666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which many of them seem to be losing. Bambongo, on the other 

 hand, distinctly suggests Obongo, and may have originated the 

 latter name (which, as the variant 2?abongo shows, seems to be 

 Bantu) — the Kenkob adopting it from the district where they 

 had sojourned. Or, again, it may be a tribal name, reported to 

 Dr. Koelle's informant as that of a district. 



Turning to southwestern Africa, we find that Major Serpa 

 Pinto,* in 1878, met with a tribe called " Mucassequeres," living in 

 the forests between the Cubango and Cuando, while the open coun- 

 try is occupied by the Ambuellas. These people have " eyes very 

 small and out of the right line, cheek-bones very far apart and 

 high, nose flat to the face, and nostrils disproportionately wide." 

 Their hair is crisp and woolly, growing in separate patches, and 

 thickest on the top of the head. Unlike the Obongo, they build no 

 kind of shelter, but, like them, are skilled in the use of bows and 

 arrows, and live on roots, honey, and game. In color they are " a 

 dirty yellow, like the Hottentots, while the Ambuellas are black, 

 though of a Caucasian type of feature." 



Farther south, near the borders of the Kalahari Desert, Serpa 

 Pinto found a tribe similar in most respects to the Mucassequeres, 

 but deep black, and known by the name of Massaruas. These 

 (who are less savage than the Mucassequeres) are probably a tribe 

 of Bushmen, very much resembling, if not identical with, the 

 M'Kabba, or NTchabba, brought by Signor Farini from the Kala- 

 hari Desert. These last were carefully examined by Prof. Vir- 

 chow, and described by him in a paper read before the Berlin 

 Anthropological Society, March 20, 1886. 



We have now to notice the section of the Pygmy race with 

 which Europeans have come most in contact — the Hottentots and 

 Bushmen. The Hottentots (as they are now known to us, their 

 real name for themselves being " Khoi-Khoi" f) represent prob- 

 ably the highest development of the race, and differ notably from 

 its other members in being a pastoral people. When Van Rie- 

 beek landed at the Cape in 1652 they existed in great numbers, 

 roaming the country with large herds of cattle. Kafir wars and 

 Dutch "commandoes," with other causes, have so far thinned 

 them out that few if any genuine " Cape Hottentots " now exist, 

 their place being taken by the Griquas and other tribes of mixed 

 race. Two cognate tribes, the Korannas J and Namaquas, still 

 exist, but in diminished numbers. 



* How I crossed Africa, vol. ii, pp. 320 sqq. 



f Or Koi-Koib (" men of men"), according to Dr. Cust. The Kafirs call them " Lawi." 

 " Hottentot " is merely a nickname given by the early Dutch settlers, who declared the 

 natives spoke an unintelligible language, consisting only of sounds like hot and tot. 



% Some ethnologists are inclined to look on the Koranna tribe as a cross between Hot- 

 tentots and Bushmen. 



