen, but we eat the
hippopotamus and we think we have the power to make it pure.” All these facts induce
me to believe that while the hunters (fWdttd, Wdyto, etc.) have in general kept their ancient
paganism of which we know nothing, in many places they have accepted some of the forms
of the religions of the peoples who surround them, without understanding the real meaning
of these customs. Anyone who knows what a strange mixture of Paganism, Islamism, and
Christianity was practiced in many Galla tribes after the Amara conquest will not be sur-
prised at the present indeterminate state of Wattd religion.
The clothes of the hunters of the central group are thus described by Cecchi5: “ The men
wear conical hats of monkey fur, and like the Galla of the poorer classes, they fasten
around the body a large apron made of calfskin, of leopard or antelope hide.6 The women
1 Op. cit., vol. 5.
2 ‘ Proben aus amarischen Volksmunde,’ op. cit.
3 Cf. A. Werner, ‘ The Utendi of Mwana Kupona,’ (Harv. Afr. Stud., Cambridge, 1917, vol. 1, p. 147-181).
Evidently yaumu li-arafa is not “ the day of judgment ” but the aforesaid holiday. The importance of the ’Arafah
in the life of the East African Mussulman has been pointed out to me by a Moslem Amara, a native of WSllo who
called the feast of the Cross, the greatest feast of the Abyssinian Christians, “ Ya-Kristyan Ardfd, the ’Arafah of the
Christians.”
4 Al Iago Tsana, op. cit.
6 Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 368.
6 Also worn by the Amara countrymen who call it slrara. (Cf. Guidi, Vocabolario amarico, op. cit.) The Galla
call it dakku. See song 71.