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 Balesse, 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.
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