Bambongo." These, too, are successful hunters, and are also said to make bark cloth for themselves, whereas Du Chaillu's Obongo wore nothing but the cast-off grass cloths of the Ashangos. The Betsan sometimes exchange their venison for millet, &c., in the Rufum country. "They do not cultivate the ground, but are constantly on the move, changing their abode every six or twelve months. Their houses can be easily built, taken down, and even carried along with them, consisting, as they do, of the bark of a large tree. The Betsan hunt monkeys, baboons, wild hogs, deer, elephants, &c."

I can suggest no affinity for the names here given to the Pygmies, unless Kenkob contains a possible reminiscence of "Khoi-Khoi,” or "Koi-Koib," the tribal name used by the Hottentots among themselves. It is utterly unlike a Bantu word, and may be a relic of the language originally common to all the Pygmy tribes, which many of them seem to be losing. Bambongo, on the other hand, distinctly suggests Obongo, and may have originated the latter name (which, as the variant Babongo shows, seems to be Bantu) -the Kenkob adopting it from the district where they had sojourned. Or, again, it may be a tribal name, reported to Dr. Koelle's informant as that of a district.

Turning to South-Western Africa, we find that Major Serpa Pinto,2 in 1878, met with a tribe called "Mucassequeres," living in the forests between the Cubango and Cuando, while the open country is occupied by the Ambuellas. These people have "eyes very small and out of the right line, cheek-bones very far apart and high, nose flat to the face, and nostrils disproportionately wide." Their hair is crisp and woolly, growing in separate patches, and thickest on the top of the head. Unlike the Obongo, they build no kind of shelter, but, like them, are skilled in the use of bows and arrows, and live on roots, honey, and game. In colour they are “a dirty yellow, like the Hottentots, while the Ambuellas are black, though of a Caucasian type of feature."

Further south, near the borders of the Kalahari Desert, Serpa Pinto found a tribe similar in most respects to the Mucassequeres, but deep black, and known by the name of Massaruas. These (who are less savage than the Mucassequeres) are probably a tribe of Bushmen, very much resembling, if not identical with, the M’Kabba, or N'Tchabba, brought by Signor Farini from the Kalahari Desert. These last were carefully examined by Professor Virchow, and described by him in a paper read before the Berlin Anthropological Society, March 20, 1886.

1 Polyglotta Africana, p. 12.

How 1 Crossed Africa, Vol. II., pp. 320 sqq.

We have now to notice the section of the Pygmy race with which Europeans have come most in contact-the Hottentots and Bushmen. The Hottentots (as they are now known to us, their real name for themselves being "Khoi-Khoi ") represent probably the highest development of the race, and differ notably from its other members in being a pastoral people. When Van Riebeek landed at the Cape, in 1652, they existed in great numbers, roaming the country with large herds of cattle. Kafir wars and Dutch "commandoes," with other causes, have so far thinned them out that few, if any, genuine "Cape Hottentots" now exist, their place being taken by the Griquas and other tribes of mixed race. Two cognate tribes, the Korannas and Namaquas, still exist, but in diminished numbers.

That keen observer, Moffat, as long ago as the first decade of this century, noticed the distinct and peculiar characteristics of the Hottentots, and recognised their racial identity with the Bushmen. He speaks of "that nation, which includes Hottentots, Korannas, Namaquas, and Bushmen," and describes them, as a whole, as "not swarthy or black, but rather of a sallow colour, and in some cases so light that a tinge of red in the cheek is perceptible, especially among the Bushmen. They are generally smaller in stature than their neighbours of the interior; their visage and form very distinct, and in general the top of the head broad and flat; their faces tapering to the chin, with high cheek-bones, flat nose, and large lips." He further notes that the first three speak languages which are mutually intelligible, while that of the Bushmen, though cognate, is quite distinct. Writing (after his return to England) in 1842, when as yet the Akkas and Batwa were unknown to science, he suggests that, "when the sons of Ham entered Africa by Egypt, and the Arabians by the Red Sea, the Hottentot progenitors took the lead, and gradually advanced, as they were forced forward by an increasing population in their rear, until they reached the ends of the earth." He further remarks: "It may also be easily conceived by those acquainted with the emigration of tribes that, during their progress to the south, parties remained behind in the more sequestered and isolated spots where they had located, while

'Or Koi-koib ("men of men ") according to Dr. Cust. The Kafirs call them "Lawi." Hottentot" is merely a nickname given by the early Dutch settlers, who declared the natives spoke an unintelligible language, consisting only of sounds like hot and tot.

2 Some ethnologists are inclined to look on the Koranna tribe as a cross between Hottentots and Bushmen.

the nation moved onward, and research may yet prove that that remarkable people originally came from Egypt." In corroboration of this theory, he mentions having heard from a Syrian, who had lived in Egypt, of slaves in the Cairo market, brought from a great distance in the interior, who spoke a language similar to that of the Hottentots, and were not nearly so dark-coloured as negroes in general. These must certainly have been Akkas.1

As for the Bushmen, we have pretty full accounts of them from various sources. Moffat has much to say about them-too much to quote in full—which may be found in the first and fourth chapters of his "Missionary Labours in South Africa," and is supplemented by Livingstone in the "Missionary Travels."

Mr. Alfred J. Bethell (in a letter to the Standard which appeared on April 26, 1889) says that the Bushmen proper are now "nearly if not quite extinct," the people now so called being outcasts from the Matabele, Bamangwato, and other Bantu communities. Mr. A. A. Anderson, however, who extended his journeys far beyond the northern limits of the Transvaal, makes frequent mention of them, and discriminates four distinct types, noticing especially a very lightcoloured variety, only found in the Drakensberg Mountains and the ranges west of them. There seems to be a tradition of hostility between the Bushmen and Hottentots; and the difference between them in pursuits and habits has always been sharply marked; but the fact of their affinity has seldom or never been questioned. Moffat distinctly states his belief (supported by the analogy of the Balala, or outcast Bechuanas) that they are the descendants of Hottentots driven by want and the hostility of stronger neighbours into the desert. Generations of perpetual living on the edge of starvation have made of them the gauntest and skinniest of shapesseemingly designed by nature to show what human beings can endure in that line, and live-and developed in them, in spite, or because of their physical weakness and insignificance, a cunning and an intimate knowledge of nature that to the savage mind seems little short of superhuman. Some of the Kafirs believe that the Bushmen can understand the language of the baboons; and countless instances of their skill in tracking game and finding water are

1 Winwood Reade's remark (African Sketch Book, Vol. II., p. 528), written in 1873 or earlier, is worth notice. "His (Du Chaillu's) discovery of the Dwarfs (who are certainly Bushmen) is an important contribution to the ethnology of Africa."

Twenty-five Years in a Waggon in South Africa, Vol. I., pp. 235, 282, &c.; Vol. II., p. 74

on record. They possess a wonderful gift of mimicry, can imitate to the life the action of any man or animal, and have a passionate love of music. They can evolve from their primitive instruments-the "gorah," with its catgut and quill, or the hollow gourd-shell, with strings stretched across it-plaintive melodies of a surprising sweetness, very different from the hideous tintamarre of horns and tomtoms which delights the heart of the average African. Moreover, having a quick ear and a retentive memory, they will pick up and repeat any civilised tune once heard-whether the Chorales of the German mission, or the more secular ditty sung by the wandering traders. Their poisoned arrows, and their noiseless, furtive ways of coming and going, inspire the stronger races with a vague dread of them-strengthened, no doubt, by that uncanny something which, as Mr. F. Boyle remarks, "makes a Bush-boy resemble a bird the more, the more he shows a simian intelligence."

We have thus, in a hasty and imperfect manner, surveyed the known fragments of the aboriginal African race. We have seen that they resemble each other to a great extent in physical conformation and in manners and customs; the differences being for the most part due (like the extremely poor development and degraded way of life of the Bushmen) to differences in habitat and environment. The Hottentot and Sàn or Saab (Bushman) languages we have seen to be related, though distinct; and they are radically different from every known Bantu tongue. Some have even denied that they are articulate speech at all. The peculiarity of the "clicks" has often been insisted on; another distinguishing characteristic is the existence (at least in the Hottentot language) of grammatical gender-a feature wholly absent from the Bantu tongues. The Bushman language is said to be monosyllabic. The Hottentots, however, now mostly speak Dutch-or that variety of it to be heard at the Cape-and probably both languages are on the way to extinction. It is said that "a missionary, being invited by the Government to send books in the Kora dialect to be printed, remarked that his experience was that it was easier to teach the young to read Dutch, and that the old could not learn at all."3

An examination of the list of Batwa words collected by Dr. Wolf, as compared with his Baluba and Bakuba vocabularies, and the Congo and Swahili languages, has convinced me that the Batwa, if

1 Some of the Kafir languages possess these clicks, but they have undoubtedly been borrowed.

2 Spoken on the Orange River.

⚫ Modern Languages of Africa. By R. N. Cust.

they have not adopted and modified the speech of their neighbours, have at any rate adopted a great many Bantu words into their own. The numbers up to ten, for instance, are identical (with slight differences of pronunciation) in the Batwa and Baluba languages. But as yet the materials for comparison are too scanty for any definite statement to be made. The few words elicited from the dwarf met by Stanley were, as Mr. Johnston points out, decidedly Bantu; but we need not conclude from this that the Pygmy race consists merely of outcast and degenerate Bantus. What more likely than that a small and isolated tribe, who, like the Batwa, frequently had friendly intercourse with surrounding and more powerful tribes, should, to a certain extent, adopt the language of the latter?

Surveying the Pygmy race as a whole, we find them-shorn of the mythical and magical glamour with which distance and mystery had invested them-not so very different, after all, from other human beings, but still sufficiently interesting. There is a shock of disillusion in passing from the elves and trolls of a past age-not to mention Alberic of the Nibelung's Hoard-to the worthy but prosaic Lapps of the present day; and the "little people" of whom Bwana Abed entertained such a vivid and unpleasant recollection were doubtless minimised in stature by the retrospective imagination. No well-authenticated adult Mtwa, Akka, or Mbatti seems to be much less than 4 feet 6 inches; while Dr. Petermann thinks that the Pygmies, on the whole, run about a head shorter than the average negro. This may be disappointing to those who are ever on the look-out for the marvellous-by which they mean the abnormal-but the facts as they stand present quite sufficient food for thought to a more rational frame of mind.

I cannot attempt to deal with the origin of the Pygmy race, or its relationship to the Andamanese and the Veddahs of Ceylon, who are said to have some characteristics in common with them. But it seems clear that they were once spread over a great part, if not the whole, of the continent; that they were broken up and partially exterminated by the advent of the stronger dark races; and that, as a race, they are passing away. It is interesting to look at an analogous case in Europe. A race of small stature, slight frame, and comparatively low type, scarcely, if at all, advanced beyond the hunter stage, occupied the British Islands and the north-western part of the Continent. They were partly massacred or enslaved, partly driven into the mountains, by their Celtic conquerors; and in the lonely recesses of the hills and woods-what with their weakness and their strength,

ir cunning and their skill in metals, their music, and their