Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-06-03

heroes and always g taking up collection
at the close" These ministries are met
with occasionally among other tribes, but
nowhere do they present such a grotesque
appearance as among the Nam MANS.
All the way ON his journey southwark
from the western watershed of the Nile,
Dr. Schweinfurth heard wonderful stories
of race of little people dwelling fur south
of the territory of the Niam-niams. 1t
was told of them that armed with strong
lances they would creep underneath the
belly of an elephant, and dextrously kill
the beast, managing their own movements
so adriotly that they could not be reached
by the creatures trunk. Their services Ill
this way We're asserted to contribute very
largely to the resources of the ivory traders.
Legends of Pygmies had mingled them
selves already with the earliest surviving
! literature of the Greeks; and the poet OF
the I" Had " mentions them as race that
had long been known. Not only the clas-
sic poets mention these little human curlOS-
ties, but sober historians and geographers
speak of their existence as an undisputed
fact. Nothing, for instance, could be more
definite than the statement of Herodotus
about the Nasamonians after they had
crossed the Libyan deserts: They at
|
and, having approached, they began
to gather the fruit that grew on
the trees; and when they were
gathering it some dminutive men,
less than men of middle stature, came up
and seized them and carried them away"
The testimony of Aristotle is yet more
precise when he says, plainly :" The
cranes fly to the lakes above Egypt, from
which flows the Nile; there dwell the
Pygmies, and this is no fable, but the pure
truth DR.. Schweinfurth at length came
in contact with a colony ofthese little men,
near the royal residence of Munza, king OF
the Monbuttoos, and was presented with a
Young specimen, whom he kept as "A COM
panion for more than Il year. The doctor
describes him as repulsive looking crea-
ture: and although he came in time to
manifest some affection towards. his pro-
tector, he was the most malicious and
mischievous of all monkeys. In acute
ness, dexterity and cunning he was un-
eaualled. He was always fond of tortur-
inc animals, and took special pleasure
in throwing arrows at the dogs by night.
During the period in which the caravan
was involved in war with hostile tribes,
, and while the servants were almost beside
, themselves with anxiety, nothing afforded
him greater amusement than to play with
: the heads that had been severed from the
slain. DR.. Schweinfurth was anxious to
carry this specimen home to Europe
, but the boy sickened and died on the way
, We have not space to follow DR.. Sch
wienfurth through his wanderings, or even
to indicate the route he pursued. He was
t compelled, for protection. to travel with .
caravan, to follow its devious course iron
station to station, and finally to turn back
with it at a moment when he believed him
; selfto be on the point of solving some very
= interesting and important questions in re
I card to the river system of Central Africa
f But although his work remained in GER
tain sense incomplete, he made many mos
t interesting discoveries. and his account o
p his wanderings and adventures makes one
+ of the most fascinating books of travel WI
| have ever had from an African explorer
2 The illustrations are remarkably interest
' ing, and the maps and index add great,
f to the value of the work.