The Pygmies ... Translated by F. Starr, etc

Front matter

THE PYGMIES BY A. DE QUATREFAGES i.ate professor of anthropology at the museum of natural history, paris TRANSLATED BY FREDERICK STARR WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK Printed in America. Copyright, 1894, by D. Apple too & Co. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ix I. — The Pygmies ok the Ancients, according to Modern Science 1 II. — General History of the Eastern Pygmies . . 20 III. — Physical Characters of the Eastern Pygmies . 59 IV. — Intellectual, Moral, and Religious Characters of the Mincopies 89 V. — Negritos other than the Mincopies .... 144 VI. — The Negrillos, or Pygmies of Africa . . . 164 VII. — Religious Beliefs of the Hottentots and the Bushmen 188 Appendix A 239 Appendix B . 247 Appendix C 249 Index EDITOR'S

Preface

. VII and it was not as easy as formerly for him to write, he was engaged upon an important scientific work. He died January 12, 1892, after a brief illness, and in his death France lost an eminent son and science a brilliant leader. INTEODUCTION. For a long time past the small black races have at tracted my attention and my interest in a special manner. On several occasions, in my courses and in various publications, I have recurred to their history.* It has seemed to me that it might be useful to gather and unite these materials in a book which should present a sort of monograph of this human type, very curious for more than one reason. These little blacks are to-day almost everywhere scat tered, separated, and often hunted by races larger and stronger. They are no longer found in certain parts of the globe which they formerly occupied, and they are disap pearing from many others.

Nevertheless they have had in the past their time of prosperity ; they have played a very real ethnologic role. Finally, they have become the subject of legends which the poets have collected and which the most serious classical writers have not disdained transmitting to us. To make known the scientific truth in regard to these * See Gazette medicale, 1862 ; Revue d'anthropologie, 1872 ; Bul letin de la Societe d'anthropologie, 1874 ; Comptes rendus de l'Acad emie des sciences, 1874 ; Crania ethnica, 1875-'79 ; Journal des savants, 1881-'83 ; Revue d'ethnographie, 1882 ; Hommes fossiles et Hommes sauvages, 1884 ; Materiaux pour l'histoire primitive et naturelle de l'homme, 1886 ; Introduction a la histoire des races humaines, 1887. THE PYGMIES. X fables, to show what the pygmies of antiquity really are, is the principal purpose of this book.

I have carefully indicated in the footnotes the sources whence I have drawn my facts. But I must thank here Bro de Saint-Pol Lias, E. de la Croix, and Marche and Montano, who have kindly furnished me unpublished ma terial, and to whom I owe the greater part of the photographs reproduced in tlie text. The figures of skulls are drawn from specimens in the collections of the museum. Although Greek and Roman antiquity did not know either the Bushmen or the Hottentots, I have felt it my duty to devote a chapter to them. One cannot separate these two populations, and by its little stature the first well deserves to take its place by the side of the classical pygmies, from whom it is otherwise very distinct. Yet I have confined myself, so far as their physical and ethnographic characters are concerned, to simply indicating these.

They are described in many works. It is otherwise with regard to their religious characters, the importance of which, from many points of view, is more and more recognised. Those of the races of the Cape have remained little known until these last years. Therefore I have made a resume of what Hahn has taught us on this subject, just as I have made known in some detail the discoveries upon this point made by Man among the Mincopies. The comparison of these two mythologies, spontaneously developed among savages located almost at the lowest steps of the social ladder, I hope may interest those who occupy themselves with these questions. A. de Qlatrefages. Paris, May 24, 18S7. EDITOR'S

PREFACE.

. No apology is necessary for introducing any work of de Q.uatrefages to American readers. No man has done more than he to further anthropological study in France ; no man was more respected than he over the whole of Con tinental Europe ; no European anthropologist's works have been more widely read in America. Since the idea of in corporating Les Pygmies into the Anthropological Series was reached its learned and respected author has died. It seems proper, therefore, to present here a brief sketch of his life and work. Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Breau was born February 10, 1810, in the Department Gard, France. Studying at the College of Tournon, and later at the University of Strasbourg, he received the degree of Doc tor of Mathematical Sciences in 1830. Two years later he became Doctor of Medicine, and received a subordinate appointment to the Faculty of Medicine at Strasbourg.

Shortly after, removing to Toulouse, he began the prac tice of medicine. For four years he remained in that city as a practitioner, and at the same time busied himself with scientific work, taking active part in several learned so cieties, and founding (with a colleague) the Journal de Medicin et de Chirurgie de Toulouse. . In 1840 he removed to Paris, studying in zoology under Milne-Edwards, and taking the degree of Doctor of Natural Science. Particu larly interested in marine life, he prosecuted important V EDITOR'S

PREFACE.

. XII researches and published many papers, some of permanent value. In 1850 he was appointed Professor of Natural History at the College of Henry IV ; iu 1852, elected member of the Institute ; in 1855, called to the head of the Department of Anatomy and Ethnology at the Museum of Natural History. Here he found his life work, remaining until his death, busying himself with study, writing, and teaching. A man of strong convictions aud very conservative, de Quatrefages was ever ready to hear the other side, and ever candid and kindly in argument. He was one of the first to support the Society of Anthropology. Those who know the story of the early days of that great association understand what that means. When the claim for man's antiquity was generally derided, de Quatrefages cham pioned the cause.

A monogenist, a believer iu the ex treme antiquity of our race, he was never won over by any of the proposed theories of evolution. The ethnographic works of de Quatrefages are many and valuable. From the list of nearly one hundred and fifty important papers or volumes, we select as most im portant Les Polyncsiens et leur migrations, Crania ethnica (written in collaboration with E. T. Hamy), L'Espece humaine, Hommes fossiles et hommes sauvages, The Nat ural History of Man, Introduction a V etude des races humaines, and Les Pygmees. The Natural History of Man and a translation of L'Espece humaine have been published in America. To the very end of a long life our author lived happily and busily active among his books and specimens. Age touched him lightly. Only a few weeks before his death we visited him, and received from him that gracious, kindly assistance which he ever gave freely to all foreign ers.

At that time, although past fourscore years of age, and though, as he himself remarked, his hand trembled, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIO. PAGE 1. New Guinean, from the Strait of Bourgat. (After Van Vort) facing 20 2. Skulls of Mincopy and Papuan superposed . . . .21 3. Group of Mincopies facing 22 4. Skull of Papuan from Torres Strait. One fourth natural size. (Mus. d'hist. nat., No. 4771) 22 5. Skull of Negrito from the Neighbourhood of Binangonan, Luzon. One fourth natural size. (Mus. d'hist. nat., No. 3629) 23 6. Portrait of Aeta Chief from the Mountains of Mariveles, Luzon. (From photograph of MM. Montano and Rev) facing 2.5 7. Skull of Mincopy from the Grand Andaman. One fourth natural size 31 8. Sakaies of Perak. (After a photograph of M. Bro de Saint- Pol Lias, given by M. de la Croix) 33 9.

Sakaie. (After a photograph of M. Bro de Saint-Pol Lias, given by M. de la Croix) 34 10. Djano-al of Sirgoudja. (From a drawing by Rousselet) /actn.7 38 11. Profile of Boda, Ghond of Schagpore. compared with that of a Mincopy Woman and an Aeta Woman. One fourth natural size 39 12. Skull of Female Negrito of the Cattalam Mountains. One fourth natural size. (Mus. d'hist. nat.. No. 3502) . . 40 13. Bust of Orion, Negrito-Papuan of Tidore — Profile. One fourth natural size. (Mus. d'hist. nat., No. 880) . . 43 14. Negrito- Papuan. (After Crawfurd) . . . . . 44 15. Skull of a Negrito-Papuan of Borneo, forming part of a Dyak Trophy 4.5 16. Young Aeta Girl. (After a photograph of M. Montano) . 71 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. p \q PAG E 17. Aeta. (After a photograph of M. Montano) . . . 73 18. Skull of a Mincopy us the Great Andamans . . .' .82 19.

William Lanney 86 20. Truganina, or Lalla Rookh. (Alter the bust cast by Dutnoustier) 87 21. Akoa. (After Admiral Fleuriot de Langle) . . facing 166 22. Akka Woman placed beside a Man of Average Height. (After Chaille-Long Bey) facing 174 23. Tebo, Side View. (After photograph of Count Miniscalehi) 175 24. Tebo. Front View. (After photograph of Count Miniscalehi) 176 25. Chairallah, Front View. (After photograph of Count Miniscalehi) 176 26. Bust of Swoon, Hottentot. (From a bust modelled upon the living subject. Collection of the Museum) . . 189 27. Skull of Hottentot from Cape Colony. (Museum Collection) 190 28. Bust of Yunka, Bushman. (From a mould made upon the living. Collection of the Museum) 191 29. Bust of Soartje Bartmann, called the Hottentot Venus. (From a mould taken after death.

Collection of the Museum) 192 30. Skull of Bushman. (Collection of the Museum ) . . .193 31. Skull of Soartje Bartmann, Bu-diman Woman. (Collection of the Museum)

Chapter I. The Pygmies Of The Ancients, According To Modern Science

Homer and Aristotle : Pygmies of the Nile. — The Marsh of the Nile. — Pliny : African and Asiatic Pygmies. — Buffon : The Apes. — Roulin : Northern Populations. — Beloochistan : Brahouis. — Ctesias : Asiatic Pygmies. — Pomponius Mela : East African Pygmies.— Herodotus : West African Pygmies. — Voyage of the Nasamones. — The Niger. — Negritos and Negrillos. There is probably no nation, not a human population, which has not believed in the existence of men of more or less dwarfed stature and has made them play a role in its legends.* One knows that the Greeks have not es caped the common law, and that Homer has borrowed from beliefs, which were without doubt much older than his time, the beginning of the third chant of the Iliad, " when under the orders of their chiefs they had arranged themselves in battle array, the Trojans advanced noisily like a cloud of birds, making their loud cries heard.

So * I have no intention of here examining all that has been said on the subject of the pygmies. It is understood that I shall not occupy myself with puerile traditions, nursery tales, which some ancient authors have transmitted to us on the subject. ... 1 shall confine myself to discussing that which has been said which is nearest true. Readers who wish more may consult Banier.'2 raises itself to heaven the outcry of storks when they flee from winter and the continual rains. They utter shrill cries, they fly over the ocean, they bear carnage and death to the men called pygmies ; and from high in the air they give them dreadful combat." The country of the pygmies is not mentioned in this passage. Yet Homer certainly knew of the migration of the storks ; he knew that they passed each year from Eu rope into Africa and back again ; and as, according to him, these birds met their enemies only after having crossed the sea in order to escape the severity of the bad season, it is evident that it is somewhere in Africa that the poet located the home of these dwarfs, supposed too small and too feeble to resist their winged invaders.

Although he has spoken of the pygmies in connection with the natural history of storks, Aristotle said noth ing of the pretended combats which furnished Homer his term of comparison. One may say that he did not believe in it. Behold how he expresses himself : " The storks pass from the plains of Scythia to the marsh of upper Egypt, toward the sources of the Nile. This is the district which the pygmies inhabit, whose existence is not a fable. There is really, as men say, a species of men of little stat ure, and their horses are little also. They pass their life in caverns."7 Without being as explicit as one might wish, Aristotle here corrects exaggerations relative to the claimed height of the pygmies. There is a great difference between men of little stature and those miniature human beings among whom storks could carry carnage and death.

Upon the other points the founder of natural science is, one might say, upon the line of truth such as it appears to us to-day. It is toward the sources of the Nile that he placed the home of the pygmies. It is, in fact, in proceeding almost in the general direction of this river that Schweinfurth discovered the little men of whom we shall speak farther ou. But Aristotle placed these sources in the midst of swamps situated in upper Egypt. We know, but only very recently, that there the course of the Nile was singu larly cut short. The swamps exist in fact. All explorers of these regions have insisted upon the difficulties which they have experienced in traversing the inextricable laby rinth of canals encumbered by islands now fixed, now floating, which form the Sett, a true vegetable barrier, of which papyrus* and herminisria \ form, so to speak, the framework, and which more humble plants, particularly the pistia, compared by travellers to a little cabbage which grows, in the manner of our water lentils, consoli date.

But these swamps, which commence a little south of Khartoum, become pronounced at about the ninth de gree of latitude.11 One knows that it is much farther to the south and beyond the equator that the sources of the Nile are found. It is in our hemisphere near the second degree of north latitude, two or three degrees of longitude west of the African river, and in a totally different basin — that of the Welle — that Schweinfurth discovered the Akkas, which are apparently the little men of Aristotle.172 Aristotle speaks of the little horses of the pygmies, but no traveller mentions this quadruped as forming part of the fauna of the country. One might be tempted to see in this contradiction a motive for doubting the exacti tude of the facts conveyed by travellers to the Greek phi losopher. But it is easily explained.

Baker tells us that * Papyrus domestica, L. This so justly celebrated plant appears formerly to have been very abundant over the whole of Egypt. How ever, Schweinfurth saw it first on the banks of the Nile, at 9° 30' north latitude."2 f Herminisria. Adanson ; JEdemone mirabilis, Kotschy. This plant grows to a height of fifteen to twenty feet, with a diameter at base of five to six centimetres ; it is very light, more so than cork. the animals of the Bari (a negro tribe of the neighbourhood of Gondokoro) are of very small size — " cows and ewes have dimensions truly Lilliputian."11 Probably at the time of the Egyptian domination the horse had reached even into these districts ; and, if it had been so, he must also have suffered the degeneration reported by the Eng lish traveller in the cases of the other domestic mammals.

Thus Aristotle has been very definite ; that which he said is in part true, and in any case at least reasonable. With Pliny, we meet with uncertainties, exaggerations, and fables. He places the pygmies now in Thrace, not far from the shore of the Euxine Sea ; 138 now in Asia Minor, in the interior of Caria. On two occasions he designates India as the country of these little beings ; elsewhere, in speaking of peoples of Africa, which live at the extremity of Ethiopia, he says, " Some authors have also reported that the nation of the pygmies was among the marshes which were the source of the Nile." One has reproached Pliny for the multiplicity of the habitats assigned by him to the pygmies ; one has wished to see in this fact one more example of the haste with which he took his notes, and of the contradictions into which his manner of working led him.

But has one not been too severe in this, and have his words not been mis understood ? In placing pygmies upon geographic districts so separated from each other, and so distinct, Pliny could not have intended to speak of one single popula tion. He has evidently believed in the existence of these little men upon different parts of the then known world, and admitted in particular Asiatic and African pygmies. Upon this point modern discoveries have shown that he was right. Pliny reproduces, however, without any reservation, all that which was said upon the subject of the combats sus tained by the pygmies against the storks. It is these, so the barbarians say, which have chased them from Thrace. Thanks to the annual migration of these birds, the little men enjoy each year an armistice. Finally he sums up all this ensemble of beliefs in the following terms : " In India, beyond the mountains, one speaks of the Tris pithames aud of the pygmies, who are no more than three spithames in height (twenty-seven inches, about 0-73 metres) ; they have a wholesome climate and per petual springtime, protected as they are by the mountains against the north wind.

Homer relates, on his part, that the storks make war against them. It is said that, borne upon the backs of rams and of goats and armed with arrows, they descend all together at spring time to the seacoast, and eat the eggs and the little ones of these birds ; that this expedition lasts three months ; that otherwise they could not resist the increasing multi tudes of the storks ; that their cabins are constructed of mud, feathers, and eggshells. Aristotle says that the pygmies live in caverns ; as for the rest, he gives the same details as the others." We have just seen how inexact this last assertion of Pliuy is, and I need not emphasise the point. But the reports collected by the celebrated Roman compiler sug gest other remarks. It is difficult to understand what has caused him to locate the pygmies in Thrace or in Asia Minor.

In these countries neither the history of man nor that of animals presents any fact which, twisted by ignorance nor by the love of the marvellous, could have served as a basis for the legends which are here considered. It may be, as M. Maury has pointed out, that one may find the explana tion of these mistakes in a general fact. The habitation of beings more or less strange, whose existence was ad mitted by the ancients, was always placed by them at the borders of the then kuown world, without their troubling themselves concerning the precise point or the exact direc tion. From thence resulted, when one concerned himself with this fantastic geography, the vagueness and contra dictions so often observed, and of which the history of the pygmies furnishes a striking example. Unlike the countries to which the preceding reflections are applied, Africa and tropical Asia present certain facts which permit explaining in various ways what the an cients have said of their pygmies, and these facts proceed from the history of animals as well as from that of men.

In his History of Birds, and a propos to that of storks, Buffon has discussed the whole of the facts which I have just recalled in order to find out how much of re ality they contain. But he too much forgot Aristotle, and only really concerned himself with the assertions of Pliny. Comparing what this latter reports of the annual expe ditions of the pygmies with some facts in the habits related of monkeys, he saw in these last the dwarf men so celebrated among the ancients. " One knows," said he, " that the monkeys, which go in large bands in the greater part of the regions of Africa and India, carry on continual warfare againjA birds ; they seek to surprise their nests, and without ceasing prepare ambushes for them. The storks, on their arrival, find these enemies, perhaps, assem bled in great number to attack this new and rich prey with greater advantage.

The storks, quite sure of their own powers, trained among themselves to battles, and naturally quite disposed to war, defend themselves vigor ously. But the monkeys, anxious to carry off the eggs and the young birds, return constantly, and in bands, to the combat ; and as by their tricks, their feints, and move ments they seem to imitate human actions, they would appear to ignorant people to be a band of little men, . . . Behold the origin and the history of these fables ! " M This interpretation of the ancient legend is simple and natural; it must have presented itself to many minds. Supported by the authority of our great naturalist, it has been generally adopted. Perhaps one should consider it still to contain some truth. It may well be that, under the sway of general beliefs, voyagers have really taken some band of monkeys for a tribe of real pygmies.

But has not man himself supplied his share of facts, true at bottom and only distorted, to these legends, which have been transmitted since the time of Homer? Many men of science have replied affirmatively to this question, and proposed solutions quite diverse. One savant, whom all the world has loved for his character as much as it has esteemed him for his so varied and exact knowledge — Roulin — adopted upon this point the opinions of Olaus Magnus and of Paul Jove.ls Unfortunately, the notes traced by him on the margin of a copy of Pliny which formed part of the library of the Institute are evidently of very ancient date. They were written apparently long before the discoveries of which I shall speak farther on. The most precise and important information has come to us only after the death of my colleague.

He could not then use them in order to explain the words of the author whom he was commentating. Although we cannot accept to-day the theory at which he arrived, it is desirable that I should refer to it. It is always interesting to know the thoughts of an ingenious and fine mind upon a difficult subject. For Roulin, at the period when he wrote his reflec tions, the pygmies of the ancients were our circumpolar population. Although the notes say nothing of it, one could not doubt that the little stature recognised among several of these peoples has been the source of this inter pretation. One knows, in fact, that the Lapps have»long been regarded as the smallest human race. Certain Eski mo rival them in this respect, and even go further. Hence, to see in them the dwarfs of the ancieut legends is but a step.

The question of country was no hindrance to the partisans of this theory. Have not the pygmies been placed in Thrace and in Scythia as well as in Asia and Africa? Some peculiarities of customs leud themselves to the identification. The author recalls the fact that certain northern populations inhabit alternately each year the interior and the seacoast just as Pliny said the pygmies did. It is also to eat the eggs of aquatic birds, of which they destroy an immense number, that these tribes go to the coast. That which the Latin author reports of the huts of the pygmies is explained, moreover, without much difficulty. Roulin wrote : " Perhaps in the original tradition these huts, in place of being made of mud and of the shells of eggs, were made in the form of hemi spheres (half eggshells) and of mud.

Those of the Eski mos have this form, but are made of snow." Finally, the tradition reports that the storks met their enemies in their annual journeys from north to south. Roulin replies : " In placing the migration of the storks between these same two points, but making them proceed from the marshes of upper Egypt to Scythia — i. e., towards the frigid zone — it is there that the pygmies are found." To discuss the ingenious corrections proposed by Roulin is to-day useless. I will limit myself to observing that he has neglected another passage, of great importance — in that it permits determining with precision the point where the author places the Asiatic pygmies. One reads, in fact, the following phrase in his description of India : " Immedi ately beyond the nation of the Prusians, in whose mountains they say are the pygmies, one finds the Indus."

The mountains here considered were then west of the river ; and as the pygmies betook themselves each year to the seacoast, from which they could not, therefore, be very far distant, one sees that we are Here dealing with the most southern part of the mountainous district of Beloochistan. This region is situated at about 25° or 26° north latitude and 63° or 64° east longitude. Travellers do not mention in this district any population of particularly small stature, but I have elsewhere shown that the most ancient inhab itants of this country, the Brahouis, who speak a Dravidian language, belong to a great group of crossed races, of which the Negritos form the black element.150 At the time of Pliny they were certainly less altered than to-day by the mixture of bloods, and must have resembled those Dravid ians, properly called, whose height descends below 1™50 and seldom rises to 1™62 or 1™63.

Perhaps even at the epoch when the facts were collected which were trans mitted by the Roman writer there existed yet in the province of Loos, just where Pliny places his pygmies, some tribe of Negritos similar to that of which we are about to speak. However that may be, the Brahouis present a peculiarity of customs which recalls exactly what Pliny attributes to the pygmies. They change their dwelling twice a year — at the beginning of summer and winter. These annual migrations are compelled by the necessity of procuring good pastures for their animals, which con sist, as those of the pygmies did, of sheep and goats. Everything concurs, then, to make us see in the Bra houis the descendants of the little men of whom Pliny spoke. But long before him Ctesias had spoken of Asi atic pygmies, and had referred their habitation much farther to the east.

In the midst of fables, which he ac cepts without reserve, he has given some important and true facts. Behold how he expresses himself : " There are in the midst of India black men whom one calls pyg mies. They speak the same language as the Indians, and are very small. The largest are only two cubits (0?924 or 0T900, according to the value we give to this measure). The greater part are only one cubit and a half high. Their hair is very long; it descends as far as to their knees, and even farther. They have a much heavier beard than all other men. When it has attained its growth they no longer wear any clothing ; their hair and their beard take the place of such. . . . They are flat-nosed and homely. They are skilful in using the bow." 35 Ctesias has no doubt diminished the height of his pygmies into fabulous proportions.

Without doubt he was wrong in taking for hair or beard the mantles and other garments of long floating grasses which the women in the neighbourhood of Travancore still wear.79 But what he says of the geographical position, of the colour, and of the use of the bow, does not permit doubt that he had knowl edge of the Negritos or of proto-Dravidian tribes pre serving in high degree the characters of the primitive type. It is, in fact, in the heart of India, in the Vindhya Mountains, that M. Rousselet has found the Bandra- Loks.U3,Wi,ns The name of this tribe literally signifies man monkeys. They are true Negroes of very small stature, who, in the midst of populations more or less crossed, have preserved unmixed the characters of the type, and are one of the evidences left by the black race. Neither Aristotle nor Pliny mention the black colour and the woolly hair, as characters of the dwarfs of whom they speak on hearsay.

Ctesias alone is very precise upon the first point. The memory of these peculiarities is evi dently lost in the long journey which the informants, probably very few in number, must have made from the heart of Africa and from the extremity of India to Greece and Rome. This omission is, moreover, less singular than one would at first be tempted to suppose. The ancients attributed the dark colour and the woolly appearance of the hair of the Negro to the action of the sun, whose heat burned the skin and crisped the hair. They have not. then, been surprised to find in a hot country, by the side of other black men, such as their Indians and Ethiopians, tribes presenting these two characters. The diminution of the stature must have struck them much more strongly, and their very exaggerations show that it has been so.