PYGMIES OF THE ITURI FOREST 337 



I went to the hut atop the hill to do some work on 

 the typewriter, and soon had a circle of them about me, 

 a circle which stood there more than an hour without 

 a single sound. To them the white man himself is 

 strange enough, but his many things of magic are be- 

 yond comprehension; so, like children, they stood and 

 gazed, wondering at the marvelous thing that made a 

 chcking sound and strung odd-looking marks, one after 

 another, over a blank white surface. 



The Ituri Forest pygmy is not a Negro, nor has he 

 much in common with the black men of Bantu stock 

 who Uve near him. He is called the "tiki tiki" by 

 the very few white men who know him, but to the 

 many thousands of natives who Hve around the forest 

 edge he is known as "Ifi." I wondered where this 

 name originated until I heard their chants during the 

 moon dances. During tliis wild dance they work them- 

 selves into a pitch of excitement by the weird chants 

 that supplement the beating of the drums. Round 

 and round they go, leaping, swaying, prancing, and all 

 the time chanting a savage refrain, through wliich runs 

 the oft-repeated words, "Ifi-ifi, ha, ifi-ifi, mu'm 

 ifi-ifi!" While in conference with their chiefs, I par- 

 ticularly inquired about the tribal name, and the 

 pygmies themselves confirmed the information which 

 had been given by the Momvu, that their true name 

 was "Ifi." 



In color, most of the Ifi are yellowish brown. Both 

 men and women are well formed, the women being 

 quite comely and the men muscular. Their features 

 have a shght Oriental cast, and in some members of the 

 tribe it was very pronounced. One man was almost the 

 double of a Japanese I once knew in Los Angeles. In 



