The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-04-19
The WORLDS DWGRFS.
a Race of Diminufive People Found Il
Central Africa

a Race of Diminutive People Found In
Central Africa.
st the last meeting of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, Prof. Flower. C.. b.,
Director of the Natural History Mu.
scum. gave a description of the two
skeletons of Akkas. lately obtained in
the MOnbuttu country. Central Africa,
by Emin Pasha. Since this diminutive
tribe was discovered by Schweinfurth
in 1870. they have received considerable
attention from various travellers and
anthropologists. and general descrip-
tons and movements of several living
individuals have been published, but
no account of their astrological charac-
tiers has been given. and no specimens
have been submitted to careful in atom
zeal examination.
The two skeletons are those of fully
grOwn-up people, male and female.
The evidence they afford entirely COR
robOrates the view previously derived
from external measurements that the
AkkaS are among the smallest, if not
actually the smallest, people upon
the earth. These skeletons are both Of
them smaller than any other normal
skeleton known, smaller certainly than
the smallest Bushman's skeleton in any
museum in this country, and smaller
than any out of the twenty-nine skele-
tons of the diminutive inhabitants of
the Andaman Islands, of which the
dimensions have been recorded by Prof.
Flower in a previous communication
to the Anthropological Institute.
The height of neither of them exceeds
I2l9 metres, or feet. while a living
female Aka, of whom Emin Pasha has
sent careful measurements. is only l. 164
metres, or barely feet 10 inches. The
results previously obtained from the
measurements of about half dozen
living Akkas are not quite so low as
these. varying from 1.2l6 to 1.420
metres. and give an average of both
sexes of 1.356, or feet 81 inches. But
the numbers measured are not sufficient
for establishing the true average of the
race, especially as it is not certain that
they were all pure bred examples.
According to Topinard's list, there
are ONLY two known races which have q
mean height below 1.500 metres. viz,
the Negritor of the Andaman Islands
Q.47S), and the Bushmen of South
Africa Q.40D. Of the real height of
the former we have abundant and exact
evidence, both from living individuals
and from skeletons. which clearly
proves that they considerably exceed
the Akkas in stature. That this is also
the case with the Bushmen there is
little doubt. The point of comparative
size being settled, it remains to con-
slider to what races the Akkas are most
nearly allied.
That they belong in all their essen
:ial characteristics to the black or Ne
groid branch of the human species
there can be no doubt-in fact, they
exhibit all the essential characteristics
of that branch. even to exaggeration.
The form of the head is somewhat more
rounded than usual. but it has been
shown that in Equatorial Africa, ex-
tending from the west coast far into
the interior, are scattered tribes of ne
groes distinguished from the majority
of the inhabitants of the continent by
this special cranial character rs well
rs by their smaller stature, to which
the name .Negrillo' has been applied
by Hamy. 1t is to this race Of the
great Negroid branch that the Akkas
belong. and they are not by any means
closely allied, either to the Bushmen or
the Negritor of the Indian Ocean, eX-
cept in SO far as they are members of
the same great branch. distinguished
among the general character by their
closely curled or frizzly hair. 1t is pos
sible that the Negrillo people gave
origin to the stories of the pigmies so
in the writings of the Greek
poets and historians, and whose habi-
tations were often placed near the
sources of the Nile. The name Aka,
BY which Schweinfurth says the tribe
now call themselves. has. singularly
enough. been read by Marietta Pasha
BY the side of the portrait of dwarf in
= monument of the ancient Egyptian
empire. -London Standard.