CHAP. XVII PREHISTORIC CAIRNS 325 



implements are identified by Sir John Evans as neolithic, and as they 

 are apparently all made of chert, their evidence is more satisfactory 

 than that of tools formed of obsidian. A record of a stone spear from 

 the Kilima Njaro region has also been published, but there are many 

 points in the account of it which render the testimony doubtful. 



Additional evidence of prehistoric people is afforded by the existence 

 of stone cairns. These have long been reported from East Africa, but 

 they have been explained as mere heaps of stones collected together in 

 order to clear the ground for cultivation. I found two in the Sabaki valley, 

 in positions where this explanation was quite impossible ; but as my men 

 were two hours ahead, they could not be recalled to open them. Our 

 Somali used to tell us that in their country there are three sets of ruins, 

 those of the Somali and Galla, and those of a nation earlier than either 

 of the others. The Sabaki graves are not like those of the Galla, which 

 have been well described by Paulitschke, and it is much to be desired 

 that one of them may be opened, and that any bones therein may be 

 sent to Encfland. 



Section B. — The Negrillo or Pygmy Tribes 

 The Doko of Lalkipia 



One of the most interesting results from explorations during the 

 last half-century in the interior of Africa has been the confirmation of 

 many reports by classical geographers and early travellers, which had 

 previously been disbelieved. The discovery of the sources of the Nile 

 has verified the assertion by Ptolemy, that it rose in two great inland 

 lakes; and Dr. Schlichter's detailed comparison^ of Ptolemy's statements 

 with present knowledge shows that the ancients were better informed 

 upon the subject than the geographers of the last, and even of part of 

 the present century. That the ancient Hindoos also had a certain 

 knowledge of the continent is rendered probable by the facts reported by 

 Rigby.2 



Moreover, it has now been shown that the accounts of pygmies, 

 given both by classical authors and by the pioneers of modern African 

 exploration, are not mere travellers' tales. Schweinfurth has carefully 

 examined pygmies in the very district in which Pliny reported their 

 presence, and recent travellers have shown that Andrew Battel, the 

 discoverer of the gorilla, was not drawing on his imagination when, in 

 1625, he described some dwarfs from the backwoods of Loanga. This 

 ancient mariner, who, as the title of his story tells us, was, " sent by the 

 Portugals prisoner to Angola, who lived there, and in the adioyning 



^ H. Schlichter, " Ptolemy's Topography of Eastern Equatorial Africa," Proc. Roy. 

 Geog. Soc. new ser. vol. .\iii. (1891), pp. 513-546. 



- C. P. Rigby, " Remarks on the North-East Coast of Africa, and the various Tribes 

 by which it is inhabited," Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc. vol. vi. (1844), pp. 89-90. 



