xix NEGRILLOS OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA 309 



of diminutive size, living near the west coast of Equatorial 

 Africa, I need only mention that of Du Chaillu, who gives 

 an interesting account of his visit to an Obongo village in 

 Ashango-land, between the Gaboon and the Congo ; although 

 unfortunately, owing to the extreme shyness and suspicion of 

 the inhabitants, he was allowed little opportunity for anthro- 

 pological observations. He succeeded, however, in measuring 

 one man and six women ; the height of the former was 4 feet 

 6 inches, the average of the latter 4 feet 8 inches. 1 



Farther into the interior, towards the centre of the 

 region contained in the great bend of the Congo or Living- 

 stone Kiver, Stanley heard of a numerous and independent 

 population of dwarfs, called " Watwas," who, like the Batimbas 

 of Battell, are great hunters of elephants, and use poisoned 

 arrows. One of these he met with at Ikondu was 4 feet 6|- 

 inches high, and of a chocolate brown colour. 2 More recently 

 Dr. Wolff describes, under the name of " Batouas " (perhaps the 

 same as Stanley's Watwas), a people of lighter colour than 

 other negroes, and never exceeding 1*40 metres (4 feet "7 

 inches) high, but whose average is not more than 1'30 (4 feet 

 3 inches), who occupy isolated villages scattered through the 

 territory of the Bahoubas, with whom they never mix. 3 



Penetrating into the heart of Africa from the north-east, 

 in 1870, Dr. Schweinfurth first made us acquainted with a 

 diminutive race of people who have since attained a considerable 

 anthropological notoriety. They seem to go by two names in 

 their own country, Akka and Tikki-tikki, the latter reminding 

 us curiously of Dapper's Bakke-bakke, and the former, more 

 singularly still, having been read by the learned Egyptologist, 

 Mariette, by the side of the figure of a dwarf in one of the 

 monuments of the early Egyptian empire. 



It was at the court of Mounza, king of the Monbuttu, that 

 Schweinfurth first met with the Akkas. They appear to live 

 under the protection of that monarch, who had a regiment of 

 them attached to his service, but their real country was 

 farther to the south and west, about 3 K lat. and 25 E. 



1 A Journey to Ashango-land, 1867, p. 315. 



2 Through the Dark Continent, vol. ii. 

 3 La Gazette Geographique, 1887, p. 153, quoted by Quatrefages. 



