THE AFRICAN PYGMIES. 659 



facts. The physical characteristics in which, broadly speaking, 

 they all agree, are their small stature, their light-yellow or red- 

 dish-brown color, and the peculiar character of the hair, which is 

 woolly, but, instead of being, as in the negro, evenly distribu: 

 over the scalp, grows in small tufts—" cheveux plant^s en pin- 

 ceaux de brosse," as Emin Pasha puts it in speaking of the Akkas.* 

 This appearance, according to Prof. Yirchow, is not due to the 

 fact that the hair grows on some spots and not on others, but t 

 peculiarity in the texture of the hair itself, which causes it to roll 

 naturally into closely curled spiral locks, leaving the intervening 

 pieces of scalp bare. Be this as it may, this growth is the su: 

 and most permanent characteristic of the Pygmy, or, as some 

 prefer to call them, the Hottentot-Bushman race.f 



The name of dwarfs, applied by some to these people, has be 

 objected to as implying deformity or arrested growth, and there- 

 fore conveying a wrong impression. Xothing of the kind can be 

 said of the African Pygmies, who, though of short stature, are 

 well-shaped people of perfectly normal formation. It is true that 

 the Hottentots and Bushmen show certain strange anatomical 

 peculiarities ; but these may be said to be more or less accidental, 

 being, in part at least, the result of special and unfavorable con- 

 ditions of life. 



The Pygmies are nomadic in their habits, I and neither ke-p 

 cattle nor till the ground, but live by hunting and snaring wild 

 animals and birds, or, under the most unfavorable circumstan ■: 

 on wild fruits, roots, and berries. Their weapons are always bows 

 and arrows, the latter usually poisoned — the resource of the weak. 

 They have no fixed abode, and, if they build shelters at all, only 

 construct rude huts of branches. They have no government, nor 

 do they form regular communities ; they usually wander about, 

 like our gypsies, in hordes composed of a few families each. This, 



* Transactions of the Berlin Anthropological Society for 1? ; 



f Prof. Flower, however, thinks that differences between the Akkas and Bushnen are 

 so radical as to preclude the possibility of regarding them as members of the same race. 

 lie lays special stress on the yellow complexion and " peculiar oblong form of the skull." 

 which is especially distinguished from that of the Akkas by the absence of prognathism; 

 also on the M special anatomical characters " alluded to later on. But it seems to be the 

 case that modern research tends to show that environment and conditions of fife 

 act far more quickly in the production of racial peculiarities than was formerly supposed. 

 There are instances, e. g., on record of the children of white, or at mc = : txwny ; 

 born in a hot. damp locality (to which the latter had migrated from a dry c :~g P 05 *" 



tivelv black. The Bushmen have been isolated to such a deirree from their more r. 

 congeners, and the struggle for existence has been in their case so seve- 7 ' 



well have developed striking differences. It should be noted that their habitat is dry, 

 while that of the Akkas is extremely hot and damp. 



X Les Akkas ne forment point un peuple compact ; il n'y a pas un pays aux Akkas ; 

 comme les voices des oiseaux, ils sont un peu partout. — Eiax Fasha. 



