THE PYGMIES OE THE GREAT CONGO EOKEST. 



Bv Sir Harhy H. Johnston, G. C. M. G. 



[In the recesses of the great ConKO forest have been discovered two tribes of men, tlie most baclc- 

 ward in their development froni lower forms of all the savage races of the Dark Continent. The 

 following article is an account of their appearance, modes of life and speech, together with some 

 vastly suggestive theories of their descent from the prehistoric invaders of Africa from Asia.] 



THE INFLUENCE OF A (IKEAT FOKE.ST ON THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



The great Congo forest of west-central Africa must undoubtedly 

 be regarded as a very important factor in the past history of Africa. 

 By "history" I do not mean the record of man's doings only, or of 

 the progress of the civilized races of men, Avhose adventures chroni- 

 cled l)y writing have narrowed the use of the word to records of the 

 progress of humanitv' during, let us say, seven thousand years, a mere 

 half minute in the hour of man's existence. For not only in the 

 '•prehistoric" movements of man, but also in the preceding migra- 

 tions of great beasts and anthropoid apes has this mighty forest 

 checked and deflected the distribution of si)ecies or received into its 

 l)OSom hunted, defenseless forms, which have thus been enal)led (as in 

 the case of the Okapi) to linger on into the present day. 



Before, therefore, I proceed further with my description of remark- 

 able negro types which are to be found on the eastern limits of this 

 forested region, it may be well if 1 define clearly the area of forested 

 Africa at the present dux. Roughly speaking, the whole basin of the 

 Congo, the enormous area of relatively low-lying land (once possibly 

 the site of inland seas or of an extension of the ocean), is a region of 

 dense forest. On the southwest the forest stretches, with here and 

 there a break, over to the upper waters of the Zambesi River, and on 

 the northeast it overlaps the Nile watershed, the southwestern fringe of 

 which is covered with forest that .spreads uninterruptedly from the 

 Congo. In countries to the east, and even here and there near the 

 littoral of the Indian Ocean, patches of primeval forest exist which 

 scarcely differ from that of the Congo. It is possible, therefore, that 



« Reprinted by permission of Sir Harry H. Johnston and the i)nljlislier, from 

 MfCkire's Magazine, Fel)rnary, 1902; modilied, by permission of the author, by 

 paragraphs from Vohinie II of The Uganda Protectorate, by Si;- llany 11 .lolmston. 

 New York: Dodd, Mea<l .^c Co., 1902.. 



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