THE AFRICAN PYGMIES. 667 



That keen observer, Moffat, as long ago as the first decade of 

 this century, noticed the distinct and peculiar characteristics of 

 the Hottentots, and recognized their racial identity with the Bush- 

 men. He speaks of "that nation, which includes Hottentots, 

 Korannas, ISTamaquas, and Bushmen/' and describes them, as a 

 whole, as " not swarthy or black, but rather of a sallow color, and 

 in some cases so light that a tinge of red in the cheek is percepti- 

 ble, especially among the Bushmen. They are generally smaller 

 in stature than their neighbors of the interior ; their visage and 

 form very distinct, and in general the top of the head broad and 

 flat ; their faces tapering to the chin, with high cheek-bones, flat 

 nose, and large lips." He further notes that the first three speak 

 languages which are mutually intelligible, while that of the Bush- 

 men, though cognate, is quite distinct. Writing (after his return 

 to England) in 1842, when as yet the Akkas and Batwa were un- 

 known to science, he suggests that, "when the sons of Ham 

 entered Africa by Egypt, and the Arabians by the Red Sea, the 

 Hottentot progenitors took the lead and gradually advanced, as 

 they were forced forward by an increasing population in their 

 rear, until they reached the ends of the earth." He further re- 

 marks, "It may also be easily conceived by those acquainted 

 with the emigration of tribes that, during their progress to the 

 south, parties remained behind in the more sequestered and iso- 

 lated spots where they had located while the nation moved on- 

 ward, and research may yet prove that that remarkable people 

 originally came from Egypt." In corroboration of this theory he 

 mentions having heard from a Syrian who had lived in Egypt of 

 slaves in the Cairo market, brought from a great distance in the 

 interior, who spoke a language similar to that of the Hottentots, 

 and were not nearly so dark-colored as negroes in general. These 

 must certainly have been Akkas.* 



As for the Bushmen, we have pretty full accounts of them 

 from various sources. Moffat has much to say about them — too 

 much to quote in full — which may be found in the first and fourth 

 chapters of his Missionary Labors in South Africa, and is supple- 

 mented by Livingstone in the Missionary Travels. 



Mr. Alfred J. Bethell (in a letter to ,the Standard which ap- 

 peared on April 26, 1889) says that the Bushmen proper are now 

 " nearly if not quite extinct," the people now so called being out- 

 casts from the Matabele, Bamangwato, and other Bantu com- 

 munities. Mr. A. A. Anderson,! however, who extended his 



* Winwood Reade's remark (African Sketch-Book, vol. ii, p. 528), written in 1S73 or 

 earlier, is worth notice : " His (Du Chaillu's) discovery of the Dwarfs {who are certainly 

 Bushmen) is an important contribution to the ethnology of Africa." 



f Twenty-five Years in a Wagon in South Africa, vol. i, pp. 235, 282, etc. ; vol. ii, 

 p. 74. 



