The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-16
APELIKE MEN.
They Live in the Congo Forest.

| Sir Harry Johnston, who is home Ill England on leave from Uganda, is like l ly to add largely to the knowledge ot l that cauntry as result of the two years he has just completed there in 1 the capacity of special commissioner Of the British government. He took back with him photographs and measure ments of the apelike race of men whom MT. Grogan and MT. Sharp first en- countered on the verge of the Congo forest; skulls and skin of the okapi, that strange animal which suggests the survival of the prehistoric race or gl- | raffe- like ruminants and particulars Of a new species of giraffe, tentatively de- scribed as five-horned. Anthropolo- gists and ethnologists will look forward | with eagerness to the discussion Of the distinguished explorers latest finds.
 That man first swung himself down 1 from the tree in the primeval forest IS a commonly accepted belief. But Sir Larry Johnston, says the London Daily Telegraph, knows better than to sup pose that he has come anywhere near l finding the original article. What his investigation leads up to is conflrma- l tion of the belief that there are, here and there in Africa, living types of the 1 first kind of negro who entered that contingent from Asia, and that this ne- gro is, in very slight degree, nearer to l the ape than the better developed types of black men who predominate there | nowadays.
 | II hope" said Sir Henry Johnston that the public interested in these matters will not form any exaggerated ideas on the subject until the material which I have gathered has been prop erly examined by anthropologists and my own impression as to the some what smian character of these natives is confirmed The apelike people to whom refer seem to constitute the un- deriving stratum of the population or the eastern outskirts of the great Con go forest, from the vicinity of Lake AL bert down to the neighborhood of Lake 1 Tanganyika, the western slopes of Mt. 1 Ruwenzori, and also, strange to say on the west slope of Mount Elgon. the ex- tinct volcano which lies about one hun dred and fifty miles east of the Victo- ria Nile. r
 "The general characteristics of these apelike people, who sometimes constl- ute tribe of parians by themselves and sometimes crop up as type Tn the middle of other tribes, are dirty vel low skin, poor development Of the back of the head, eyes rather close to- gether, with prominent eyebrows low and much wrinkled foreheads, The
 hair is woolly, like that of the ordina- " negro, though 1t sometimes tends to
 be brownish in color The arms are long and the thumbs weak. The legs are a little knock -kneed, and are often very short in proportion to the body. In one instance in which I took pho-
 toeraph the toes are turned rather in-
 ward
 ''These people seem to be very low in the scale as regards the art of life, but
 this may be due to the fact that they
 are rather in the position of parian or
 subject tribes. In the Semlike valley
 they are known by the name of Mun-
 ande. Their stature as rule is not
 much. if any. below the average height
 of humanity I can only say that in
 general appearance they do look, as have described them, very apelike, but
 too much stress should not be laid on
 my general impression in this respect
 until the measurements which l have
 made of their heads and bodies are dis
 cussed by a competent authority on an-
 thropometry. The photographs, also
 which I hope soon to get printed and which I propose to exhibit when I read
 paper before the Royal Geographical
 society in November, should enable
 neople to form a correct impression as
 to the affinities. of this low type of ne-
 gro.
 "Are they docile? We'll, those of the
 Banande whom I have met on the
 verge of the Congo forest seem to be very wild and timid. On the othel
 hand. the Banande who come from the west side of Mount Ruwenzori were l hired porters, in no way afraid Of th'
 white man, and most willing to be pho
 tographed or measured. I have kint of impression that this apelike type O ,, negro represents something like tht l original stock-the earliest form of ne , gro man that entered the African con
 tinent from Asia. It has seemed to mt as though in my journeys l could trace
 it cropping up here and there througi east central Africa, and not only ove1 the line have described, but also mucl
 to the south of Tankanyika, not fa from the head waters of the Lualabf and the Kafue.
 1T have not actually been to that dis trict myself, but I freed some large caravans of slaves once that were be ing brought by Arabs from the distric between the Kafue and the Lualaba and among these slaves l was mucl struck with the apish appearance which have just described in connec tion with the Banande It is eViden ] there must be something peculiar abou these scattened types on the verge O the Congo forest, since they made th'
 same impression on Messrs. Groga1 and Sharp as they have done on my self"
 It was in the summer of 1900 that SE Henry Johnston reported the existence } of strange animal, with stripes, Wh1cf might possibly be horse. He ther
 sent home imperfect pieces of skin
 which had confirmed his impression , that he was on the track of an entirel! new mammal, but in the early part O . | ol, l,p kind