able when it is
remembered how scanty is the facial hair of the Negros and Negritos--the
men have often very long beards. The southern parts of the continent are
occupied by the Bushmen, who are vigorous and agile, of a stature ranging
from four feet six inches to four feet nine inches, and sufficiently well
known to permit me to pass over them without further description. The
smallest woman of this race who has been measured was only three feet
three inches in height, and Barrow examined one, who was the mother of
several children, with a stature of three feet eight inches. The Akoas of
the Gaboon district were a race of pigmies who, now apparently extinct,
formerly dwelt on the north of the Nazareth River. A male of this tribe
was photographed and measured by the French Admiral Fleuriot de l'Angle.
His age was about forty and his stature four feet six inches.

[Footnote A: Emm Pasha, p. 367, et seq.]

Flower[A] says that "another tribe, the M'Boulous, inhabiting the coast
north of the Gaboon River, have been described by M. Marche as probably
the primitive race of the country. They live in little villages, keeping
entirely to themselves, though surrounded by the larger Negro tribes,
M'Pongos and Bakalais, who are encroaching upon them so closely that their
numbers are rapidly diminishing. In 1860 they were not more than 3000; in
1879 they were much less numerous. They are of an earthy-brown colour, and
rarely exceed five feet three inches in height. Another group living
between the Gaboon and the Congo, in Ashangoland, a male of which measured
four feet six inches, has been described by Du Chaillu."

In Loango there is a tribe called Babonko, which was described by Battell
in 1625, in the work entitled "Purchas his Pilgrimes," in the following
terms:--"To the north-east of Mani-Kesock are a kind of little people
called Matimbas; which are no bigger than boyes of twelve yeares old, but
very thicke, and live only upon flesh, which they kill in the woods with
their bows and darts. They pay tribute to Mani-Kesock, and bring all their
elephants' teeth and tayles to him. They will not enter into any of the
Maramba's houses, nor will suffer any one to come where they dwell. And if
by chance any Maramba or people of Longo pass where they dwell, they will
forsake that place and go to another. The women carry bows and arrows as
well as the men. And one of these will walk in the woods alone and kill
the Pongos with their poyson