PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



537 



a fact that the Pygmies, though so distinct a race, have no language 

 peculiar to their race, but, wherever they are, speak (often imperfectly) the 

 tongue of their nearest agricultural, settled, normal-sized neighbours. Again, 

 it is strange that this little people should speak imperfectly these borrowed 

 tongues, because individuals transported from the Pygmy milieu have 

 picked up rapidly and spoken correctly Sudanese Arabic, Runyoro, Luganda, 

 Kiswahili, and Kinyamwezi. It is, however, less singular an anomaly than 

 the contrast between the brutish lives led by the Pygmies in their wild state 

 — lives, perhaps, in absence of human culture nearer to the beast than is the 

 case with any recently existing race of men known to us — and the vivacious 

 intelligence, mental adroitness, almost fairy-like deftness they exhibit when 

 dwelling with Europeans. No one can fail to be struck with the mental 

 superiority they exhibit 

 under these novel cir- 

 cumstances over the big 

 Negro, whose own culture 

 in his own home is 

 distinctly higher than 

 that of the forest 

 Pygmies. 



The Dwarfs are 

 markedly intelligent, 

 much quicker at 

 divining one's thoughts 

 and wishes than is the 

 ordinary Negro. But, 

 then, look at the 

 amazing natural intelli- 

 gence of the baboon 

 and the almost human 

 understanding of the 

 ■chimpanzee : both en- 

 dowments to a great 

 extent wasted, unde- 

 veloped, not called forth 

 by their natural sur- 

 roundings. 



The Semliki Pygmies 

 have a good idea of 

 drawing, and with a 

 sharpened stick can de- 

 lineate in sand or mud 



TWO BAMBUTE PTGMIES 



