540 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



The Dwarfs keep no domestic animals except (and this not everywhere) 

 prick-eared, fox-yellow dogs similar to those possessed by the Bambuba r 

 Momfu, and other tribes to the north. They never till the ground, nor 

 cultivate any food plant. They are passionately fond of tobacco smoking, 

 and will also take the herb as snuff. The pipes they use are either 

 earthenware bowls obtained in trade from their big neighbours, or the 

 stem of a banana leaf. This is also a pipe in use among the Bakonjo 

 of Ruwenzori, and will be found illustrated in the next chapter. 



As regards food, I have already instanced the meat of beasts and birds 

 which they obtain in the chase. I do not think any of them are cannibals — 

 they repudiate the idea with horror. They eat the grubs of bees and certain 

 beetles, flying termites, and possibly some other insects, honey, mushrooms, 

 many kinds of roots, wild beans, fruits, and, in short, whatever vegetable 

 food is palatable to man, and procurable by other means than cultivation. 

 Of course they like to obtain grain, sweet potatoes, or bananas from their 

 more civilised agricultural neighbours. They eat their vegetable food raw; 

 but where they live in friendly proximity to agricultural negroes, they 

 borrow earthenware pots and boil leaves, roots, and beans over a fire. Meat 

 is broiled in the ashes. This is their only form of cooking when untouched 

 with outer culture. 



It is said that the wild Dwarfs (i.e., those that are thus uninfluenced by 

 their more civilised neighbours) are unable to make fire for themselves 

 by the usual process of the wooden drill, or any other means. The tradition 

 among the forest negroes to the north is that several centuries ago, when 

 their ancestors penetrated into the great forest, the Dwarfs were without 

 the use of fire, and ate their food raw. Nowadays (it is said) the " wild " 

 Dwarfs, when requiring to renew their fires, obtain smouldering brands from 

 their nearest neighbours among the agricultural negroes, or steal the same 

 from plantation fires. It is, however, quite conceivable that the Pygmies 

 and other early forms of man may have known and used fire in these 

 tropical forest-lands before they learnt to make it for themselves. On an 

 average, I should say, lightning sets fire to dry stumps and branches, or 

 to huts, about three times a year in every part of the Uganda Protectorate. 

 Fire thus descending from heaven may spread wherever there is fuel to 

 meet it. In savannah regions bush fires may thus be started. Man would 

 first be attracted to the wake of the blaze by the roasted remains of 

 lizards, snakes, locusts, rats, and other small or large mammals surprised 

 by the conflagration. From this source he might learn to perpetuate fire 

 for his own sake long before the chipping of flints over moss or the earliest 

 attempts at boring holes with pointed sticks gave him a clue to the 

 manufacture of flame. 



Some Pygmies dwelling near the Semliki River are apparently now 



