LIFE OF FLOWER 167 



statements that the Akkas are the most diminutive 

 living people. They are quite distinct from the 

 African Bushmen (characterised, among other features, 

 by their tawny skins), and also from the Asiatic 

 Negritos, as represented by the Andamanese ; and they 

 accordingly seem rightly referred to a distinct branch 

 of the Negro stock, for which the name Negrillo has 

 been suggested. 



In the first of the two papers cited above, Sir William 

 gave a general account of all the races of mankind 

 which can be included under the title of " pigmies," 

 such as the Bushmen, Negrillos, and Negritos. As 

 regards the second group he wrote as follows : 



" The fact now seems clearly demonstrated that 

 at various spots across the great African Continent, 

 within a few degrees north and south of the Equator, 

 extending from the Atlantic coast to near the shores 

 of the Albert Nyanza (30 E. long.) and perhaps . . . 

 even further to the east, south of the Galla land, are 

 still surviving, in scattered districts, communities of 

 these small Negroes, all much resembling each other in 

 size, appearance, and habits, and dwelling mostly apart 

 from their taller neighbours, by whom they are every- 

 where surrounded. ... In many parts, especially at 

 the west, they are obviously holding their own with 

 difficulty, ff not actually disappearing, and there is much 

 about their condition of civilisation, and the situations 

 in which they are found, to induce us to look upon 

 them, as in the case of the Bushmen in the south and 

 the Negritos in the east, as the remains of a population 

 which occupied the land before the incoming of the 

 present dominant races. If the account of the 



