Dr. Krapf again heard of the Doko in Ukambani and at Barawa, and at the latter place even saw a slave corresponding to Dilbo's description. Father Léon des Avanchers, a French Roman Catholic missionary, heard of them from the Somalis in 1858, under the name of "Tchin-Tchellé" (which is, being interpreted, Quel miracle!). In 1864 he saw some of them for himself in the kingdom of Gera (north of Kaffa, in Abyssinia), and described them in a letter to M. d'Abbadie, published in the Bulletin of the Paris Geographical Society. The word Doko may be another form of the Swahili mdogo (= small), but this has been disputed.
Proceeding in geographical rather than in chronological order, we come next to the Akkas, with whom Colonel Long's Tikki-Tikki[1] would seem to be identical. They were first heard of, vaguely, by Petherick, in 1854; but the first real announcement of their existence to the civilized world was made by Dr. Schweinfurth in 1871. They live in the Monbuttu country, which lies south of the Bahr-el-Gazal and west of the Equatorial Province of Egypt. Dr. Schweinfurth's account has been ably supplemented by Dr. Felkin and Emin Pasha, the latter of whom enjoyed ample opportunities for studying them during the twelve years he spent in Central Africa, and in 1886 communicated to the Berlin Zeitschrift für Ethnologie a very valuable and interesting paper on the subject, accompanied by detailed measurements. He insists on the distinction between the Akkas and real dwarfs (i. e., persons whose growth has been arrested by pathological or other causes), of whom he saw several at Mtesa's court. "Tout au contraire, les Akkas sont une race qui n'offrent aucun signe pathologique, mais qui, formés à point, déprécieraient bien vivement les épithètes de 'race déchue' de peuplade vouée a l'extinction, dont on a bien voulu les gratifier." They live in bands composed of a few families each, putting up the rough shelters of reeds and branches which form their temporary camp in the woods, near some running stream, and usually within reach of a Monbuttu or Momvu village. They are good marksmen, and kill even elephants and buffaloes, bartering with the villagers the meat they do not require for themselves, in return for grain, oil, native beer, and other necessaries. The Monbuttu, moreover, obtain from them all the skins and feathers used by them for clothing and ornament; and any chief who should refuse hospitality to the Akkas would not only forfeit these supplies, but draw down the speedy vengeance of the little people the first time he or any of his tribe ventured into the forest alone. The Akkas are cannibals, and make no secret of the fact; those personally known to Dr. Schnitzer "savaient parfaitement me dire quelle part du corps
- ↑ Central Africa. By Colonel C. Chaillé-Long. London, 1876. Pp. 263 et seq.
