V. The Negrilloes.[528]—The pigmy black populations are dispersed over a large zone extending from three degrees north and south of the equator, across the entire African continent, from Uganda to the Gabun. The Akkas or Tiky-Tiky of the upper Nile and of the country of the Niam-Niam, the Afiffi of the country of the Momfu (between Kibali and Ituri), the Wambutti of the Ituri, the Watwa or Batua living to the south of the great curve of the Congo and the valleys of its tributaries on the right, the Chuapa-Bussera and the Lomami, the O-Bongo (plural Ba-Bongo), the Akua, the Achango of the French Congo, the Boyaeli and Bayago of the Cameroons, the Ba-Bengaye of Sanga, are the principal rings of this chain of dwarf peoples stretched between the region of the great lakes and the Atlantic ocean. But Negrilloes have also been noted outside these limits. Without stopping to consider the evidence of the traveller Mollien (1818), who speaks of dwarfs in the Tenda-Maië country, near the sources of the Niger, where modern explorers have never met with anything of the kind, we may, however, bring together a certain amount of serious testimony to the existence of dwarfs in the basin of the upper Kasai, as well as more to the east, as far as Lake Tanganyika, and lastly to the north of the Lakes Stefanie and Rudolf (English East Africa), near the borders of Kaffa, 7° latitude north, where pigmies have been described by older travellers under the name of Dogbo, and where, in 1896, they were indeed discovered by D. Smith. They call themselves Dumes, are about 1 m. 50 (4 ft. 11 in.) in height, and resemble other pigmy tribes. According to Schlichter, other tribes of short stature live more to the north, in Kaffa and Shoa: the Bonno, the Aro, and the Mala; these last two are probably the same tribes as those spoken of by the old explorers, D’Abadie and L. des Avranches, under the name of Areya and Maléa.
According to Stuhlmann, the populations of the upper basin of the Ituri are a blend of Pigmies with Bantus (the Vambuba, the Vallessi), or with Nilotes (the Momfu).
Several authors confound in one group of Pigmies the Negrilloes and the Bushmen. Nothing, however, justifies their unification. The colour of the skin in Bushmen is a fawn yellow, while in Negrilloes it is that of a chocolate tablet or of coffee slightly roasted; the hair of the former is black and tufted, while the hair of the latter is like extended fleece and often of a more or less light brown. The face of the Bushman is lozenge-shaped, the cheeks are prominent, and the eyes are often narrowed and oblique, which traits are not met with at all in Pigmies. Steatopygy (see p. [40]–[41]), a special trait of the Bushman race, has not been noted among Negrilloes, except in individual cases among the women, and to a less degree than among Bushmen, as, for example, is proved by the two portraits of Akka women published by Stuhlmann. At the same time the profile of the sub-nasal space, always convex in the Akkas according to Stuhlmann, is often to be observed among Bushmen. Thus, therefore, a slight degree of steatopygy in individual cases and the profile of the sub-nasal space would be the sole characters connecting the two races. In support of this connection, shortness of stature has also been adduced.
At first sight this last appears feasible, but rigorous measurements on a sufficient number of subjects are still lacking. In the various series of Bushmen the figures vary from 1 m. 37 to 1 m. 57, and in those of Negrilloes from 1 m. 36 to 1 m. 51. These figures, however, are based on only from 3 to 6 individuals, except in three cases: a series of 50 Bushmen of Kalahari, measured by Schinz, which gives the average height as 1 m. 57—that is to say, the same as the Japanese or Annamese; another series of 30 Akkas (by Emin Pasha) giving an average height of 1 m. 36; and a third series of 98 Watwas (by Wolff) giving an average of 1 m. 42.[529] On comparing these three large series, the only ones deserving attention, a difference of 0 m. 18 (7 inches) in height in favour of Bushmen is shown. As to the cranial form, it varies also. Notwithstanding the paucity of documents, it may be said that the Negrilloes are, in general, sub-dolichocephalic or mesocephalic (average index of 9 living subjects, 79.7); while Bushmen are undoubtedly dolichocephalic (average index of 11 living men, 75.8). Let me add in conclusion that the Negrilloes are covered with a fairly thick down over the entire body (Emin Pasha, Yunker, Stanley, Stuhlmann), and that nothing analogous has been noted in Bushmen.
The Negrilloes live in the midst of other peoples (Bantus, Nilotes, etc.), either as isolated individuals (for the most part slaves) or in little groups (up to about 800 individuals), hidden in the deepest thickets. These little hunters have established a sort of modus vivendi with the agricultural populations surrounding them: they exchange with them the produce of their chase, or of their gathering, for foods and objects in metal; they also pay for the protection of their powerful neighbours by doing service, for the benefit of the latter, as clearers of the forest, where it is a critical matter to meet them on account of their arrows, poisoned with the juice of a certain Aroidea, or with certain putrid animal matters derived especially from the ant. The bow and arrows which they use are the same as those of their protectors, only proportioned to their stature.
FIG. 141.—Catrai, Ganguela-Bantu;
height, 1 m. 73; ceph. ind., 75.8; nasal index, 107.
(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)
VI. The Bantu group comprises the numerous peoples of Central and Southern Africa whose dialects form the Bantu linguistic family, without having any analogy with the Nigritian languages. They have all an agglutinative structure, and are especially characterised by the exclusive use of prefixes. Each principal prefix indicates an entire category of objects or ideas; such a prefix is M’, Um, or Umon (according to dialect), denoting the singular; Ba, Wa, or Va, denoting the plural. Thus the root Ntu (man) united to the prefix Umon means “a man” (Umon-Ntu) and with the prefix Ba “men” (Ba-Ntu). It is superfluous to say that physically the Bantus present a great variety of types. This is due especially to intermixture with the Negrilloes and Ethiopians to the north, and with the Bushmen-Hottentots to the south. Nevertheless, there may be discerned a probably primitive type, which, while being fundamentally Negro, yet is distinguishable from the Nigritian type. In this type the stature is generally not so high, the head less elongated, and prognathism also less; the median convexity of the brow often disappears, and the nose is more prominent and narrower.
We may divide the Bantus, according to their ethnographic and linguistic characters, into three large sections: western, eastern, and southern.