an outcast people and despised by Amhara and other ethnic groups. Similar castes with hunting occupation live in other parts of the Horn of Africa, states Ephrem Tadesse, such as "the Watta among the Oromo, the Fuga or Mana among the Gurage, the Manjo among the Kaffa, the Kwegu among the Mursi/Bodi, the Hadicho among the Sidama, and the Mijan and Yibir among the Somali". Enrico Cerulli also linked them to those two other outcast groups among the Borana and Keffa with similar names that live primarily as hunters The Weyto have been a small part of a more elaborate Amhara caste system, ranked higher than slaves in its social stratification system. According to Donald N. Levine, an Ethiopian Studies specialist, the caste system depended on: endogamy; hierarchical status; restraints on commensality; pollution concepts; traditional occupation; inherited caste membership. Scholars accept that there has been a rigid, endogamous and occupationally closed social stratification among Amhara and other Afro-Asiatic-speaking Ethiopian ethnic groups. However, some label it as an economically closed, endogamous class system or as occupational minorities, whereas others such as the historian David Todd assert that this system can be unequivocally labelled as caste-based. Language The Weyto are reported to have once spoken a Weyto language, likely belonging to the Cushitic family. The language became extinct at some point in the 19th century. According to the 1994 national census, 1172 individuals were reported belonging to this ethnic group; it was not an ethnic choice in the 2007 census. The Wayto language was last documented in 1928. It has now disappeared and was replaced by Amharic. Mittwoch described a form of Amharic spoken by the descendants of Wayto speakers, and describes it as an incomplete language shift from Wayto to Amharic. Religion The Waytos’ religion was related to water. “Abinas” was the God of the Blue Nile and provided resources and health. In return, the people sacrificed animals for Abinas. The Wayto have converted to Islam, while continuing to worship the Nile. Outcasting of the Wayto The Amhara people consider the Wayto impure, because they eat catfish and supposedly hippopotamus, though the last hippo hunt dates back to the 1960s. The Wayto population has long been marginalised by the Amharas settled on Lake Tana's shores. For instance, in Bahir Dar the Wayto are outcasts because their traditional lifestyle is considered impure; for the Orthodox Christians the food habits are impure, and