PYGMIES AND FOEEST NEGROES 



587 



a fact that the Pygmie-s, though so distinct a race, have no language 

 peculiar to their race, but, wherever tliej are, speak (often iuiperfectlv) tlie 

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

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

 tongues, because individuals transported from the Pygmy inUieu have 

 picked up rapidly and spoken correctl}' Sudanese Arabic, Kunyoro, Luganda, 

 Kiswahili, and Kinyauiwezi. 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 

 ■Tnarkedly intelligent, 

 much quicker at 

 divining one's thoughts 

 and wishes than is the 

 ordinary Xegro. 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 

 draiving, and with a 

 sharpened stick can de- 

 lineate in sand or mud 



BASIUUTE PYlJMIFS 



