In the former Coptic empire of Ethiopia, named by the Greeks after burned faces, tribes and people of great ethnic and religious variety live among equally diverse wildlife and natural environments. Along the eastern coast the large, Islamic, internationally semi-nomadic Afar people inhabit a terribly hot desert plateau, harvesting and trading in salt. Other tribes are tiny, often primitive and hostile, some still animistic, with bizarre, partially cruel customs, such as stick fighting and bodily mutilations. The third largest people, the pastoral, egalitarian highland Oromo, often adopted local culture and religions, except in their animistic homeland, based on age groups. Fertile regions, such as southern lowlands, harbor fishing people.
—KGF Vissers