FRENCH RESEARCH AMONG AFRICAN RACES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1581, 18 March 1887, Page 3

FRENCH RESEARCH AMONG AFRICAN RACES.

At a late meeting of the Paris Geographical Society M. Hamy made a communication on an exhibition of collections from the French possessions in "West Africa in the Jardin des Plantes, contributed by the Museum of Natural History and that of Ethnography. The exhibition, he said, was composed ofjtwo pactions, one devoted to natural history, the other to ethnography. The first showed that the countries were rich in iron and copper, which had ever furnished the natives with indispensable implements and utensils. Trees and various plants abound, and game is not rare. Numerous races live and have lived in these regions. The exhibition shows how they are at present distributed in "West Africa. There are four g-oups of Negroes:—(l) TheJNegrillos or Pygmies, the most western race. They live now only in small scattered colonies in the most unhealthy spots, such as the estuary of the Ogwe and the interior of Mayonbo. They are called Okoa, Bongoa, Bakke Bakfee, Babonko, &c. (2) The second is bracbycephalous, of middle height, and lives principally on the right bank of the Lower Congo, but particularly on the Loango. They work in iron, and are far advanced in the mechanical arts. (3) The Ipongos, or people of the Gaboon, who have been in contact with, Europeans since the end of the sixteenth, century. M. Hamy referred in detail to the manners and industry of this people. (4) This is a slightly heterogeneous group, consisting of the Obambas Ondumbas, &c, who live in the neighbourhood of Franceville. In conclusion, the speaker referred to the interest of ethnological research in relation to the movements of peoples on the earth's surface. Hera, he said, ethnography is especially bound up with geography.