272 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



above the ground. The huts are round 

 or oval in shape; but some of them are 

 eaid to be oblong. They are made of 

 flexible sticks cohered with leaves. The 

 huts are of the simplest construction, the 

 people being nomadic, as they have to 

 follow the migrations of the game on 

 which they live. They are expert hunters 

 and fishermen. They kill game with 

 poisoned arrows and spears, but obtain 

 their main supply by traps and pitfalls. 

 Fish they capture in specially woven 

 baskets, or by poisoning the rivers with 

 the powdered fruit of a palm; this 

 stupefies the fish, which float on the 

 water and are easily collected. The 

 Obongo have no knowledge of handicrafts 

 or agriculture. They are dependent upon 

 neighbouring tribes for their weapons, 

 cooking-pots, ^and water-vessels, and for 

 plantains or other vegetable food, all of 

 which they purchase with meat. 



Leuz, whose opportunities for study 

 of the tribe were much greater than 

 those of du Chaillu, could not observe 

 any sign of religious observances or 

 superstitious ceremonies. The Obongo 

 live in dread of the medicine-men of 

 adjacent Negro tribes; but as the fetish 

 rites of their neighbours are accompanied 

 by human sacrifices, this fear is perhaps 

 not superstitious. 



Their mode of burial is remarkable. 

 According to du Chaillu, "the most 



common habit is to place the corpse in the interior of a hollow tree in the forest, filling up 

 the hole with branches and leaves mixed with earth; but sometimes they make a hole in 

 the bed of a running stream, diverting the current for the purpose, and then, after the grave 

 is covered in, turning back the rivulet to its former course." 



Photo by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



PYGMIES WITH WHIRLING-STICK OR FIRE-DRILL. 



THE AKKA. 



The best known of the Equatorial dwarfs are the now famous Akka, whose name was 

 recorded on an ancient Egyptian monument, whose existence was referred to by Homer and 

 affirmed by Aristotle, Pliny, and Ptolemy, and who in recent years have been carefully studied 

 and described by Stanley, Junker, and Schweinfurth. The Akka live in association with the 

 Balia, Aticky-ticky or Tikki-tikki, Batwa, Wambuttu, and Bazungu. These are all pygmy 

 peoples, but whether they are distinct tribes or only clans of one tribe is still uncertain. 



Schweinfurth came in contact with the Akka in the Monbuttu (Mangbattu) country in 

 the north-east corner of the Congo Basin. He made detailed measurements and sketches of 

 many members of the tribe; his notes were destroyed by fire, but he remembered sufficient 

 to give a detailed account of the Akka with whom he lived. Other members of the tribe 

 were discovered by Stanley farther to the south and west in the valley of the Ituri River. 



