Ethnology : in two parts, I. Fundamental ethnical problems. II. The primary ethnical groups / by A.H. Keane.
- Augustus Henry Keane
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Ethnology : in two parts, I. Fundamental ethnical problems. II. The primary ethnical groups / by A.H. Keane. Source: Wellcome Collection.
426/484 page 390
![characters of the different races have lost their significance. Neither the colour nor the hair are regarded as important ethnical tests, and the length of the heel alone [Negro lark-heel'] is held to be an undoubted proof of Negro origin'. To under- stand the present ethnical relations, it should be remembered that throughout the historic period Abyssinia has been the seat of powerful states, in which the dominant people have always been the Semitic Himyarites from south-west Arabia (Yemen). From the seaport of AduHs, founded by them on the coast below Massdwa over 2000 years ago, their progress may be followed along the sites of the ancient cities of Koloe, Ava and Axum, successive centres of their power during the first centuries of the new era. The indigenous populations, with whom they had to contend, were mainly Karaites, one large section of whom, the Agao^ are mentioned in the Relation of Cosmas (523 a.d.) as already at that time subject to the Axumite kings. But others long maintained their independence, and in the loth century were strong enough to expel the Menilek dynasty from Axum, a turning-point in the history of Ethiopia. Then the seat of govern- ment was shifted from the northern province of Tigre' to the central region of Amhara, and by the close of the 17th century all the Hamite aborigines as far south as Shoa appear to have been brought under the sway of the Negus Negust, King of Kings, representative of the old Axumite empire. During the course of these events the ruling Semitic classes were being slowly merged with their Hamitic subjects in a common Abyssinian nationaUty, which has further been modified by a large infusion The present .. . Abyssinian of ncgro blood duc to the long-standmg institution populations. domestic slavery, as well as by contact with the Galla Karaites, who for over 300 years have been encroaching on the southern and central provinces frora South Ethiopia. Thus the present inhabitants of Abyssinia proper form an extremely complex ethnical group, in which it is not always possible to dis- tinguish the constituent elements. The prevailing colour is a 1 De Quatrefages, op. cit., 11. p. 395. 2 Cosmas writes 'A7aC, and the name has been identified with the Athagao of the Adulis Inscription. It survives in the name of the large pro%nnce of Agaomedir, Agaoland, still mainly inhabited by these primitive Hamites.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21500666_0426.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
