[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. The Turks have held possessions in "Habash," in Abyssinia never. [6] The same words are repeated in the Infak el Maysur fl Tarikh bilad el Takrur (Appendix to Denham and Clapperton's Travels, No. xii.), again confounding the Berbers and the Somal. Afrikus, according to that author, was a king of Yemen who expelled the Berbers from Syria! [7] The learned Somal invariably spell their national name with an initial Sin, and disregard the derivation from Saumal ([Arabic]), which would allude to the hardihood of the wild people. An intelligent modern traveller derives "Somali" from the Abyssinian "Soumahe" or heathens, and asserts that it corresponds with the Arabic word Kafir or unbeliever, the name by which Edrisi, the Arabian geographer, knew and described the inhabitants of the Affah (Afar) coast, to the east of the Straits of Bab el Mandeb. Such derivation is, however, unadvisable. [8] According to others he was the son of Abdullah. The written genealogies of the Somal were, it is said, stolen by the Sherifs of Yemen, who feared to leave with the wild people documents that prove the nobility of their descent. [9] The salient doubt suggested by this genealogy is the barbarous nature of the names. A noble Arab would not call his children Gerhajis, Awal, and Rambad.