ABSTRACT
The little kingdom of Janjero, independent till 1894 when it was conquered by Menilek, was isolated both culturally and linguistically from the rest of the Sidama peoples. The only European known to have been received by one of its kings is the Jesuit Father Antonio Fernandez, who went there in 1613. Few of the European explorers in the 19th century actually entered the kingdom, and Cecchi wrote his account from material supplied by slaves from Janjero living in Gera. The first of our three main sources, the account of Fernandez' journey written down by Almeida is therefore a document of both historical and ethnographical value. Cecchi and Cerulli provide more detail; but the latest, Cerulli, wrote 34 years after the kingdom had been overthrown by the Ethiopian Conquest. Till that event, the people of Janjero had preserved a number of " customs so barbarous and strange that there cannot be any more so.”1
