Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/276

 Yangaro (Janjero, Zinjero), south-east of Innarya and east of Gimma-Kaka, comprises a portion of the hilly slopes draining to the Gugsa. In no other country are the "rights" of the reigning house better safeguarded by legal guarantees. Excepting the king, his children, and the low-caste peoples who are too much despised to be feared, Beke was unanimously informed that all the males were partially mutilated, so as to incapacitate them for the throne. One of the king's thousand privileges is the use of certain medicines which are forbidden to his subjects. The people having no other animal food than beef, all suffer from tape- worm like the northern Abyssinians ; but the king destroys this parasite by the use of a decoction of kusso, while the common people, not daring to touch the "king's medicine," have to content themselves with bitter herbs. Amongst other strange stories told of this mysterious Yangaro country, the missionaries Isenberg, Krapf and Massaya, relate that human sacrifices are veiy common, a new-born child being frequently immolated to their divinities. Immediately after their birth the males are said to have their breasts cut off, so that the future warriors may in no way resemble the "soft sex." When the slave merchants take captives of this country they never fail to throw the most beautiful into a lake, so as to render fate favourable to their voyage; but they rarely succeed in capturing males, who usually commit suicide rather than accept slavery. The name of Yangaro has often been ironically confounded with that of Zinjero, which signifies "monkeys" in Amharinian; hence the reports often heard of a race of enslaved monkeys existing in Africa. Jimma-Kuka, or Kingdom of Abba-Jifar, is one of the regions which supply most slaves to the merchants or jibberti. According to Beke, nearly all the slaves brought from the northern and eastern Galla territories are made eunuchs by dealers settled in the town of Folia. {{c|{{sc|Kaffaland.}} The country of Kaffa is one of those whose people still claim to be Christians, although a long isolation has effected a marked change between their practices and those of the Abyssinians. There are said to be only six or eight churches in the country, centres of widely extended parishes and sanctuaries for the criminals and oppressed classes; the kings are buried under one of these sanctuaries. According to Massaya, the Kaffa Christians are ignorant even of the nanie of Jesus Christ, and worship the three saints, George, Michael, and Gabriel. Exceedingly scrupulous in the observance of their customs, which chiefly apply to the nature of their food, the people of Kaffa never eat com of any description, and to call them " graminivorous " is considered an insult. Their only vegetable food consists of the stalk of the ensete banana, which is cultivated around all their villages. The ordinary grains, such as wheat, barley, and haricots, are used merely as food for cattle and the brewing of beer. They are no legs exclusive as to meat-eating, the ox being the only quadruped whose flesh they are allowed to eat. But the men, more {{smallrefs}}