Mr. W. H. Flower writes an interesting letter to the
Times of yesterday, on the pygmy races of Central Africa, whose stature, he says, probably averages about four feet in height, if he may judge by a skeleton of one of the Akka tribe sent over here by Emin Pasha. We observe that Mr. Stanley, in his letter, treats the pygmies he met with as not only cunning, but rather malicious. It is easy to understand why excep- tionally wee persons, living in a society where their smallness makes them the object of ridicule, may be soured by that ridicule ; but when the whole society in which they live is of the same stature, we do not see at all why the smaller races should be more malicious than the larger. Mr. Flower thinks that the pygmies are probably the remains of a race mentioned by Herodotus, that has gradually succumbed to the aggression of stronger races, and if so, there might, of course, be a reason in their history for exceptional misanthropy ; but we should like to have an elaborate account of the true character of the African pygmies, which at present we do not possess. Perhaps we should find that their malice is not abnormal, though the cunning probably would be.
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