558 



PYGMIES AND FOllEST NEGROES 



African fetish, tliongh in almost all ca-es their origin is that of ancestor- 

 worshi}) or a remembrance of dead persons — a remembrance which rapidly 

 becomes identified with the individuality of the departed, and so becomes 

 a little god, to which ])rayers may be addressed and libations offered. 



The dru'ins met with among these forest tribes are usually of the VVest 

 African type, that is to say, little more than hollowed sections of tree-trunks 

 with lizard, goat, antelope, or other skin tightly strained over each end of 

 the hollow tube. Their musical instriiynents are rough lyres and mere 

 bow-strings, wliich are })layed by the performer holding one end of the 

 string between his lips and drumming on it with his fingers. 



These tribes vary much in appearance, especially amongst the Babira. 

 One meets with types that are low, degraded, and simian side by side with 

 tall, nice-looking Negroes, though there is little, if any, evidence here of recent 

 Hamitic immigration or mixture. In many individuals amongst these tribes 

 the long-bodied, short-legged type already described in relation to the Lendu 

 appears as though it had been at one time a distinct race that had inhabited 

 this north-eastern corner of the Congo Forest. This short-legged type I 

 should identify with the ape-like Negroes described at the commencement 

 of this chapter. The forest, presumably, was first inhabited by the Pygmies 

 and this prognathous, bandy-legged type of Negro. Then, at a not very 

 distant period, it was invaded from the north by Bantu races and other 

 Negroes of more pleasing appearance allied to the Nyam-Nyam and Nilotic 



309. B.XAMHA OF THE WESTEUN FLANKS OF KUWENZOKl 



