662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Dr. Krapf again heard of the Doko in Ukambani and at Bara- 

 wa, and at the latter place even saw a slave corresponding to 

 Dilbo's description. Father Le*on des Avanchers, a French Roman 

 Catholic missionary, heard of them from the Somalis in 1858, 

 under the name of " Tchin-Tchelle' " (which is, being interpreted, 

 Quel miracle /). In 1864 he saw some of them for himself in the 

 kingdom of Gera (north of Kaffa, in Abyssinia), and described 

 them in a letter to M. d'Abbadie, published in the Bulletin of the 

 Paris Geographical Society. The word Doko may be another form 

 of the Swahili mdogo (= small), but this has been disputed. 



Proceeding in geographical rather than in chronological order, 

 we come next to the Akkas, with whom Colonel Long's Tikki- 

 Tikki * would seem to be identical. They were first heard of, 

 vaguely, by Petherick, in 1854; but the first real announcement 

 of their existence to the civilized world was made by Dr. Schwein- 

 furth in 1871. They live in the Monbuttu country, which lies 

 south of the Bahr-el-Gazal and west of the Equatorial Province 

 of Egypt. Dr. Schweinfurth's account has been ably supple- 

 mented by Dr. Felkin and Emin Pasha, the latter of whom enjoyed 

 ample opportunities for studying them during the twelve years he 

 spent in Central Africa, and in 1886 communicated to the Berlin 

 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie a very valuable and interesting paper 

 on the subject, accompanied by detailed measurements. He in- 

 sists on the distinction between the Akkas and real dwarfs (i. e., 

 persons whose growth has been arrested by pathological or other 

 causes), of whom he saw several at Mtesa's court. " Tout au con- 

 traire, les Akkas sont une race qui n'offrent aucun signe patho- 

 logique, mais qui, forme's a point, de'pre'cieraient bien vivement les 

 epithetes de ' race de'chue/ de peuplade voue*e a rextinction, dont 

 on a bien voulu les gratifier." They live in bands composed of a 

 few families each, putting up the rough shelters of reeds and 

 branches which form their temporary camp in the woods, near 

 some running stream, and usually within reach of a Monbuttu or 

 Momvu village. They are good marksmen, and kill even ele- 

 phants and buffaloes, bartering with the villagers the meat they 

 do not require for themselves, in return for grain, oil, native beer, 

 and other necessaries. The Monbuttu, moreover, obtain from 

 them all the skins and feathers used by them for clothing and 

 ornament; and any chief who should refuse hospitality to the 

 Akkas would not only forfeit these supplies, but draw down the 

 speedy vengeance of the little people the first time he or any of his 

 tribe ventured into the forest alone. The Akkas are cannibals, 

 and make no secret of the fact; those personally known to Dr. 

 Schnitzer "savaient parfaitement me dire quelle part du corps 



* Central Africa. By Colonel C. Chaille-Long. London, 1S76. Pp. 263 et seq. 



