THE PYGMY OR NEGRILLO RACES 



281 



A GROUP OF HOVA. 



soil; but subsist entirely upon fruits, roots, mice, serpents, reptiles, ants, and honey. Both 

 sexes go perfectly naked, and have thick, pouting lips and small eyes. The hair is not woolly, 

 and in the females reaches to the shoulders." In the year that Harris's account was 

 published Rigby reported the existence of another pygmy tribe, known as the Berikimo, living 

 in a district six weeks' march inland from Mombasa; according to his information, the members 

 of this tribe are only 3 feet in height. A French missionary, Leon des Avanchers, in 1859 

 and 1866 published further information about these Berikimo, and stated that they lived 

 beside a lake known as Lake Baro. But his account, like that of Rigby, was based entirely 

 on hearsay evidence. And no European met with any of the tribe until 1893, when the writer 

 came across a party near Lake Baringo, about six weeks' march north-west of Mombasa. The 

 members of this tribe were about 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet in height; they were of a brownish 

 colour, had rounded heads, protruding jaws, a small receding chin, and long and abundant 

 hair. 'They live in the recesses of the forests in small families or clans, scattered over an 

 enormous extent of country. Their culture and habits are quite primitive. Their pottery 

 they buy from the Kikuyu, for they do not know how to make it. They do not cultivate 

 anything, but live on wild fruits, roots, and the produce of the chase. They also collect honey, 

 and keep it in bags made from skins. They do not fish, and have no domesticated animals. 

 Their only weapons are bows, arrows, and knives. Their dress consists merely of loose sheets 

 of undressed skin, hung over the shoulder." Their ornaments are very simple, consisting of 

 iron rings and strings of beads, hung from both lobes of the ear. 



These Doko spoke Masai, but have a language of their own, which is said to be so 

 primitive that the people have to supplement it by signs to such an extent that they cannot 

 converse among themselves in the dark. But this report is repeated about other African tribes. 



Farther north members of an allied tribe of Doko have been found in Abyssinia by 

 Borelli (1890) and Donaldson Smith (1896), who have personally encountered the race, which was 

 reported by des Avanchers in 1866 under the name of the "Cincalle," or "What a marvel." 



