I have not seen it remarked that these pygmies are
mentioned by Andrew Battel Plinian at the end of the sixteenth
century. "To the north-east of Mani Kesoch," he tells us, "are a
kind of little people called Matimbas, who are no bigger than
boys twelve years old, but are very thick, and live only upon
flesh, which they kill in the woods with bows and darts." Of the
Aykas south of the Welle River, discovered by Dr. Schweinfurth, I
need hardly speak. It is not a little curious to find these
confirmations of Herodotean reports about dwarfish tribes in the
far interior, the Dokos and the Wabilikimo, so long current at
Zanzibar Island, and so long looked upon as mere fables.
Our departure from Mbata had broken the spell, and Forteune did
keep his word; I was compelled in simple justice to cry
"Peccavi." On the very evening of our arrival at Glass Town the
youth Kanga brought me a noble specimen of what he called a
Nchigo Mpolo, sent by Forteune's bushmen; an old male with brown
eyes and dark pupils. When placed in an arm-chair, he ludicrously
suggested a pot-bellied and patriarchal negro considerably the
worse for liquor.
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