Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/277

 fortunate than those of Yangaro and other neighbouring states, are also allowed to eat poultry. According to custom, if the women eat this latter food they loose their liberty and are immediately sold as slaves, the traffic in human flesh not being forbidden to the Christians of Kaffa, as it is to those of northern Abyssinia. Their clothing is also rigorously regulated, skins, tanned or untanned, being forbidden; their garments are made of cotton tissues or coarse stuffs woven from the fibres of the ensete. Although Donga, the capital of Kaffa, may be "the largest town existing in Abyssinia," and an active market, money was hardly known there in the middle of this century. The only mediums of exchange were glass beads and the salt imported from Sokota. To the south-west, in the Sheka or Siaka country, the natives collect gold-dust from the sands of the rivers. The sovereigns of Kaffa maintain a ceremonious etiquette nearly as rigorous as that of the kings of Yangaro. According to Soleillet, who has recently penetrated into this country, the ministers and grandees of the kingdom cannot speak to their master unless covered with fetters like slaves, although they are separated from the royal presence by a curtain. To shun recognition the king himself goes out shabbily clothed and mounted on a miserable horse; but his escort is observed from afar, and everyone hides so as to escape the consequences of meeting him. In this country of etiquette the formula of salutation is, " I hide myself under the earth." When the Christian priests still resided in the country, the faithful were bound never to let them touch the ground between the mission-house and the church, so they were carried on the shoulders of strong men. It is related that these priests being unable to go to Gondar to receive consecration from the abuna, had brought to them by caravan a precious box which the " father " had filled with his sacred breath.

South of Kaffa, on the watershed of the Indian Ocean, stretch the forests peopled by the mysterious Dokos, that is to say, in Galla, the " Ignorant," or the "Savages." According to Krapf, Isenberg, and most other explorers, the Dokos are dwarfs, like the Akkas of the Welle River, whilst D'Abbadie asserts they are in no way different iToro their neighbours, the Swaheli.

The King of Shoa, absolute in his kingdom, exercises only an indirect influence over the small tributary Galla states, and the southern kingdoms have been induced to accept the suzerainty of the "king of kings," less through his influence than that of the râs of Gojam, who controls the trade routes leading from Gondar and Sokota to Kaffa. However, the material power of the King of Shoa over the surrounding countries has greatly increased during the last few years, thanks to the organisation of his army, which already comprises a body of pennanent troops amounting to a thousand riflemen. In time of war, when the great tiaf/an't, or war-drum, is beaten, this corps is followed by crowds of warriors and plunderers. According to Chiarini, the armed rabble occasionally amounts to nearly a hundred thousand persons. The tribute paid to the negus by the kings of Shoa and Gojam is very considerable. Besides a present of Maria-Theresa crown-pieces, the sovereign of Shoa is said to be obliged to supply his master with a hundred thousand oxen, two thousand horses, and two hundred leopard skins.