The next morning (Aug. 25) I set about the business, and managed to put all to rights before noon, during which time we had a long conversation upon the origin of the Galla, and, in fact, of all other nations, for the traditions he related reached to the very remotest times. How far his information was founded upon recorded history I cannot say, but he referred it to the conversations of some priests of Gurague, with whom the early part of his life had been spent, and much of what I collected upon this subject (the ethnology of the inhabitants of Abyssinia) from Karissa, was by his asking if such and such a thing that he had heard were true. Ibrahim was as much amused as I was, for, without supposing it, our Galla friend was contributing considerably to the knowledge of both. Of the Gallas themselves, he could only tell me that they originally came from _Bargamo_, which was represented to be a large water, across which the distant opposite side was just visible. That their ancestors, dwelling upon the farther shore, were induced to come over into Abyssinia, which they soon overran and conquered. Karissa always pointed to the south as the situation of _Bargamo_, or I was inclined to suppose that by this was intended the country around the shores of lake Tchad, the eastern portion of which, we learn from Clapperton and Denham, is called Berghamie. He was very curious to know if I were of a nation of whites of whom he had heard, called _Surdi_, and which, in his system of mankind lore, constituted one of the three great divisions of mankind into which the whole world was divided. There was no question about himself, for he was a Tokruree, or black, whilst Ibrahim, although not much lighter complexioned, was an Amhara, or red man. The _Surdi_ he insisted as existing, and was contented to believe, although I did not seem to know anything about them, that I was of that race.