THE PYGMIES OF THE GREAT CONGO FOREST. 491 



AN IMPORT4TION OF DWARFS INTO THIS COUNTRY. 



American readers liia}' be interested to learn tliat it is possible 

 there still exist at the pi"esent day traces of African dwarf races in the 

 negro population of the West Indies. This, at any rate, was the case 

 forty or fifty years ago. There is a tradition to the effect that 

 among the slaves shipped from the Congo regions at the end of the 

 eighteenth century were specimens of dwarf races from the far inte- 

 rior. In Trinidad and some of the southern islands of the West 

 Indies these little people remained for a time distinct from the other 

 slaves, and people of my ac([uaintance still living have seen and spoken 

 to them. They were recognized at the time as being quite distinct 

 from the ordinary negro type, and were generally known as the 

 " Conp-o dwarfs." 



