334 NA TIVES OF EASTERN BRITISH EAST AFRICA part hi 



men, however, far more nearly resemble those made by the aborigines 

 of Southern Australia than they do those of Egypt,^ and similarities 

 in the folklore of the two races have been frequently recorded.'^ For 

 example, the Australians say that light originated by an emu's egg 

 being thrown into space ; the Bushmen have the same legend, except 

 that a man is substituted for the egg. In the Milky Way, the Austra- 

 lians see the smoke of fires of the old race that preceded them, and 

 the Bushmen smoke made by a girl throwing wood ashes into the sky. 

 The Magellan clouds, according to both races, are a pair of animals ; 

 but the Australians call them birds, and the Bushmen steinbock. The 

 star Arcturus supplies both people with food, giving the larva of the 

 wood-ant to the Australians, and rice to the Bushmen. 



Moreover, the physical features, weapons, and domestic implements 

 of the Bushmen and the equatorial dwarfs are similar to those of the 

 aborigines of Malaysia. Some anthropologists, such as Professor 

 Keane, regard this as so well established, as to give valuable support to 

 the theory of the existence of the hypothetical continent of Lemuria 

 over the site of the Indian Ocean, and even to show that this land area 

 must have been contemporary with man. According to this view a 

 pygmy race once extended throughout Africa, south of the Sahara, and 

 through India, Malaysia, and Australia, from which the natives of the 

 Andaman Islands, the aborigines of Australasia, the Akka of the 

 Congo, the Doko of Laikipia, and the Bushmen of the Cape are all 

 descendants. 



This is no doubt a very attractive theory, for it offers a simple 

 explanation of the resemblances between the aborigines of Africa and 

 of Polynesia. Should it be proved that the main physical characters 

 of all these dwarf races are the same, then the theory will probably 

 meet with ultimate acceptance. But if, as Sir William Flower maintains, 

 the skulls of the Akka are those of degenerate negroes, and differ 

 fundamentally from those of the Bushmen and of the Polynesian 

 Negrito, then the theory cannot be upheld. In that case, the group 

 proposed by Hamy for the tropical African dwarfs under the name of 

 Negrillo must be retained. It will rank as a section of the African 

 negroes, instead of being kept as a distinct group, or being included 

 with the Bushmen and Polynesian pygmies, in one great aboriginal race 

 — the Negrito. 



Section C. — The Negro Races 

 The term Negro is defined in Walker's Dictionary as " a native or 



^ Compare those shown in ilhistration of the recent paper by R. H. Mathews, 

 "Aboriginal Rock Paintings and Carvings in New South Wales," Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict 

 new ser. vol. vii. (1895), pp. 142-156, PI. viii. ix. ' 



- See, for e.xample, W. H. I. Bleek, "On Resemblances in Bushman and Australian 

 Mythology," Cape Monthly Mag. new ser. vol. viii. (Feb. 1874), PP- 98-102. 



