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ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 
ward in their development, and at least two tribes which are actual 
pygmies, to justify the old stories of the country of the dwarfs. 
It is in the great forests of the Congo River in Central Africa 
that these most peculiar races have been found. These pygmies 
were probably well known to the ancient Egyptian slave-traders, 
who journeyed up the Nile in ancient days to return with treasures 
and curious specimens and wonderful stories. Herodotus wrote 
about the pygmies and their fights with cranes, but the story has 
been believed entirely mythological, until the discovery of ostriches 
and these very dwarfs has given justification to the ancient classic 
writer. 
Sir Harry H. Johnston, the governor of British East Africa, 
who has described these African tribes most interestingly, suggests 
that from the mischievous'^actions of such dwarfs as these may 
easily have come the stories of brov/nies and goblins in our own 
fairy tales. He found two varieties of the pygmies, one with 
reddish and yellowish brown skin and a tendency to red in the hair 
of the head, and the other a black-skinned type with entirely black 
hair. The latter are slightly taller than the others. 
STRANGE CREATURES OF A STRANGE LAND. 
The tallest specimen measured by the explorer was about five 
feet in height, but the average height for the man was four feet, 
seven inches, and for the woman four feet, two inches. Several 
of the men were only four feet, two inches in height, and several 
of the women were four feet. The nose and the lips are very differ¬ 
ent in shape from those of the ordinary negro types, the upper lip 
being long and straight and the nose having very little bridge. 
The chin is very much receding, the neck is short, and the head 
rather sunk between the shoulders. The legs are short in propor¬ 
tion to the body and the feet are inclined to turn in. Some of the 
dwarfs have quite long beards. They seldom wear anything in the 
way or ornament and in the forest they go about naked. 
These Congo pygmies are very shy, and avoid contact with 
travelers through their country. They keep no domestic animals 
nor do they cultivate the ground, but live entirely by hunting with 
