508 THE PYGMY RACES OF MEN xix 



observations on the human inhabitants, it contains excellent 

 descriptions of animals, as the pongo or gorilla, and the zebra, 

 now well known, but in his day new to Europeans. 



Dapper, in a work called Description de la Basse EtJiiopie, 

 published in Amsterdam in 1686, speaks of a race of dwarfs 

 inhabiting the same region, which he calls Mimos or Bakke- 

 Bakke, but nothing further was heard of these people until quite 

 recent times. A German scientific expedition to Loango, the 

 results of which were published in the Zeitschrift fur Mhnologie, 

 1874, and in Hartmann's work, Die Negritier } obtained, at 

 Chinchoxo, photographs and descriptions of a dwarf tribe 

 called " Baboukos," whose heads were proportionally large and 

 of roundish form (cephalix index of skull, 78 to 81). One 

 individual, supposed to be about forty years of age, measured 

 1-365 metres, rather under 4 feet 6 inches. 



Dr. Touchard, in a " Notice sur le Gabon," published in 

 the Revue Maritime et Coloniale for 1861, describes the recent 

 destruction of a population established in the interior of this 

 country, and to which he gives the name of " Akoa." They 

 seem to have been exterminated by the MTongos in their 

 expansion towards the west. Some of them, however, 

 remained as slaves at the time of the visit of Admiral 

 Fleuriot de Langle, who in 1868 photographed one 

 (measuring about 4 feet 6 inches high) and brought home 

 some skulls, which were examined by Hamy, and all proved 

 very small and sub-brachycephalic. 



Another tribe, the M'Boulous, inhabiting the coast north 

 of the Gaboon river, have been described by M. Marche as 

 probably the primitive race of the country. They live in little- 

 villages, keeping entirely to themselves, though surrounded by 

 the larger negro tribes, MTongos and Bakalais, who are en- 

 croaching upon them so closely that their numbers are rapidly 

 diminishing. In 1860 they were not more than 3000; in 

 1879 they were much less numerous. They are of an earthy- 

 brown colour, and rarely exceed 1*600 metres in height (5 

 feet 3 inches). In the rich collections of skulls made by 

 Mr. K. B. Walker and by M. Du Chaillu, from the coast of this 

 region, are many which are remarkable for their small size 

 and round form. Of many other notices of tribes of negroes 



