User:Buname06

We are referring to the famous Letter addressed by Eldad HaDani to the Jews of Spain, in 883.

“This was my going forth from the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia,” he said.

And then he relates the local memory of the four tribes which crossed from Israel to Ethiopia, after the death of Sennacherib, king of Assyria:

And these tribes, being Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, dwell in the ancient Havilah, where gold is, and they trusted in their Maker, and the Lord helped them.

Eldad notes strict observance of kashrut:

No unclean thing is to be found with them, no unclean fowl, no unclean beast, no unclean cattle, no flies, no fleas, no lice, no fox, no scorpions, no serpents, and no dogs. All these were in the idolatrous land, where they had been in servitude. They have only sheep, oxen, and fowls, and their sheep bring forth twice a year.

Batutsi means literally “Those whose permanent occupation is to lead cattle to the pasture,” Eldad confirms this:

These four tribes have gold and silver and precious stones, and much sheep and cattle and camels and asses, and they sow and they reap, and they dwell in tents, and, when they will, they journey and encamp in tents, from border to border, two days by two days’ journey, and in the place they encamp there is no place where the foot of man enters.

Eldad testifies to the Mosaic faith of the Batutsi:

They are of perfect faith and their Talmu [i.e., ancient Halakha] is all in Hebrew, and thus they learn … But they know no Rabbis, for these were of the Second Temple and they did not reach them.