Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-06-19


crate head-dress, which has been the
pride Of his life and the labor Of devoted
conjugal hands. The tufts, the braids,
the tresses are torn away, and the frag
ments scattered to the winds.
There is among the Niam-niams dis
tinct class of professional musicians, who
seem to be a grotesque counterpart of
the wandering troubadours of olden time.
Their appearance is remarkable. Deck
ed out in the most fantastic manner with
feathers, bits of wood, leaves, shells,
claws, beaks and teeth, they wander
from village to village, reciting in mo-
notonous, drawling chant, the adventures
of ancient native heroes and always
" taking up collection at the close"
These minstrels are met with occasion
ally in other tribes, but nowhere do they
present such grotesque appearance as
among the Niam-niams.
All the way on his journey southwark
from the western watershed of the Nile,
DIR. Schweinfurth heard wonderful stories
of race of little people dwelling far
south of the territory of the Niam-ni-
ans. 1t was told of them that armed
with strong lances they would creep un-
derneath the belly of an elephant, and
dextrously kill the beast, managing their
own movements so adroitly that they
could not be reached by the creatures
trul k. Their services in this way were
asserted to contribute very largely to the
resources of the ivory traders. Legends
of Pygmies had mingled themselves al
ready with the earliest surviving litera-
ture of the Greeks; and the poet of the
+" Illiad mentions them as race that
had long been known. Not only the
classic poets mention these little human
curiosities, but sober historians and ge.
ographers speak of their existence as an
undisputed fact. Nothing, for instance,
could be more definite than the state
ment of Herodotus about the Nasamo-
niians after they had crossed the Libyan
deserts; They at length saw some trees
growing on a plain, and, having ap-
preached, they began to gather the fruit
that grew on the trees; and when they
were gathering it some diminutive 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" DIR. r.Schweinfurth at length
came in contact with a colony of these
little men, near the royal residence of
Munza, king of the Monbuttoos, and was
presented with young specimen, whom
he kept as a companion Cor more than a
year. The doctor describes him as a re
pulsive looking creature; and although
he came in time to manifest some afiec-
tion towards his protector, he was the
most malicious and mischievous of all
monkeys. In acuteness, dexterity and
cunning he was unequalled. He was al
ways fond of torturing animals, and took
a 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 great.
er 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 DIR.
Schweinfurth through his wanderings, or
even to indicate the route he pursued.
he was compelled, for protection, to
travel with caravan, to follow its devil
GUS course from station to station, and
finally to turn back with it at moment
when he believed himself to be on the
point of solving some very interesting
and important questions in regard to the
river system of Central Africa. But al
though his work remained in certain
sense incomplete, he made many most
interesting discoveries, and his account
of his wanderings and adventures makes
one of the most fascinating books of
travel we have ever had from an African
explorer. The illustrations are remark
ably interesting, and the maps and index
add greatly to the value of the work.
A paper church building is said to
have been built in Bergen, Norway,
city of nearly 100000 inhabitants. The
building is circular within and octagon-
al without. The relieves outside, the
statutes inside, the roof, the ceiling are
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