Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-07-26
AN APE-LIKE MAN.
Photographs Of New Race From
the Central Afi lean Forests.


photographs of New Race From
the Central African Forests.
Sir Harry Johnston, who is home on
leave from Uganda, is likely to add
largely to our knowledge of that coun.
try as result of the two years he has
Just completed there in the capacity
of his Majesty's Special Commission.
er. He brings with him photographs
and measurements of the ape-like
race of men whom Mr.. Grogan and
Mr.. Sharp first encountered on the
verge of the Congo Forest.
That man first swung himself
down from the tree in the primeval
forest is commonly accepted belief,
81 hope" said Sir Harry Johnston,
"that the public interested in these
matters will not form any exagger-
ated ideas on the subject until the
material which have gathered has
been properly examined by anthropol-
ogists, and my own impression as to
the somewhat simian character of
these natives is confirmed.
The general characteristics of
these ape-like people--who some
times constitute tribe of pariahs by
themselves, and sometimes crop up
as type in the middle of other
tribes-are a dirty yellow skin, a
poor development of the back of the
head, eyes rather close together, with
prominent eyebrows, low and much
wrinkled foreheads. The hair is
woody, like that of the ordinary
negro, though it 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 l took a photograph the toes
are turned rather inward.
"These people seem to be very low
In the scale as regards the arts of
life, but this may be due to the fact
that they are rather in the position
of pariah or subject tribes, Their
stature as rule is not much, if any,
below the average heightof humanity.
l can only say that in general ap-
pearance they do look, as / have de-
scribed them, very ape-like, but too
much stress should not be laid on
my general impression in this respect
until the measurements which have
made of their heads and bodies are
discussed by competent authority
on anthropometry. The photographs,
also, which | hope soon to'get printed,
and which ] propose to exhibit when
read a paper before the Royal
Geographical Society in November,
should enable people to form a cor
rect impression as to the aflinities of
this low type of negro.
care they docileY Well, those of
the Banande whom ! have met on
the verge of the Congo Forest seem
to be very wild and timid. On the
other hand, the Banande who come
from the west side of Mount Ru-
wenzori were hired porters in no
way afraid of the white men, and
most willing to be photographed or
measured. have kind of i'm
preston that this ape-like type of
negro represents something like the
original stock-the earliest form of
negro man that entered tae African
Continent from Asia. 1t has seemed
to me as though in my journeys /
could trace it cropping up here and
there through East Central Africa,
and not only over the line / have
described, bu. also much to the
south of Tanganyika, not far from
the head waters of the Lualaba and
the Kafue. ."-L0ndon IslegrapA.