"PROFESSOR RIDGEWAY AND RACIAL ORIGINS" 133 



The assumption that Man can go into climes very different 

 from those in which his race has long dwelt without any 

 morphological change is in direct conflict with many known 

 facts. The American of New England, with his hatchet face 

 and his thin scraggy beard, differs essentially in his type from 

 his English ancestor, whilst the Boer of South Africa shows no 

 less variation from the type of his Dutch progenitors. The 

 instance just cited of the influence of the Antarctic environment 

 on the colour of the eyes is in itself sufficient to demonstrate 

 the falseness of his assumptions. 



Mr. Torday and Mr. Joyce have furnished me with a still 

 more striking example (from their book on the Congo shortly 

 to be published). It relates to the pigmies who live in the 

 forests of that region, and are known as Ba-Twa. The Bu- 

 Shongo, who found the Ba-Twa in possession, hold them in 

 superstitious awe, regarding them as spirits born from trees. 

 In some cases bands of these pigmies have been induced to 

 leave the forest, settle in villages, and practise agriculture. In 

 such cases they are regarded by the Bu-Shongo as becoming 

 more human ; but no intermarriage ever seems to take place 

 between Bu-Shongo and Ba-Twa. Mr. Torday visited two of 

 these villages of settled Ba-Twa. The Bu-Shongo told him that 

 it is only three generations since these Ba-Twa left the forest 

 He noted that the stature of the inhabitants was considerably 

 above that of the nomad Ba-Twa, though it did not equal that 

 of their Bu-Shongo neighbours. " As the possibility of inter- 

 marriage seems quite out of the question, it seems necessary 

 to conclude that the short stature of the pigmy is in some way 

 due to the dwarfing effect of forest life or to the Natural Selection 

 exercised by environment." 



Mr. Claude White (in his recent book Sikliim and Bhutan) 

 writes : " The people of the West (of Bhutan) are for the most 

 part of Tibetan origin, and came into the country centuries ago. 

 They are of the same original stock as the Bhutias in Sikhim, 

 but have developed in Bhutan into a magnificent race of men 

 physically. Why there should be this marked contrast, I cannot 

 say. It may be due to the difference in climate ; but there is no 

 comparison between the two, although the Sikhim Bhutia is 

 a strong, sturdy fellow in his own way." My friend Mr. J. D. 

 Anderson, I.C.S., Reader in Bengali to the University of 

 Cambridge, has pointed out to me that the greater stature 



