A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY CONCERNING THE PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS
By
EDWARD TYSON
Now Edited, with an Introduction by Bertram C. A. Windle
TO MY DEAR MOTHER
PREFATORY NOTE
It is only necessary for me to state here, what I have mentioned in the
Introduction, that my account of the habits of the Pigmy races of legend
and myth makes no pretence of being in any sense a complete or exhaustive
account of the literature of this subject. I have contented myself with
bringing forward such tales as seemed of value for the purpose of
establishing the points upon which I desire to lay emphasis.
I have elsewhere expressed my obligations to M. De Quatrefage's book on
Pigmies, obligations which will be at once recognised by those familiar
with that monograph. To his observations I have endeavoured to add such
other published facts as I have been able to gather in relation to these
peoples.
I have to thank Professors Sir William Turner, Haddon, Schlegel, Brinton,
and Topinard for their kindness in supplying me with information in
response to my inquiries on several points.
Finally, I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Alexander
Macalister, President of the Anthropological Institute, and to Mr. E.
Sidney Hartland, for their kindness in reading through, the former the
first two sections, and the latter the last two sections of the
Introduction, and for the valuable suggestions which both have made. These
gentlemen have laid me under obligations which I can acknowledge, but
cannot repay.
BERTRAM C. A. WINDLE.
MASON COLLEGE,
BIRMINGHAM, 1894.
INTRODUCTION
I.
Edward Tyson, the author of the Essay with which this book is concerned,
was, on the authority of Monk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians,
born, according to some accounts, at Bristol, according to others, at
Clevedon, co. Somerset, but was descended from a family which had long
settled in Cumberland. He was educated at Magdalene Hall, Oxford, as a
member of which he proceeded Bachelor of Arts on the 8th of February 1670,
and Master of Arts on the 4th of November 1673. His degree of Doctor of
Medicine he took at Cambridge in 1678 as a member of Corpus Christi
College. Dr. Tyson was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians
on the 30th of September 1680, and a Fellow in April 1683. He was Censor
of the College in 1694, and held the appointments of Physician to the
Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, and of Anatomical Reader at Surgeons'
Hall. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed several papers
to the "Philosophical Transactions." Besides a number of anatomical works,
he published in 1699 "A Philosophical Essay concerning the Rhymes of the
Ancients," and in the same year the work by which his name is still known,
in which the Philological Essay which is here reprinted finds a place.
Tyson died on the 1st of August 1708, in the fifty-eighth year of his age,
and is buried at St. Dionis Backchurch. He was the original of the Carus
not very flatteringly described in Garth's "Dispensary."
The title-page of the work above alluded to runs as follows:--
_Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris_:
OR, THE ANATOMY OF A PYGMIE
Compared with that of a _Monkey_, an _Ape_, and a _Man_.
To which is added, A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY Concerning the _Pygmies_, the
_Cynocephali_, the _Satyrs_, and _Sphinges_ of the ANCIENTS.
Wherein it will appear that they are all either _APES_ or _MONKEYS_, and
not _MEN_, as formerly pretended.
By _EDWARD TYSON_ M.D.
Fellow of the Colledge of Physicians, and the Royal Society: Physician to
the Hospital of _Bethlem_, and Reader of Anatomy at _Chirurgeons-Hall_.
_LONDON_:
Printed for _Thomas Bennet_ at the _Half-Moon in St. Paul's_ Church-yard;
and _Daniel Brown_ at the _Black Swan_ and _Bible_ without _Temple-Bar_
and are to be had of Mr. _Hunt_ at the _Repository_ in _Gresham-Colledge_.
M DC XCIX.
It bears the authority of the Royal Society:--
17° _Die Maij_, 1699.
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus, _Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris,_ &c.
Authore _Edvardo Tyson_, M.D. R.S.S.
JOHN HOSKINS, _V.P.R.S_.
The Pygmy described in this work was, as a matter of fact, a chimpanzee,
and its skeleton is at this present moment in the Natural History Museum
at South Kensington. Tyson's granddaughter married a Dr. Allardyce, who
was a physician of good standing in Cheltenham. The "Pygmie" formed a
somewhat remarkable item of her dowry. Her husband presented it to the
Cheltenham Museum, where it was fortunately carefully preserved until,
quite recently, it was transferred to its present position.
At the conclusion of the purely scientific part of the work the author
added four Philological Essays, as will have appeared from his title-page.
The first of these is both the longest and the most interesting, and has
alone been selected for republication in this volume.
This is not the place to deal with the scientific merit of the main body
of Tyson's work, but it may at least be said that it was the first attempt
which had been made to deal with the anatomy of any of the anthropoid
apes, and that its execution shows very conspicuous ability on the part of
its author.
Tyson, however, was not satisfied with the honour of being the author of
an important morphological work; he desired to round off his subject by
considering its bearing upon the, to him, wild and fabulous tales
concerning pigmy races. The various allusions to these races met with in
the pages of the older writers, and discussed in his, were to him what
fairy tales are to us. Like modern folk-lorists, he wished to explain,
even to euhemerise them, and bring them into line with the science of his
day. Hence the "Philological Essay" with which this book is concerned.
There are no pigmy races, he says; "the most diligent enquiries of late
into all the parts of the inhabited world could never discover any such
puny diminutive race of mankind." But there are tales about them, "fables
and wonderful and merry relations, that are transmitted down to us
concerning them," which surely require explanation. That explanation he
found in his theory that all the accounts of pigmy tribes were based upon
the mistakes of travellers who had taken apes for men. Nor was he without
followers in his opinion; amongst whom here need only be mentioned Buffon,
who in his _Histoire des Oiseaux_ explains the Homeric tale much as Tyson
had done. The discoveries, however, of this century have, as all know,
re-established in their essential details the accounts of the older
writers, and in doing so have demolished the theories of Tyson and Buffon.
We now know, not merely that there are pigmy races in existence, but that
the area which they occupy is an extensive one, and in the remote past has
without doubt been more extensive still. Moreover, certain of these races
have been, at least tentatively, identified with the pigmy tribes of
Pliny, Herodotus, Aristotle, and other writers. It will be well, before
considering this question, and before entering into any consideration of
the legends and myths which may possibly be associated with dwarf races,
to sketch briefly their distribution throughout the continents of the
globe. It is necessary to keep clearly in view the upper limit which can
justly be assigned to dwarfishness, and with this object it may be
advisable to commence with a statement as to the average heights reached
by various representative peoples. According to Topinard, the races of the
world may be classified, in respect to their stature, in the following
manner:--
Tall 5 ft. 8 in. and upwards.
Above the average 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 8 in.
Below the average 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in.
Short Below 5 ft. 4 in.
Thus amongst ordinary peoples there is no very striking difference of
height, so far as the average is concerned. It would, however, be a great
mistake to suppose that all races reaching a lower average height than
five feet four inches are, in any accurate sense of the word, to be looked
upon as pigmies. We have to descend to a considerably lower figure before
that appellation can be correctly employed. The stature must fall
considerably below five feet before we can speak of the race as one of
dwarfs or pigmies. Anthropometrical authorities have not as yet agreed
upon any upward limit for such a class, but for our present purposes it
may be convenient to say that any race in which the average male stature
does not exceed four feet nine inches--that is, the average height of a
boy of about twelve years of age--may fairly be described as pigmy. It is
most important to bear this matter of inches in mind in connection with
points which will have to be considered in a later section.
Pigmy races still exist in considerable numbers in Asia and the adjacent
islands, and as it was in that continent that, so far as our present
knowledge goes, they had in former days their greatest extension, and, if
De Quatrefages be correct, their place of origin, it will be well to deal
first with the tribes of that quarter of the globe. "The Negrito" (_i.e._,
pigmy black) "type," says the authority whom I have just quoted, and to
whom I shall have to be still further indebted,[A] "was first placed in
South Asia, which it without doubt occupied alone during an indeterminate
period. It is thence that its diverse representatives have radiated, and,
some going east, some west, have given rise to the black populations of
Melanesia and Africa. In particular, India and Indo-China first belonged
to the blacks. Invasions and infiltrations of different yellow or white
races have split up these Negrito populations, which formerly occupied a
continuous area, and mixing with them, have profoundly altered them. The
present condition of things is the final result of strifes and mixtures,
the most ancient of which may be referred back to prehistoric times." The
invasions above mentioned having in the past driven many of the races from
the mainland to the islands, and those which remained on the continent
having undergone greater modification by crossing with taller and alien
races, we may expect to find the purest Negritos amongst the tribes
inhabiting the various archipelagoes situated south and east of the
mainland. Amongst these, the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands offer a
convenient starting-point. The knowledge which we possess of these little
blacks is extensive, thanks to the labours in particular of Mr. Man[B] and
Dr. Dobson,[C] which may be found in the Journal of the Anthropological
Institute, and summarised in De Quatrefages' work. The average stature of
the males of this race is four feet six inches, the height of a boy of ten
years of age. Like children, the head is relatively large in comparison
with the stature, since it is contained seven times therein, instead of
seven and a half times, as is the rule amongst most average-sized peoples.
Whilst speaking of the head, it may be well to mention that these
Negritos, and in greater or less measure other Negritos and Negrillos
(_i.e._, pigmy blacks, Asiatic or African), differ in this part of the
body in a most important respect from the ordinary African negro. Like
him, they are black, often intensely so: like him, too, they have woolly
hair arranged in tufts, but, unlike him, they have round (brachycephalic)
heads instead of long (dolichocephalic); and the purer the race, the more
marked is this distinction. The Mincopie has a singularly short life; for
though he attains puberty at much the same age as ourselves, the
twenty-second year brings him to middle life, and the fiftieth, if
reached, is a period of extreme senility. Pure in race, ancient in
history, and carefully studied, this race deserves some further attention
here than can be extended to others with which I have to deal. The moral
side of the Mincopies seems to be highly developed; the modesty of the
young girls is most strict; monogamy is the rule, and--
"Their list of forbidden degrees
An extensive morality shows,"
since even the marriage of cousins-german is considered highly immoral.
"Men and women," says Man, "are models of constancy." They believe in a
Supreme Deity, respecting whom they say, that "although He resembles fire,
He is invisible; that He was never born, and is immortal; that He created
the world and all animate and inanimate objects, save only the powers of
evil. During the day He knows everything, even the thoughts of the mind;
He is angry when certain sins are committed, and full of pity for the
unfortunate and miserable, whom He sometimes condescends to assist. He
judges souls after death, and pronounces on each a sentence which sends
them to paradise or condemns them to a kind of purgatory. The hope of
escaping the torments of this latter place influences their conduct.
Puluga, this Deity, inhabits a house of stone; when it rains, He descends
upon the earth in search of food; during the dry weather He is asleep."
Besides this Deity, they believe in numerous evil spirits, the chief of
whom is the Demon of the Woods. These spirits have created themselves, and
have existed _ab immemorabili_. The sun, which is a female, and the moon,
her husband, are secondary deities.
[Footnote A: The quotations from this author are taken from his work _Les
Pygmées_. Paris, J.B. Baillière et Fils, 1887.]
[Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., vii.]
[Footnote C: _Ibid_., iv.]
South of the Andaman Islands are the Nicobars, the aborigines of which,
the Shom Pen,[A] now inhabit the mountains, where, like so many of their
brethren, they have been driven by the Malays. They are of small, but not
pigmy stature (five feet two inches), a fact which may be due to crossing.
[Footnote A: Man, _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, xviii. p. 354.]
Following the Negritos east amongst the islands, we find in Luzon the
Aetas or Inagtas, a group of which is known in Mindanao as Manamouas. The
Aetas live side by side with the Tagals, who are of Malay origin. They
were called Negritos del Monte by the Spaniards who first colonised these
islands. Their average stature, according to Wallace, ranges from four
feet six inches to four feet eight inches. In New Guinea, the Karons, a
similar race, occupy a chain of mountains parallel to the north coast of
the great north-western peninsula. At Port Moresby, in the same island,
the Koiari appear to represent the most south-easterly group; but my
friend Professor Haddon, who has investigated this district, tells me that
he finds traces of a former existence of Negritos at Torres Straits and in
North Queensland, as shown by the shape of the skulls of the inhabitants
of these regions.
The Malay Peninsula contains in Perak hill tribes called "savages" by the
Sakays. These tribes have not been seen by Europeans, but are stated to be
pigmy in stature, troglodytic, and still in the Stone Age. Farther south
are the Semangs of Kedah, with an average stature of four feet ten inches,
and the Jakuns of Singapore, rising to five feet. The Annamites admit that
they are not autochthonous, a distinction which they confer upon the Moïs,
of whom little is known, but whose existence and pigmy Negrito
characteristics are considered by De Quatrefages as established.
China no longer, so far as we know, contains any representatives of this
type, but Professor Lacouperie[A] has recently shown that they formerly
existed in that part of Asia. According to the annals of the Bamboo Books,
"In the twenty-ninth year of the Emperor Yao, in spring, the chief of the
Tsiao-Yao, or dark pigmies, came to court and offered as tribute feathers
from the Mot." The Professor continues, "As shown by this entry, we begin
with the semi-historic times as recorded in the 'Annals of the Bamboo
Books,' and the date about 2048 B.C. The so-called feathers were simply
some sort of marine plant or seaweed with which the immigrant Chinese,
still an inland people, were yet unacquainted. The Mot water or river,
says the Shan-hai-king, or canonical book of hills and seas, was situated
in the south-east of the Tai-shan in Shan-tung. This gives a clue to the
localisation of the pigmies, and this localisation agrees with the
positive knowledge we possess of the small area which the Chinese dominion
covered at this time. Thus the Negritos were part of the native population
of China when, in the twenty-third century B.C., the civilised Bak tribes
came into the land." In Japan we have also evidence of their existence.
This country, now inhabited by the Niphonians, or Japanese, as we have
come to call them, was previously the home of the Ainu, a white, hairy
under-sized race, possibly, even probably, emigrants from Europe, and now
gradually dying out in Yezo and the Kurile Islands. Prior to the Ainu was
a Negrito race, whose connection with the former is a matter of much
dispute, whose remains in the shape of pit-dwellings, stone arrow-heads,
pottery, and other implements still exist, and will be found fully
described by Mr. Savage Landor in a recent most interesting work.[B] In
the Shan-hai-king, as Professor Schlegel[C] points out, their country is
spoken of as the Siao-jin-Kouo, or land of little men, in distinction, be
it noted, to the Peh-min-Kouo, or land of white people, identified by him
with the Ainu. These little men are spoken of by the Ainu as
Koro-puk-guru, _i.e._, according to Milne, men occupying excavations, or
pit-dwellers. According to Chamberlain, the name means dwellers under
burdocks, and is associated with the following legend. Before the time of
the Ainu, Yezo was inhabited by a race of dwarfs, said by some to be two
to three feet, by others only one inch in height. When an enemy
approached, they hid themselves under the great leaves of the burdock
(_koro_), for which reason they are called Koro-puk-guru, i.e., the men
under the burdocks. When they were exterminated by the wooden clubs of the
Ainu, they raised their eyes to heaven, and, weeping, cried aloud to the
gods, "Why were we made so small?" It should be said that Professor
Schlegel and Mr. Savage Landor both seem to prefer the former etymology.
[Footnote A: Babylonian and Oriental Record, vol. v.]
[Footnote B: Alone with the Hairy Ainu.]
[Footnote C: _Problèmes Géographiques. Les Peuples Etrangers chez les
Historiens Chinois_. Extrait du T'oung-pao, vol. _iv_. No. 4. Leide, E.J.
Brill.]
Passing to the north-west of the Andamans, we find in India a problem of
considerable difficulty. That there were at one period numerous Negrito
tribes inhabiting that part of Asia is indubitable; that some of them
persist to this day in a state of approximate purity is no less true, but
the influence of crossing has here been most potent. Races of lighter hue
and taller stature have invaded the territory of the Negritos, to a
certain extent intermarried with them, and thus have originated the
various Dravidian tribes. These tribes, therefore, afford us a valuable
clue as to the position occupied in former days by their ancestors, the
Negritos.
In some of the early Indian legends, De Quatrefages thinks that he finds
traces of these prehistoric connections between the indigenous Negrito
tribes and their invaders. The account of the services rendered to Rama by
Hânuman and his monkey-people may, he thinks, easily be explained by
supposing the latter to be a Negrito tribe. Another tale points to unions
of a closer nature between the alien races. Bhimasena, after having
conquered and slain Hidimba, at first resisted the solicitations of the
sister of this monster, who, having become enamoured of him, presented
herself under the guise of a lovely woman. But at the wish of his elder
brother, Youdhichshira, the king of justice, and with the consent of his
mother, he yielded, and passed some time in the dwelling of this Negrito
or Dravidian Armida.
It will now be necessary to consider some of these races more or less
crossed with alien blood.
In the centre of India, amongst the Vindyah Mountains, live the Djangals
or Bandra-Lokhs, the latter name signifying man-monkey, and thus
associating itself with the tale of Rama, above alluded to. Like most of
the Dravidian tribes, they live in great misery, and show every sign of
their condition in their attenuated figures. One of this tribe measured by
Rousselet was five feet in height. It may here be remarked that the
stature of the Dravidian races exceeds that of the purer Negritos, a fact
due, no doubt, to the influence of crossing. Farther south, in the
Nilgherry Hills, and in the neighbourhood of the Todas and Badagas, dwell
the Kurumbas. and Irulas (children of darkness). Both are weak and
dwarfish, the latter especially so. They inhabit, says Walhouse,[A] the
most secluded, densely wooded fastnesses of the mountain slopes. They are
by popular tradition connected with the aboriginal builders of the rude
stone monuments of the district, though, according to the above-mentioned
authority, without any claim to such distinction. They, however, worship
at these cromlechs from time to time, and are associated with them in
another interesting manner. "The Kurumbas of Nulli," says Walhouse, "one
of the wildest Nilgherry declivities, come up annually to worship at one
of the dolmens on the table-land above, in which they say one of their old
gods resides. Though they are regarded with fear and hatred as sorcerers
by the agricultural B[)a]d[)a]gas of the table-land, one of them must,
nevertheless, at sowing-time be called to guide the first plough for two
or three yards, and go through a mystic pantomime of propitiation to the
earth deity, without which the crop would certainly fail. When so
summoned, the Kurumba must pass the night by the dolmens alone, and I have
seen one who had been called from his present dwelling for the morning
ceremony, sitting after dark on the capstone of a dolmen, with heels and
hams drawn together and chin on knees, looking like some huge ghostly fowl
perched on the mysterious stone." Mr. Gomme has drawn attention to this
and other similar customs in the interesting remarks which he makes upon
the influence of conquered non-Aryan races upon their Aryan subduers.[B]
[Footnote A: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vii. 21.]
[Footnote B: Ethnology and Folk-Lore, p. 46; The Village Community, p.
105.]
Farther south, in Ceylon, the Veddahs live, whom Bailey[A] considers to be
identical with the hill-tribes of the mainland, though, if this be true,
some at least must have undergone a large amount of crossing, judging from
the wavy nature of their hair. The author just quoted says, "The tallest
Veddah I ever saw, a man so towering above his fellows that, till I
measured him, I believed him to be not merely comparatively a tall man,
was only five feet three inches in height. The shortest man I have
measured was four feet one inch. I should say that of males the ordinary
height is from four feet six inches to five feet one inch, and of females
from four feet four inches to four feet eight inches."
[Footnote A: _Trans. Ethn. Soc._, ii. 278.]
In the east the Santals inhabit the basin of the Ganges, and in the west
the Jats belong to the Punjab, and especially to the district of the
Indus. The Kols inhabit the delta of the Indus and the neighbourhood of
Gujerat, and stretch almost across Central India into Behar and the
eastern extremities of the Vindhya Mountains. Other Dravidian tribes are
the Oraons, Jouangs, Buihers, and Gounds. All these races have a stature
of about five feet, and, though much crossed, present more or less marked
Negrito characteristics. Passing farther west, the Brahouis of
Beluchistan, a Dravidian race, who regard themselves as the aboriginal
inhabitants, live side by side with the Belutchis. Finally, in this
direction, there seem to have been near Lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito
tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the historic black
guard of the ancient kings of Susiana.
An examination of the present localisation of these remnants of the
Negrito inhabitants shows how they have been split up, amalgamated with,
or driven to the islands by the conquering invaders. An example of what
has taken place may be found in the case of Borneo, where Negritos still
exist in the centre of the island. The Dyaks chase them like wild beasts,
and shoot down the children, who take refuge in the trees. This will not
seem in the least surprising to those who have studied the history of the
relation between autochthonous races and their invaders. It is the same
story that has been told of the Anglo-Saxon race in its dealings with
aborigines in America, and notably, in our case, in Tasmania.
Turning from Asia to a continent more closely associated, at least in
popular estimation, with pigmy races, we find in Africa several races of
dwarf men, of great antiquity and surpassing interest. The discoveries of
Stanley, Schweinfurth, Miani, and others have now placed at our disposal
very complete information respecting the pigmies of the central part of
the continent, with whom it will, therefore, be convenient to make a
commencement. These pigmies appear to be divided into two tribes, which,
though similar in stature, and alike distinguished by the characteristic
of attaching themselves to some larger race of natives, yet present
considerable points of difference, so much so as to cause Mr. Stanley to
say that they are as unlike as a Scandinavian is to a Turk. "Scattered,"
says the same authority,[A] "among the Balessé, between Ipoto and Mount
Pisgah, and inhabiting the land between the Ngaiyu and Ituri rivers, a
region equal in area to about two-thirds of Scotland, are the Wambutti,
variously called Batwa, Akka, and Bazungu. These people are under-sized
nomads, dwarfs or pigmies, who live in the uncleared virgin forest, and
support themselves on game, which they are very expert in catching. They
vary in height from three feet to four feet six inches. A full-grown adult
may weigh ninety pounds. They plant their village camps three miles around
a tribe of agricultural aborigines, the majority of whom are fine stalwart
people. They use poisoned arrows, with which they kill elephants, and they
capture other kinds of game by the use of traps."
[Footnote A: In Darkest Africa, vol. ii. p. 92.]
The two groups are respectively called Batwa and Wambutti. The former
inhabit the northern parts of the above-mentioned district, the latter the
southern. The former have longish heads, long narrow faces, and small
reddish eyes set close together, whilst the latter have round faces and
open foreheads, gazelle-like eyes, set far apart, and rich yellow ivory
complexion. Their bodies are covered with stiffish grey short hair. Two
further quotations from the same source may be given to convey an idea to
those ignorant of the original work, if such there be, of the appearances
of these dwarfs. Speaking of the queen of a tribe of pigmies, Stanley
says,[A] "She was brought in to see me, with three rings of polished iron
around her neck, the ends of which were coiled like a watch-spring. Three
iron rings were suspended to each ear. She is of a light-brown complexion
with broad round face, large eyes, and small but full lips. She had a
quiet modest demeanour, though her dress was but a narrow fork clout of
bark cloth. Her height is about four feet four inches, and her age may be
nineteen or twenty. I notice when her arms are held against the light a
whity-brown fell on them. Her skin has not that silky smoothness of touch
common to the Zanzibaris, but altogether she is a very pleasing little
creature." To this female portrait may be subjoined one of a male aged
probably twenty-one years and four feet in height.[B] "His colour was
coppery, the fell over the body was almost furry, being nearly half an
inch long, and his hands were very delicate. On his head he wore a bonnet
of a priestly form, decorated with a bunch of parrot feathers, and a broad
strip of bark covered his nakedness."
[Footnote A: In Darkest Africa, vol. i. p. 345.]
[Footnote B: Ibid., ii. 40.]
Jephson states[A] that he found continual traces of them from 270 30' E.
long., a few miles above the Equator, up to the edge of the great forest,
five days' march from Lake Albert. He also says that they are a hardy
daring race, always ready for war, and are much feared by their
neighbours. As soon as a party of dwarfs makes its appearance near a
village, the chief hastens to propitiate them by presents of corn and such
vegetables as he possesses. They never exceed four feet one inch in
height, he informs us, and adds a characteristic which has not been
mentioned by Stanley, one, too, which is very remarkable when it is
remembered how scanty is the facial hair of the Negros and Negritos--the
men have often very long beards. The southern parts of the continent are
occupied by the Bushmen, who are vigorous and agile, of a stature ranging
from four feet six inches to four feet nine inches, and sufficiently well
known to permit me to pass over them without further description. The
smallest woman of this race who has been measured was only three feet
three inches in height, and Barrow examined one, who was the mother of
several children, with a stature of three feet eight inches. The Akoas of
the Gaboon district were a race of pigmies who, now apparently extinct,
formerly dwelt on the north of the Nazareth River. A male of this tribe
was photographed and measured by the French Admiral Fleuriot de l'Angle.
His age was about forty and his stature four feet six inches.
[Footnote A: Emm Pasha, p. 367, et seq.]
Flower[A] says that "another tribe, the M'Boulous, inhabiting the coast
north of the Gaboon River, have been described by M. Marche as probably
the primitive race of the country. They live in little villages, keeping
entirely to themselves, though surrounded by the larger Negro tribes,
M'Pongos and Bakalais, who are encroaching upon them so closely that their
numbers are rapidly diminishing. In 1860 they were not more than 3000; in
1879 they were much less numerous. They are of an earthy-brown colour, and
rarely exceed five feet three inches in height. Another group living
between the Gaboon and the Congo, in Ashangoland, a male of which measured
four feet six inches, has been described by Du Chaillu."
In Loango there is a tribe called Babonko, which was described by Battell
in 1625, in the work entitled "Purchas his Pilgrimes," in the following
terms:--"To the north-east of Mani-Kesock are a kind of little people
called Matimbas; which are no bigger than boyes of twelve yeares old, but
very thicke, and live only upon flesh, which they kill in the woods with
their bows and darts. They pay tribute to Mani-Kesock, and bring all their
elephants' teeth and tayles to him. They will not enter into any of the
Maramba's houses, nor will suffer any one to come where they dwell. And if
by chance any Maramba or people of Longo pass where they dwell, they will
forsake that place and go to another. The women carry bows and arrows as
well as the men. And one of these will walk in the woods alone and kill
the Pongos with their poysoned arrows." It is somewhat surprising that
Tyson, who gives in his essay (p. 80) the account of the same people
published at a later date (1686) by Dapper, should have missed his
fellow-countryman's narrative. The existence of this tribe has been
established by a German expedition, one of the members of which, Dr.
Falkenstein, photographed and measured an adult male whose stature was
four feet six inches.
Krapf[A] states that in the south of Schoa, in a part of Abyssinia as yet
unworked, the Dokos live, who are not taller than four feet. According to
his account, they are of a dark olive colour, with thick prominent lips,
flat noses, small eyes, and long flowing hair. They have no dwellings,
temples, holy trees, chiefs, or weapons, live on roots and fruit, and are
ignorant of fire. Another group was described by Mollieu in 1818 as
inhabiting Tenda-Maié, near the Rio Grande, but very little is known about
them. In a work entitled "The Dwarfs of Mount Atlas," Halliburton[B] has
brought forward a number of statements to prove that a tribe of dwarfs,
named like those of Central Africa, Akkas, of a reddish complexion and
with short woolly hair, live in the district adjoining Soos. These dwarfs
have been alluded to by Harris and Dönnenburg,[C] but Mr. Harold Crichton
Browne,[D] who has explored neighbouring districts, is of opinion that
there is no such tribe, and that the accounts of them have been based upon
the examination of sporadic examples of dwarfishness met with in that as
in other parts of the world.
[Footnote A: _Morgenblatt_, 1853 (quoted by Schaafhausen, _Arch. f.
Anth._, 1866, p. 166).]
[Footnote B: London, Nutt, 1891.]
[Footnote C: _Nature_, 1892, ii. 616.]
[Footnote A: _Nature_, 1892, i. 269.]
Finally, in Madagascar it is possible that there may be a dwarf race.
Oliver[A] states that "the Vazimbas are supposed to have been the first
occupants of Ankova. They are described by Rochon, under the name of
Kunios, as a nation of dwarfs averaging three feet six inches in stature,
of a lighter colour than the Negroes, with very long arms and woolly hair.
As they were only described by natives of the coast, and have never been
seen, it is natural to suppose that these peculiarities have been
exaggerated; but it is stated that people of diminutive size still exist
on the banks of a certain river to the south-west." There are many tumuli
of rude work and made of rough stones throughout the country, which are
supposed to be their tombs. In idolatrous days, says Mullens,[B] the
Malagasy deified the Vazimba, and their so-called tombs were the most
sacred objects in the country. In this account may be found further
evidence in favour of Mr. Gomme's theory, to which attention has already
been called.
[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Memoirs_, iii. 1.]
[Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, v. 181.]
In the great continent of America there does not appear to have ever been,
so far as our present knowledge teaches, any pigmy race. Dr. Brinton, the
distinguished American ethnologist, to whom I applied for information on
this point, has been good enough to write to me that, in his opinion,
there is no evidence of any pigmy race in America. The "little people" of
the "stone graves" in Tennessee, often supposed to be such, were children,
as the bones testify. The German explorer Hassler has alleged the
existence of a pigmy race in Brazil, but testimony is wanting to support
such allegation. There are two tribes of very short but not pigmy stature
in America, the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuégo and the Utes of Colorado, but
both of these average over five feet.
Leaving aside for the moment the Lapps, to whom I shall return, there does
not appear to have been at any time a really pigmy race in Europe, so far
as any discoveries which have been made up to the present time show.
Professor Topinard, whose authority upon this point cannot be gainsaid,
informs me that the smallest race known to him in Central Europe is that
of the pre-historic people of the Lozère, who were Neolithic troglodytes,
and are represented probably at the present day by some of the peoples of
South Italy and Sardinia. Their average stature was about five feet two
inches. This closely corresponds with what is known of the stature of the
Platycnemic race of Denbighshire, the Perthi-Chwareu. Busk[A] says of them
that they were of low stature, the mean height, deduced from the lengths
of the long bones, being little more than five feet. As both sexes are
considered together in this description, it is fair to give the male a
stature of about five feet two inches,[B] It also corresponds with the
stature assigned by Pitt-Rivers to a tribe occupying the borders of
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire during the Roman occupation, the average height
of whose males and females was five feet two and a half inches and four
feet ten and three-quarter inches respectively.
[Footnote A: _Jour. Ethn. Soc._, 1869-70, p. 455.]
[Footnote B: Since these pages were printed, Prof. Kollmann, of Basle, has
described a group of Neolithic pigmies as having existed at Schaffhausen.
The adult interments consisted of the remains of full-grown European types
and of small-sized people. These two races were found interred side by
side under precisely similar conditions, from which he concludes that they
lived peaceably together, notwithstanding racial difference. Their stature
(about three feet six inches) may be compared with that of the Veddahs in
Ceylon. Prof. Kollmann believes that they were a distinct species of
mankind.]
Dr. Rahon,[A] who has recently made a careful study of the bones of
pre-historic and proto-historic races, with special reference to their
stature, states that the skeletons attributed to the most ancient and to
the Neolithic races are of a stature below the middle height, the average
being a little over five feet three inches. The peoples who constructed
the Megalithic remains of Roknia and of the Caucasus, were of a stature
similar to our own. The diverse proto-historic populations, Gauls, Franks,
Burgundians, and Merovingians, considered together, present a stature
slightly superior to that of the French of the present day, but not so
much so as the accounts of the historians would have led us to believe.
[Footnote A: _Recherches sur les Ossements Humaines, Anciens et
Préhistonques. Mém. de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris_, Sér, ii. tom. iv.
403.]
It remains now to deal with two races whose physical characters are of
considerable importance in connection with certain points which will be
dealt with in subsequent pages, I mean the Lapps and the Innuit or Eskimo.
The Lapps, according to Karonzine,[A] one of their most recent describers,
are divisible into two groups, Scandinavian and Russian, the former being
purer than the latter race. The average male stature is five feet, a
figure which corresponds closely with that obtained by Mantegazza and
quoted by Topinard. The extremes obtained by this observer amongst men
were, on the one hand, five feet eight inches, and on the other four feet
four inches. As, however, in a matter of this kind we have to deal with
averages and not with extremes, we must conclude that the Lapps, though a
stunted race, are not pigmies, in the sense in which the word is
scientifically employed.
[Footnote A: _L'Anthropologie_, ii. 80.]
The Innuit or Eskimo were called by the original Norse explorers
"Skraelingjar," or dwarfs, a name now converted by the Innuit into
"karalit," which is the nearest approach that they are able to make
phonetically to the former term. They are certainly, on the average, a
people of less than middle stature, yet they can in no sense be described
as Pigmies. Their mean height is five feet three inches. Nansen[A] says of
them, "It is a common error amongst us in Europe to think of the Eskimo as
a diminutive race. Though no doubt smaller than the Scandinavian peoples,
they must be reckoned amongst the middle-sized races, and I even found
amongst those of purest breeding men of nearly six feet in height."
[Footnote A: _Eskimo Life_, p. 20.]
II.
The _raison d'être_ of Tyson's essay was to explain away the accounts of
the older writers relating to Pigmy races, on the ground that, as no such
races existed, an explanation of some kind was necessary in order to
account for so many and such detailed descriptions as were to be found in
their works. Having now seen not merely that there are such things as
Pigmy races, but that they have a wide distribution throughout the world,
it may be well to consider to which of the existing or extinct races, the
above-mentioned accounts may be supposed to have referred. In this task I
am much aided in several instances by the labours of De Quatrefages, and
as his book is easily accessible, it will be unnecessary for me to repeat
the arguments in favour of his decisions which he has there given.
Starting with Asia, we have in the first place the statement of Pliny,
that "immediately after the nation of the Prusians, in the mountains where
it is said are pigmies, is found the Indus." These Pigmies may be
identified with the Brahouis, now Dravidian, but still possessing the
habit, attributed to them by Pliny, of changing their dwellings twice a
year, in summer and winter, migrations rendered necessary by the search
for food for their flocks. The same author's allusion to the "Spithamæi
Pygmæi" of the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Ganges may apply to
the Santals or some allied tribe, though Pliny's stature for them of two
feet four inches is exaggeratedly diminutive, and he has confused them
with Homer's Pigmies, who were, as will be seen, a totally different
people.
Ctesias[A] tells us that "Middle India has black men, who are called
Pygmies, using the same language as the other Indians; they are, however,
very little; that the greatest do not exceed the height of two cubits, and
the most part only of one cubit and a half. But they nourish the longest
hair, hanging down unto the knees, and even below; moreover, they carry a
beard more at length than any other men; but, what is more, after this
promised beard is risen to them, they never after use any clothing, but
send down, truly, the hairs from the back much below the knees, but draw
the beard before down to the feet; afterward, when they have covered the
whole body with hairs, they bind themselves, using those in the place of a
vestment. They are, moreover, apes and deformed. Of these Pygmies, the
king of the Indians has three thousand in his train; for they are very
skilful archers." No doubt the actual stature has been much diminished in
this account, and, as De Quatrefages suggests, the garment of long
floating grasses which they may well have worn, may have been mistaken for
hair; yet, in the description, he believes that he is able to recognise
the ancestors of the Bandra-Lokh of the Vindhya Mountains. Ctesias' other
statement, that "the king of India sends every fifth year fifty thousand
swords, besides abundance of other weapons, to the nation of the
Cynocephali," may refer to the same or some other tribe.
[Footnote A: The quotation is taken from Ritson, _Fairy Tales_, P. 4.]
De Quatrefages also thinks that an allusion to the ancestors of the Jats,
who would then have been less altered by crossing than now, may be found
in Herodotus' account of the army of Xerxes when he says, "The Eastern
Ethiopians serve with the Indians. They resemble the other Ethiopians,
from whom they only differ in language and hair. The Eastern Ethiopians
have straight hair, while those of Lybia are more woolly than all other
men."
Writing of isles in the neighbourhood of Java, Maundeville says,[A] "In
another yle, ther ben litylle folk, as dwerghes; and thei ben to so meche
as the Pygmeyes, and thei han no mouthe, but in stede of hire mouthe, thei
han a lytylle round hole; and whan thei schulle eten or drynken, thei
taken thorghe a pipe or a penne or suche a thing, and sowken it in, for
thei han no tongue, and therefore thei speke not, but thei maken a maner
of hissynge, as a Neddre dothe, and thei maken signes on to another, as
monkes don, be the whiche every of hem undirstondethe the other."
[Footnote A: Ed. Halliwell, p. 205.]
Strip this statement of the characteristic Maundevillian touches with
regard to the mouth and tongue, and it may refer to some of the insular
races which exist or existed in the district of which he is treating.
A much fuller account[A] by the same author relates to Pigmies in the
neighbourhood of a river, stated by a commentator[B] to be the
Yangtze-Kiang, "a gret ryvere, that men clepen Dalay, and that is the
grettest ryvere of fressche water that is in the world. For there, as it
is most narow, it is more than 4 myle of brede. And thanne entren men azen
in to the lond of the great Chane. That ryvere gothe thorge the lond of
Pigmaus, where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but 3 span
long, and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe
the men and the women. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half zere of age
and getten children. And thei lyven not, but 6 zeer or 7 at the moste. And
he that lyveth 8 zeer, men holden him there righte passynge old. Theise
men ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle
such thinges, of ony other, that be in the world. And thei han often tymes
werre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. This
litylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. But thei han grete
men amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren
amonges the vynes for hem. And of the men of oure stature, han thei als
grete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of Geauntes, zif thei
weren amonges us. There is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is
duellynge gret plentee of the lytylle folk, and is a gret cytee and a
fair, and the men ben grete that duellen amonges hem; but whan thei getten
ony children, thei ben als litylle as the Pygmeyes, and therefore thei ben
alle, for the moste part, alle Pygmeyes, for the nature of the land is
suche. The great Cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel, for it is his. And
alle be it, that the Pygmeyes ben litylle, zit thei ben fulle resonable,
aftre here age and connen bothen wytt and gode and malice now." This
passage, as will be noted, incorporates the Homeric tale of the battles
between the Pigmies and the Cranes, and is adorned with a representation
of such an encounter. Whether Maundeville's dwarfs were the same as the
Siao-Jin of the Shan-hai-King is a question difficult to decide; but, in
any case, both these pigmy races of legend inhabited a part of what is now
the Chinese Empire. The same Pigmies seem to be alluded to in the rubric
of the Catalan map of the world in the National Library of Paris, the date
of which is A.D. 1375. "Here (N.W. of Catayo-Cathay) grow little men who
are but five palms in height, and though they be little, and not fit for
weighty matters, yet they be brave and clever at weaving and keeping
cattle." If such an explanation may be hazarded, we may perhaps go further
and suppose that Paulus Jovius may have been alluding to the
Koro-puk-guru, when, as Pomponius Mela tells us, he taught that there were
Pigmies beyond Japan. In both these cases, however, it is well to remember
that there is a river in Macedon as well as in Monmouth, and that it is
hazardous to come to too definite a belief as to the exact location of the
Pigmies of ancient writers.
[Footnote A: _Maundeville_, p. 211.]
[Footnote B: _Quart. Rev._, 172, p. 431.]
The continent of Africa yielded its share of Pigmies to the same writers.
The most celebrated of all are those alluded to by Aristotle in his
classical passage, "They (the Cranes) come out of Scythia to the Lakes
above Egypt whence the Nile flows. This is the place whereabouts the
Pigmies dwell. For this is no fable but a truth. Both they and the horses,
as 'tis said, are of a small kind. They are Troglodytes and live in
caves."
Leaving aside the crane part of the tale, which it has been suggested may
really have referred to ostriches, Aristotle's Pigmy race may, from their
situation, be fairly identified with the Akkas described by Stanley and
others. That this race is an exceedingly ancient one is proved by the fact
that Marriette Bey has discovered on a tomb of the ancient Empire of Egypt
a figure of a dwarf with the name Akka inscribed by it. This race is also
supposed to have been that which, alluded to by Homer, has become confused
with other dwarf tribes in different parts of the world.
"So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts or thick-descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly,
With noise and order, through the midway sky;
To Pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing."
Attention may here be drawn to Tyson's quotation (p. 78) from Vossius as
to the trade driven by the Pigmies in elephants' tusks, since, as we have
seen, this corresponds with what we now know as to the habits of the
Akkas.