THE PYGMIES OF THE GREAT CONGO FOREST. 485 



deo-ree of oversion »of the inner mucou.s .surface of tlie lips, the 

 abundant hair on heatl aiid body, relative absence of wrinkles, of 

 steatopyoy, and of hig-li, protruding cheek bones, the C-ongo dwarf 

 differs markedl}^ from the Hottentot-Bushman t3q3e. It is true that 

 some of the Congo pygmies intercalate their speech with faucal gasps 

 in place of guttural consonants, but this defect in pronunciation need 

 not necessarily contain any reminiscence of the Bushman clock. There 

 is one language spoken in eastern equatorial Africa (in the German 

 sphere) which has the clicks — the Sandawi. But this, though it may 

 be a relic of extremely ancient days, when the ancestors of the Hot- 

 tentots were dwelling in east Africa, is not at the present time spoken 

 by a people offering marked physical resemblances to the Congo 

 pygni}" or to the south African Hottentot. 



In short, it w^ould seem to the present writer that there is at present 

 no evidence of any more relationship between the forest pygmies of 

 equatorial Africa and the desert pygmies of southwestern Africa than 

 the fact that both are early branches of the negro stem which prol)ably 

 diverged simultaneously at a remote period from the Ethiopian st(X'k— 

 sharing a few similar features in conunon — the one to hide in the 

 forests between the Sahara and the Zambezi watershed, and the other 

 to range over the prairies, steppes, and deserts of eastern and southern 

 Africa. Perhaps the forest pygmies of to-day are more ninirly allied 

 to the west African Bantu and Nile negroes than they are to the Bush- 

 man-Hottentot group, which last is a section of the negro subspecies 

 somewhat clearl}' marked off and separated from other negro races. 



Many centuries ago these stunted little negroes — of yellowish skin 

 and somewhat hairy bodies, of large heads, and of noses not oidy flat 

 but with the wings much developed, and rising as high as the central 

 cartilage of the nose — must have been the principal inhabitants of the 

 Uganda Protectorate, sharing these wide and varied territories of 

 forest, swamp, steppe, and park land with the prognathous t3"pe aljove 

 described. At the present day, however, the number of actual t3^pical 

 pygmies existing in th<? Uganda Protectorate is very small, and theii" 

 range is probably confined to a belt of forest lying to the east and 

 west of the Semliki River, and perhaps to the dense woods on the 

 southeast shores of the Al])ert Edward Lake. They are much more 

 abundant in the Congo Free State, in whose forests they exist in a 

 more or less undilated type southward to the verge of Angola, and 

 north and noi'thwest to the vicinity of the Barh-al-(<hazal and the 

 German Cameroons. This pygmy type is also found within the terri- 

 tory of the German Cameroons, and in the interior of French Congo 

 and (Taboon. It may even be found still to exist in the very remote 

 parts of British Nigeria. 



Dwarf negro races, possibly related to the Congo pN'gmies, are found 

 m the vicinity of Lake Stephanie, in northeastern Africa, while the 



