THE PYGMY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



5 



furth that his race dwelt farther south. From information given 

 him by this negrito chieftain, this eminent traveler and scientist 

 came to the conclusion that the country of the pygmies was situ- 

 ated about 30 north latitude and 25 east longitude. (I may state, 

 parenthetically, that the pygmies of Africa are called negrillos by 

 some anthropologists ; why, I know not, for it is generally con- 

 ceded that the eastern and western pygmies are generically of 

 the same stock. If this be denied, the doctrine of polygenesis 

 must be accepted as true. But while a firm 

 believer in polygenesis, I yet believe that these 

 widely separated tribes of negritos originally 

 sprang from the same root-stock. Their dis- 

 semination over such a wide area has been due 

 to one of two causes : either, in times long 

 past, some of them have been carried across 

 the Indian Ocean by storms, or at one time 

 Africa extended across the ocean even as far 

 as Australia. The mighty cataclysm that 

 changed the Sea of Sahara into the Desert of 

 Sahara, by elevating the northern portion of 

 Africa, probably occasioned a corresponding 

 subsidence, and the eastern portion of the con- 

 tinent, save Australia, the Andaman Islands, 

 and the Malayan Archipelago, was covered by 

 the ocean.) 



Chaille*-Long says, in Three Prophets, when 

 returning from the county of King Munza : 

 " I brought back with me, besides the six hun- 

 dred Mam-Niam warriors, who had joined me 

 in the battles against inimical tribes, ... a 

 specimen adult woman of the Ticki-Ticki, or 

 Akka pygmy race. Ticki-Ticki is now in 

 Cairo, and is a favorite plaything being quite 

 an acrobat in the harem of the Khedive's 

 mother." That adventurous Frenchman and 

 most entertaining writer, Paul du Chaillu, met 

 with pygmies at Niembonai, latitude 1 58' 54" 

 south, and longitude 11 56' 38" east. Here 

 they were known as Obongos. He says, in Equatorial Africa, 

 that during his stay in the village of Niembonai he succeeded 

 in measuring six adults, all women save one a young adult 

 man. The height of the women ranged from four feet four and 

 a half inches to five feet, while the height of the young man was 

 four feet six inches. Finally, Stanley came across these little 

 people at Avatiko, a village near the river Lenda. Two of the 

 pygmies, a man and a woman, were captured by his men and car- 



Akka. From The Pyg- 

 mies, Quatrefages. 



