CHAP. XVII FIRST REPORTS OF THE DOKO 327 



of the three members of the High Kushite group of Hamites. Hence 

 the only evidence of the existence of dwarfs to the east of the great lakes 

 rested on native rumours. These, however, were very precise. They 

 were first reported in detail by Captain Harris^ in 1844, who obtained 

 the information in Shoa two years previously. He calls the dwarfs the 

 " Doko," and says they are "a pygmy and perfectly wild race, not 

 exceeding four feet in height, of a dark olive complexion, and in habits 

 closely approximated to the beasts that perish." He describes their 

 country as "clothed with a dense forest of bamboo, in the depths 

 whereof the people construct their rude wigwams of bent canes and 

 grass. They have no king, no laws, no arts, no arms ; possess neither 

 flocks nor herds ; are not hunters, and do not cultivate the soil ; but 

 subsist entirely upon fruit, roots, mice, serpents, reptiles, ants, and honey. 

 . . . Both sexes go perfectly naked, and have thick pouting lips, small 

 eyes. The hair is not woolly, and in the females reaches to the shoulders." 



This description was repeated by the Rev. J. L. Krapf in 1860,- 

 who says he obtained the information from a native of Enarea when 

 visiting Shoa on behalf of the Church Missionary Society. 



Nothing, however, is said about this in Krapf's earlier record of his 

 journey,^ and it is impossible to compare the account of the Doko in 

 his later book with that of Harris without concluding that Krapf's 

 account is a plagiarism. This conclusion throws doubt on the value 

 of his statement that he saw one of the pygmies in Barawa, and 

 that it "accorded completely" with the description, which he had 

 copied from Harris. 



Evidence in support of the existence of the East African dwarfs, 

 which, though based only on hearsay, was apparently more reliable than 

 that of Krapf, was given about the same time by Pere Leon des Avanchers. 

 In 1859 this author recorded"^ the existence of the race of the Wa- 

 berikimo, and marked them on a map as living to the west of a lake 

 named El-Boo, or, as he called it in 1866,^ Lake Baro. In this latter 

 paper he reported also the existence of a race named " Cincalle," or 

 " What a marvel," to the south of Abyssinia. Rigby, moreover, in 1844 

 mentioned that a tribe of dwarfs, the Berikimo, scarcely 3 feet in 

 height, lived six weeks inland from Mombasa.^ But the latest informa- 



' W. C. Harris, "Particulars concerning the great River Gochol and the Countries 

 adjacent thereto, from Native Information collected in the Kingdom of Shoa," Trans. 

 Bombay Geog. Soc. vol. vi. (1844), pp. 63-64. This Gochol is the western of the two 

 rivers said to enter the northern end of Basso Narok. 



^ J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours, etc. , in Eastern Africa 

 (i860), pp. 43-45. 



^ Jas. M'Queen, Journals of the Rev. Messrs. Isenberg and Krapf, detailing their 

 Proceedings in the Kingdom of Shoa, London, 1843. 



•* " Esquisse gtographique des pays Oromo ou Galla," Bull. Soc. Giog. st^r. 4, t. xvii. 

 {1859), p. 163. 



* " Lettre k M. Antoine d'Abbadie," Bull. Soc. Gt'og., Paris, s^r. 5, t. xii. (1866), p. 

 171. 



^ 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), p. 80. 



