AN AFRICAN CHIEF AND AN ELECTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 145, 11 February 1876, Page 14

AN AFRICAN CHIEF AND AN ELECTION.

■ — *■*■ — Dr.'BlaNC in his Narrative of Captivity hi Abyssinia just published, gives an amusing description of the chief who rules the negro proviuce Galabat, on the north-western frontier of Abyssinia, and of an election which he witnessed during his brief stay at the capital. Sheik Jumma is an ugly specimen of an ugly race. He is ab ut sixty years of age, tall and lank, with a wrinkled face, very black, having a few gray patches on the chin, and the owner of a nose so flat that it requires time to see that he has one at all. He is generally drunk, and spends the greater part of the year carrying the tribute either to the Abyssinan Lion, or to his other master the Pasha of Khartoum. A few days after our arrival at Metemma he returned from Abyssinia and politely paid us a visit, accompanied by a motley and howling train of followers. "We returned his call, but he had got drunk in the interval, and was at least uncivil, if not positively rude. During our stay we had occasion to witness the great yearly festival of the re-election of the Sheik. Early in the morning a crowd of Takruries came pouring in from all directions, armed with sticks or spears, a few mounted, the majority on foot, all howling and screeching (I believe they call it singing), so that even before the dust raised by a new party could be seen, the ear was deafened by their clamour. Every Takrurie warrior — that is, everyone who can howl and carry a bludgeon or lanee — is entitled to a vote : for this privilege he pays a dollar. The polling consists in counting money, and the amount decides the ruler's fate. The re-elected Sheik (such was the result of the election we witnessed) killed cows, supplied jowaree, loaves, and, above all, immense jars of merissa (a kind of sour toast-and water, intoxicating for all that), and feasted for two days the whole body of electors. It is difficult to say which of the two is out of pocket — the elector or the Sheik. There is no doubt that every Takrurie will eat and drink to the full amount of his dollar ; is content with paying his homage, and wishes to have the worth of his money. Bribery is unknown ! The drums, the sign of royalty, have been silent three days (during the interregnum), but the cows are no sooner slaughtered and the meris&a handed round by black maidens or fair Galla slaves than their monotonous beat is again heard, soon to be drowned under the howling chorus of two thousand intoxicated negroes.