PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



541 



able to shape iron implements and weapons, though from all accounts 

 they seem unable themselves to smelt iron. They obtain the pig-metal 

 from their bigger neighbours by negotiation, and then forge it into the 

 required forms.* I have reason to believe that some of the Dwarf tribes 

 in the very far interior of the forest do not even use iron, but entirely 

 confine themselves to weapons and implements made of sharpened wood, 

 reeds, or palm shreds. It is also probable that even in the case of those 

 who now use iron for their axes, knives, daggers, and arrow-heads, the use 

 of this metal is of quite recent origin, and that all the Pygmies of the 

 Congo Forest until a few hundred years ago (when they were forced more 



296. PYGMIES DANCING 



into contact with the bigger agricultural negroes from the north and south 

 through the invasion of the Congo Forest) were unacquainted with the use 

 of metals. I do not think there has been yet found amongst them any trace 

 of stone or flint implements. 



Their houses are curious little structures not more than three feet high 

 in the centre, roughly circular in shape. These huts are made by planting 

 the lower ends of long, flexible branches into the soil, bending over the 

 withe or branch until its upper point is also thrust into the soil, thus 



* This is what the Pygmies tell me ; but Dr. Stuhlmann, who has carefully observed 

 them, denies that they use a forge in any way. He says they purchase their iron arrow- 

 heads and knives from their neighbours, the agricultural forest Negroes. 



