^2 THE PIGMIES. 



wliich present specimens of a complete group of continental popu- 

 lations, quite worthy of causing a special chapter to be added to 

 the History of Pigmies. We shall study them more closely later 

 on. 



We will not insist at present on facts which we shall have to 

 return to and discuss ; what I have just said is sufficient, I think, 

 to show that Ropltn's theory is not supported, at least in the 

 application he made of it. We are entitled to think that, had our 

 loyal colleague lived, he would have given it np of his own accord 

 and without the slightest hesitation, all the more in that the fun- 

 damental part of his supposition remains true as well for Asia as 

 for Africa. The former has also its races of dwarfs, and their being 

 imperfectly known has, without doubt, caused legends to be ap- 

 plied to them which originated in the latter continent. However, 

 in both cases similar facts have presented themselves. Aristotle 

 placed his African Pigmies — the Akkas — too far north; Pllnt put 

 his Asiatic dwarfs a great deal too much to the west, or rather to the 

 west-north-west, whether he meant insular tribes like the Mincopies, 

 or some closely related tribes which had remained on the continent 

 such as the Bandra-Lokhs and others. Moreover, neither the Greek 

 philosopher nor the Roruan naturalist mentions the black com- 

 plexion or the woolly hair of the dwarfs they speak of by hearsay. 

 The recollection of these peculiarities was evidently lost during the 

 long journey which the intelligence, probably scanty enough, had 

 to make from the heart of Africa, or the extremity of India, before 

 reaching Greece or Rome. Such an omission is strange enough 

 when it relaties to the colour of the skin, but it is less singular 

 when it concerns the nature of the hair, for we know that the an- 

 cients simply attributed the woolly aspect of the negro's head to 

 the heat of the sun and its crisping effect on the hifir. 



A contemporary of Plint — Pomponius Mela — has also spoken 

 of Pigmies. The passage he devotes to them, though very short, is 

 nevertheless interesting. He places beyond the Arabian gulf, though 

 in a small recess of the Red Sea, the Panchians, also called Ophio- 

 phagi, from their habit of eating snakes. He adds : "In the interior 

 " of the country was seen, in olden times, a race of very small 

 ** m en — the Pigmies — who became extinct in the constant wars 



