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THE PYGMIES OF THE GREAT FOREST. 



By R. Lydekker. 

 In the preceding ai-ticle of the present series the 

 attention of the reader was directed to the dwarf black 

 races of the tropical forests of Luzon and the coral 

 shores of the Andamans. He has now to transport him- 

 self in imagination to the great forest of the Upper 

 Congo and the watershed between the basin of that 

 mighty river and the Nile in the Niam-Niam country. 

 So vast is this forest, as we learn from the accounts of 

 Sir H. M. Stanley and other explorei-s, that the traveller 

 may march through it for weeks or even months without 

 finding a break in the wilderress of stems, while so 

 dense is the canopy of branches and leaves overhead 

 that even at midday, when the sun is shining in its 

 full strength above, the light is toned down to a grey 

 gloom, and the shades of night fall long before the sun 

 has touched the horizon. In this peiijotual gloom live 

 the Pygmies, the most diminutive of the human inhabi- 

 tants of the globe, of whose existence there have been 

 more or less authentic rumours since the time of Hero- 

 dotus and Aristotle, but whose true characteristics and 

 mode of life it has been reserved for recent times to 

 disclose. To the ancient Egyptians the Pygmies were 

 well known, under the name of Danga, and there are 

 definite records of individuals being from time to time 

 brought from the region of the White Nile to the court 

 of the Pharaohs as captives, where they were depicted 

 in the frescoes under the name of Akka. The accounts 

 given by the ancient classical writers of these diminutive 

 people, which were not improbably derived from the 

 Egyptian captives, are, however, so vague and so mingled 

 with the fabulous that they are of little or no value to 

 the anthropologist. But in the early part of the seven- 

 teenth century the English sailor, Andrew Battell, 

 who had been in captivity among the Portuguese from 



15S9 to 1607, gave an excellent although brief account 

 of the Pygmies, whom he calls Matimbas, and compares 

 in point of size to European children of twelve. Ho 

 s])eaks of them as fleeing from contact with the Negroes 

 of Loango, and slaying with their bows and arrows 

 (which wero carried by both sexes) the great apes called 

 Pongo ; the latter term being, by the way, the jjropcr 

 name of the species we now designate gorilla. Again, 

 in 1686, the Dutch writer Dapper speaks of the dwarfs 

 of the sa.mo district under the names of Mimos' and 

 Bakke-bakke ; but from that date nothing seems to liavc 

 been heard of these people till Iho sixties and seventies of 

 the present century. 



In 1861 Dr. Touchard records the destruction of a 

 tribe of dwarfs, whom ho calls Akoa, in tho interior 

 of the Gabun; and states that an adult who had been 

 captured mea.surcd only 4i^ feet in height, and 

 had a comparatively short and rounded head. 

 Yet anoUier tribe inhabiting tho interior of the 

 Gabun, known as the M'Boulous, wore described 

 about tho same date, and stated to be not 

 more than three thousand in number. Somewhat later 

 the Baboiikos, or Pyginies of Chinchoxo, were described 

 by a German writer, who comments on their relatively 

 large a.nd rounded heads and small stature; a man 

 supposed to be about forty years of age measuring rather 

 less than 4 feet 6 inches. Paul du Chaillu likewise 

 encountered Pygmy Negroes in Ashangoland, and saw 

 one man of tlto stature just mentioned, altliough he 

 gives the average height of the women at 4 feet 

 8 inches. 



In still more modern times, when tho interior of tho 

 Dark Continent was being gradually opened up, Stanley 

 heard of Pygmies, whom he calls Watwas, in the country 

 within the great bend of tho Congo, who hunted the 

 lordly elephant to death with poisoned arrows, and 

 whom he describes as of a chocolate-brown colour. And 

 a Dr. Wolff refers to the members of the same or an 

 allied tribe as never exceeding 4 feet 7 inches, and 

 averaging four inches less in height. But to the cele- 

 brated German traveller, Dr. Schweinfurth, was reserved 

 the honour of first making known to European science 

 the Akkas of the ancient Egyptians, whom he first met 

 with at the court of the ruler of Mambettu (Monbuttu), 

 but whose home is on the Aruwimi, a tributary of the 

 Upper Congo in about lat. 3° N. and long. 25° E. As 

 we learn from Major Casati's " Ten Years in Equatoria," 

 the author of which accompanied Stanley in his famous 

 expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, the name Akka 

 means pigmy or dwarf ; being also applied by the 

 natives of the Aruwimi country to a' breed of diminutive 

 fowls. By themselves the Akka are called Efe. Akka is 

 their Mambettu name, while in Sandeh they are tenned 

 Tiki-tiki. The latter name, according to the traveller 

 last mentioned, is, however, occasionally heard in Mam- 

 bettu, and is not, as has been supposed, synonomous with 

 Akka. Properly speaking, says Major Casati, Akka 

 is applicable to one very small active race, whose skin is of 

 a reddish brown colour and thickly covered with hair, 

 while Tiki-tiki denotes a taller and stouter-built race, 

 with a darker and less hairy skin, who frequent tho 

 more open mountainous regions. The two arc said to 

 be irnfriendly and frequently at war with each other. 

 The Akkas seen by Dr. Schweinfurth were in the 

 military service of the ruler of Mambettu ; one of 

 them, who unfortunately died at the end of tho journey 

 down country, was procured for the purpose of being 

 taken to Europe. More fortunate in this respect was 

 tlie Italian traveller Miani, who, although himself falling 



