1888.] on the Pygmy Baces of Men. 279 



Battell's narrative, it should be said, is generally admitted as 

 having an air of veracity about it not always conspicuous in the stories 

 of travellers of his time. In addition to the observations on the human 

 inhabitants, it contains excellent descriptions of animals, as the pongo 

 or gorilla, and the zebra, now well known, but in his day new to 

 Europeans. 



Dapper, in a work called 'Description de la Basso Ethiopie,' 

 published in Amsterdam in 1686, speaks of a race of dwarfs inhabiting 

 the same region, which he calls Minios or Bakhe-Bakke, but nothing 

 further was heard of these people until quite recent times. A German 

 scientific expedition to Loango, the results of w'hich were published in 

 the ' Zoitschrift fiir Ethnologic,' 1874, and in Hartmann's work, 'Die 

 Negritier," obtained, at Chinchoxo, photographs and descriptions of 

 a dwarf tribe called " Baboukos," whose heads were proportionally 

 large and of roundish form (cephalix index of skull, 78 to 81). One 

 individual, supposed to be about forty years of age, measured 1-365 

 metres, rather under 4 feet 6 inches. 



Dr. Touchard, in a " Notice sur le Gabon," published in the 

 ' Eevue Maritime et Coloniale' for 1861, describes the recent destruc- 

 tion of a population established in the interior of this country, and 

 to which he gives the name of " Akoa." They seem to have been exter- 

 minated by the M'Pongos in their expansion towards the west. Some 

 of them, however, remained as slaves at the time of the visit of Admiral 

 Fleuriot de Langle, who in 1868 photographed one (measuring about 

 4 feet 6 inches high) and brought home some skulls, which were ex- 

 amined by Hamy, and all proved very small and sub-brachycephalic. 



Another tribe, the M'Boulous, inhabiting the coast north of the 

 Gaboon river, have been described by M. Marche as probably the 

 primitive race of the country. They live in little villages, keeping 

 entirely to themselves, though surrounded by tho larger negro tribes, 

 M'Pongos and Bakalais, who are encroaching upon them so closely 

 that their numbers are rapidly diminishing. In 1860 they were not 

 more than 3000 ; in 1879 they were much less numerous. They are 

 of an earthy-brown colour, and rarely exceed 1 • 600 metre in height 

 (5 feet 3 inches). In the rich collections of skulls made by Mr. 

 R. B. Walker and by M. Du Chaillu, from the coast of this region, 

 are many which are remarkable for their small size and round form. 

 Of many other notices of tribes of negroes of diminutive size, living 

 near the west coast of Equatorial Africa, I need only mention that 

 of Du Chaillu, who gives an interesting account of his visit to an 

 Obongo village in Ashango-land, between the Gaboon and the 

 Congo ; although unfortunately, owing to the extreme shyness and 

 suspicion of the inhabitants, he was allowed little opportunity for 

 anthropological observations. He succeeded, however, in measuring 

 one man and six women ; the height of the former was 4 feet 6 inches, 

 the average of the latter 4 feet 8 inches.* 



A Journey to Ashango-land,' 18G7, p. 315. 



