He punishes the petty offences of theft, quarrels,
and arson by fines, the bastinado, the stocks, or confinement in an Arish
or thatch-hut: the latter is a severe penalty, as the prisoner must
provide himself with food. In cases of murder, he either refers to Mocha
or he carries out the Kisas--lex talionis--by delivering the slayer to the
relatives of the slain. The Kazi has the administration of the Shariat or
religious law: he cannot, however, pronounce sentence without the
Governor's permission; and generally his powers are confined to questions
of divorce, alimony, manumission, the wound-mulct, and similar cases which
come within Koranic jurisdiction. Thus the religious code is ancillary and
often opposed to "El Jabr,"--"the tyranny,"--the popular designation of
what we call Civil Law. [29] Yet is El Jabr, despite its name, generally
preferred by the worldly wise. The Governor contents himself with a
moderate bribe, the Kazi is insatiable: the former may possibly allow you
to escape unplundered, the latter assuredly will not. This I believe to be
the history of religious jurisdiction in most parts of the world.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Eusebius declares that the Abyssinians migrated from Asia to Africa
whilst the Hebrews were in Egypt (circ. A. M. 2345); and Syncellus places
the event about the age of the Judges.
[2] Moslems, ever fond of philological fable, thus derive the word Galla.
When Ullabu, the chief, was summoned by Mohammed to Islamise, the
messenger returned to report that "he said _no_,"--Kal la pronounced Gal
la,--which impious refusal, said the Prophet, should from that time become
the name of the race.
[3] Others have derived them from Metcha, Karaiyo, and Tulema, three sons
of an AEthiopian Emperor by a female slave. They have, according to some
travellers, a prophecy that one day they will march to the east and north,
and conquer the inheritance of their Jewish ancestors. Mr. Johnston
asserts that the word Galla is "merely another form of _Calla_, which in
the ancient Persian, Sanscrit, Celtic, and their modern derivative
languages, under modified, but not changed terms, is expressive of
blackness." The Gallas, however, are not a black people.
[4] The Aden stone has been supposed to name the "Berbers," who must have
been Gallas from the vicinity of Berberah. A certain amount of doubt still
hangs on the interpretation: the Rev. Mr. Forster and Dr. Bird being the
principal contrasts.
_Rev. Mr. Forster._ _Dr. Bird_
"We assailed with cries of "He, the Syrian philosopher
hatred and rage the Abyssinians in Abadan, Bishop of
and Berbers. Cape Aden, who inscribed this
in the desert, blesses the
"We rode forth wrathfully institution of the faith."
against this refuse of mankind."
[5] This word is generally translated Abyssinia; oriental geographers,
however, use it in a more extended sense.
