100 THE PIGMIES. 



diminution in the stature. He gathered together the different obser- 

 vations which, up to then, had remained loose and scattered, and 

 proved that Africa possessed, like Asia, a black sub-type, in "which a 

 remarkably reduced stature was one of the most striking features. 

 He showed also that the African or Asiatic diminutive negroes, 

 although so far apart, had many anatomical and other common 

 points, and that these two groups were, in reality, two correspond- 

 ing terms, geographical and anthropological at the same time. 



M. Hamy proposed to give the name of Negrillos ( x ) to the 

 African dwarf tribes. This denomination, will, I think, be readily 

 adopted by all anthropologists, and has the advantage of recalling 

 one of the most important characteristics of the group as well as 

 their link of connection with the Asiatic Negritos. 



These are the two groups which I intend to resume the descrip- 

 tion of in the following chapters. 



II. 



THE ASIATIC PIGMIES, OH NEGKITOS. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AKD PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 



The' Negrito race, either pure or more or less mixed, is distri- 

 buted over an immense tract. Its habitat is both insular and 

 continental. In islands and archipelagos, its existence is now 

 recognised from the south-eastern regions of New Guinea in 

 Melanesia to the Andamans in the Bay of Bengal ; and from the 

 Malay Archipelago to Japan. On the continent, their tribes are 

 scattered about from the Malay Peninsula to the foot of the 

 Himalaya, in Kamaon ; and from the mountains of Assam to the 

 right bank of the Indus, in Daman and Beloochistan ; ( 2 ) that is to 



(i) Note sur V Existence de Negres Brachycephales sur la Cote Occidentals 

 fVAfrique. (Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologic de Paris, 2nd Series, 1872, 

 vol. VII, p. 210.) 



(2) I have already given a detailed account of this geographical anthro- 

 pology in several papers, such as, Etude sur les Jliucojjies et la Race Negrito en 

 general (Revue d' Anthropologic, 1872, vol. I), in an article of the Journal 

 des Savants, 1872^ touching ' Earl's work on The Native Races of the Indian 



