Gallas
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Gallas. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a race of people inhabiting that part of Africa which lies to the S. and W. of Harar and S. of Shoa, between lat. 9° and 3° S. and lon. 34° and 44° E. The best authorities regard them as belonging to the Ethiopic branch of the Hamites, and their language as a descendant of the ancient Geez of Abyssinia. Individually they are of average stature, with strong, well-made limbs, skin of a light chocolate brown, hair frizzled but not woolly. Though cruel in war they are of frank disposition and faithfully keep their promises and obligations. They are distinguished for their energy, both physical and mental, especially those tribes to the S. and S. W. which pursue pastoral avocations, notably the breeding of horses, asses, sheep, cattle, and camels, and those which live by hunting, especially the elephant. These same tribes are mostly still heathens, though Mohammedanism is rapidly making way among them. The more N. tribes who dwell about Harar profess a crass form of Christianity derived from Abyssinia, and for the most part practice agriculture, raising cotton, durra, sugar, and coffee. The total Galla population, who call themseves Argatta or Oromo, is estimated at about 6,000,000. Politically they are divided into a great number of separate tribes (Itu, Arussi, Nole, Jarsso, Ala, Ennia, Walamo, Borana, etc). Their inveterate century-long foes are the Somali on the N. E. and E., who have gradually driven back the Gallas from the shores of the Red Sea and the extremities of the Somali peninsula, regions which were occupied by them in the 16th century, just as on the other side the Abyssinians and Shoans have beaten them back S. The country they now inhabit is, generally speaking, a plateau that slopes S. E. to the Indian Ocean, and has a hilly, well-timbered surface. This region, with plenty of rains and running streams, and abundant vegetation, is well cultivated, and yields wheat, barley, beans, sorghum, sweet potatoes, flax, lentils, cotton and coffee.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a native race of eastern Africa. The Gallas are related to the Somalis. They are a dark people, but they are not negroes. They inhabit southern Abyssinia and the regions southward to the equator.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's noted in 1921 that these people "call themselves Argatta or Oromo" — and that name has won. "Galla" is now regarded as a derogatory exonym, avoided in Ethiopia and in scholarship, while Oromo is standard; the federal region of Oromia was established under Ethiopia's 1995 constitution, and Abiy Ahmed became the country's first Oromo prime minister in 2018. Collier's guess that the language descends from "the ancient Geez of Abyssinia" is wrong: Afaan Oromoo is a Cushitic language, while Ge'ez is Semitic, the two being only distant cousins within Afroasiatic. The 1921 estimate of 6,000,000 has also been overtaken — the Oromo are now Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, numbering some 35 million or more, and since 1991 their language has been written in a Latin-based alphabet called Qubee.
Written for this edition, 2026.