The old and infirm are protected carefully, as long as they do not jeopardize the group's lives. I remember one pygmy being called to a farming settlement to kill a mad gorilla - the locals often rely on the skill and bravery of the pygmies. Having mortally wounded the gorilla, the man was bitten very severely in the lumbar area and paralyzed from the waist down, but he was kept in the tribe. The pygmies take care of the injured, and I have seen blind and extremely sick people kept within the group and cared for by their relatives. I am often asked how long pygmies live.
Many deaths take place at very early ages, because of infectious diseases.
It is rare to find individuals above 60 years of age, but the ages of individual pygmies is usually based on estimates because they have no interest in it. The pygmies no longer have a language of their own. They speak the language of the peoples with whom they have come into contact over time, perhaps even centuries previously. Because they have also moved long distances, their language may be borrowed from peoples living far away. Their god is the forest, of which they feel themselves an integral part.