DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0229
THE FOLK-LITERATURE OF THE GALLA
213
the native races of Ethiopia after the Kushitic invasion, since these primitive peoples also
represented a culture, i.e. hunting, inferior to that of the pastoral Kushites. It also seems
probable to me that those who are considered descendants of pygmies are in fact descendants
of pariahs of the negroes. In the history of Ethiopia, so rich in ethnic struggles, these groups
of negroid pariahs assimilated after the Kushitic conquest, with their patrons, the negroes,
and with the pariahs of the Kushites, although geographically dispersed in the aforesaid
three groups, still maintained for many centuries a uniformity of material culture which
was caused not by an absolute identity of ethnic origins, but by an analogy of historical
formation.
Here I may note that the Wdttd were connected by de Castro and later by Giuffrida-
Ruggeri1 with the race whom the ancient Egyptians called Uauat. (Earlier still, Hart-
mann 2 had seen in the Agau the modern representatives of the Uauat.') This Uauat-Wdtta
hypothesis cannot be proved linguistically, especially since the final -t does not seem to be
radical. The name also appears in the form Uaua, e.g. in the inscriptions quoted by Schi-
aparelli,3 and in the form Uaua-itd Nor does the conclusion of Schiaparelli who has recently
examined the hieroglyphic sources agree with the above hypothesis. According to Schia-
parelli, Uauat is the country between the southern frontier of Egypt and Taka in the valley
of the Atabara, much farther north than the probable sites of the Wdttd in a historical
period such as that of the Egyptian inscriptions.
It is also noteworthy that the southern Galla in British East Africa call the Wasanye
and the Wabone Wat. (Southern Galla wat — northern Galla wdttd because of the phonetic
rule of the southern Galla dialect that a, if it is a final vowel, is dropped.) Both the Wasanye
and the Wabone are hunters. In Italian Somaliland, the Waboni in the popular traditions
of the Somali who surround them are said “ to eat every unclean thing, even crocodiles
and serpents.” 5 The most southern Galla branches who encounter the groups of hunters
on the banks of the Yuba call them Wat, as the northern branches call the hunters of the
plateau Wdttd. Moreover, the Wasanye are said to be sorcerers and each of their clans seems
to live under the patronage of a Galla clan whose name they accept as their own.6
In conclusion, I ask the reader to turn his attention to a group of hunters of the Ethiopic
plateau which, up to the present, has not been noted by ethnologists. I allude to the Fuga,
a small group discovered by the Italian traveller Bianchi,7 between the Gurage and the
Soddb Galla, about an hour’s march southeast of Gorieno before reaching the river Ruffay.
Bianchi calls them Galla, but afterwards writes: “ They appear to be the most savage of
1 Op. cit., p. 141. 2 Robert Hartmann, Die nigritier, Berlin, 1876, p. 371.
3 ‘ La geografia dell’ Africa orientale,’ (Rend. d. Lincei, s. 4, vol. 19, pt. 7-10, p. 518, 528).
4 Ibid., p. 512.
B T. Carletti, I problemi del Benadir, Viterbo, 1912, p. 55.
6 Cf. Werner, ‘ The Galla of the East Africa Protectorate,’ oj). cit., p. 137-138, 278, and ‘ A few notes on the
Wasanye,’ (Man, vol. 13, p. 199-201). I have only pointed out here the identity of the name Wdttd for the southern
and northern hunters of the Galla; I have not included here the hunting groups of British East Africa.
7 Gustavo Bianchi, Alla terra dei Galla, Milano, 1884, p. 303, 313.
213
the native races of Ethiopia after the Kushitic invasion, since these primitive peoples also
represented a culture, i.e. hunting, inferior to that of the pastoral Kushites. It also seems
probable to me that those who are considered descendants of pygmies are in fact descendants
of pariahs of the negroes. In the history of Ethiopia, so rich in ethnic struggles, these groups
of negroid pariahs assimilated after the Kushitic conquest, with their patrons, the negroes,
and with the pariahs of the Kushites, although geographically dispersed in the aforesaid
three groups, still maintained for many centuries a uniformity of material culture which
was caused not by an absolute identity of ethnic origins, but by an analogy of historical
formation.
Here I may note that the Wdttd were connected by de Castro and later by Giuffrida-
Ruggeri1 with the race whom the ancient Egyptians called Uauat. (Earlier still, Hart-
mann 2 had seen in the Agau the modern representatives of the Uauat.') This Uauat-Wdtta
hypothesis cannot be proved linguistically, especially since the final -t does not seem to be
radical. The name also appears in the form Uaua, e.g. in the inscriptions quoted by Schi-
aparelli,3 and in the form Uaua-itd Nor does the conclusion of Schiaparelli who has recently
examined the hieroglyphic sources agree with the above hypothesis. According to Schia-
parelli, Uauat is the country between the southern frontier of Egypt and Taka in the valley
of the Atabara, much farther north than the probable sites of the Wdttd in a historical
period such as that of the Egyptian inscriptions.
It is also noteworthy that the southern Galla in British East Africa call the Wasanye
and the Wabone Wat. (Southern Galla wat — northern Galla wdttd because of the phonetic
rule of the southern Galla dialect that a, if it is a final vowel, is dropped.) Both the Wasanye
and the Wabone are hunters. In Italian Somaliland, the Waboni in the popular traditions
of the Somali who surround them are said “ to eat every unclean thing, even crocodiles
and serpents.” 5 The most southern Galla branches who encounter the groups of hunters
on the banks of the Yuba call them Wat, as the northern branches call the hunters of the
plateau Wdttd. Moreover, the Wasanye are said to be sorcerers and each of their clans seems
to live under the patronage of a Galla clan whose name they accept as their own.6
In conclusion, I ask the reader to turn his attention to a group of hunters of the Ethiopic
plateau which, up to the present, has not been noted by ethnologists. I allude to the Fuga,
a small group discovered by the Italian traveller Bianchi,7 between the Gurage and the
Soddb Galla, about an hour’s march southeast of Gorieno before reaching the river Ruffay.
Bianchi calls them Galla, but afterwards writes: “ They appear to be the most savage of
1 Op. cit., p. 141. 2 Robert Hartmann, Die nigritier, Berlin, 1876, p. 371.
3 ‘ La geografia dell’ Africa orientale,’ (Rend. d. Lincei, s. 4, vol. 19, pt. 7-10, p. 518, 528).
4 Ibid., p. 512.
B T. Carletti, I problemi del Benadir, Viterbo, 1912, p. 55.
6 Cf. Werner, ‘ The Galla of the East Africa Protectorate,’ oj). cit., p. 137-138, 278, and ‘ A few notes on the
Wasanye,’ (Man, vol. 13, p. 199-201). I have only pointed out here the identity of the name Wdttd for the southern
and northern hunters of the Galla; I have not included here the hunting groups of British East Africa.
7 Gustavo Bianchi, Alla terra dei Galla, Milano, 1884, p. 303, 313.