ough their own limited powers of thought. The bow and
poisoned arrow are very likely original with them. They possess this
weapon throughout the wide range from the African Hottentots to the
Philippine Negritos, while it is not a weapon of the surrounding
peoples. The spear is probably also original. The same cannot safely be
said of their traps and snares for game. These seem beyond their power
of invention, and may well have been taught them by the negro tribes.
Their habitations, aside from the mere leaf shelters, had probably a
similar origin. In Africa the huts doubtless had their model in those of
the negroes. In the Philippines they are pile-supported bamboo huts of
the pattern of those of the Malays. If, then, we take from the forest
folk the arts taught them or imitated by them, we reduce them to a very
low level of intellect and a remarkable paucity of products from their
own powers of thought.

Similar reasoning may be applied to the settled natives of Africa. For
thousands of years past they have been in contact on their northern
borders with civilized peoples, numerous immigrants have made their way
into the country, and a considerable degree of amalgamation has very
likely taken place. We cannot, therefore, safely credit them with all
the arts and implements they possess nor with all their political and
social progress. No doubt much came to them from without, much was
taught them from within, and a mixture of blood with superior races may
have aided considerably in improving their stock. We are justified,
then, in their case as in that of the Pygmies, in believing that their
stage of mental and social development is only in part original with
them, and is largely due to the influences of education and
amalgamation.

The pure negro is not a very numerous element of the population of
Africa. He stands in a measure intermediate between the nomad Pygmies of
the forest and the desert, and the mixed races who may be called negroid
but cannot strictly be called negro. With their foreign blood, most of
these have obtained foreign arts and elements of culture, and stand at a
distinctly higher physical and mental level than the unamalgamated
negro.

For the pure or nearly pure negro we must seek the lowlands of the
Guinea coast, the seat of the most pronounced existing negro type. Other
localities are in the region of the Gaboon, along the lower Zambesi, and
in the Benue and Shari basins. Here we find the true n