The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-07-25
The Foundation of Two Old Myths
BY ALINE WINSLOW.

Stop, Brght-eyes Don't skip my
story, because foundation is ii Outlook
ing word, and you do not know what
myth meals. | want to tell you some
thing wonde,ful and true. Well look in
"Webster" AID find out about "myth."
A myth is II fabulous or imaginary
statement IA tale OF some extraordinary
parsonage or country.
For example. B ron Munchausen's
stories and Guliiver's adventures among
the giants Of Brohdinguag and the little
people of Lilliput, are all myths.
The old story of race ot pigmies in
Central Africa, who every year waged
fierce wars with the cranes, has been
supposed to be equally fabulous; but re-
cent travellers in Africa tell us that there
actually is in Central Africa n tribe of
little people ato4t four feet high. They
have large heads, slender necks and
bodies. The lower jaw and chin protrude,
giving the face an ape-like expression
not at all handsome.
They are very agile; even the old men
will dance in u wonderful way for long
time, and they are noted for their fights
with wild elephants. All the tribes of the
interior hunt the elephant, but these
dwarfs are the most successful. The skin
of the elephant is so thick on his back
and sides that it takes long time to
destroy him with their weapons, but these
little men dart underneath the elephant
and wound him in the belly, and then
got out of the way of the maddened
creature in safety.
Schweinfurth tells about being sur
rounded one morning by troop of i'm
pudent boys rs he supposed, who danced
about him with strange grimaces and
took aim at him with their darts and ar
rows; then retreated as suddenly as they
had appeared. He found out afterward
that he had really been in danger, for
these pigmies were not boys, but full
grown men, warriors well trained to
fight.
He did not succeed in penetrating into
their country, but the king gave him one
little man who was his companion for
months, aud of whom he took great care,
hoping to bring him home with him. He
killed himself, however, by over-eating,
a fault of which it was impossible to cure
him.
Du Chaiilu has written book about
this dwarf nation, and others have seen
and written about them; SO we must ac-
knowledge that Herodotus and other an
cient travtle had some foundation for
their stories.
You've heard some of the old Greek
and Roman myths; perhaps you've read
in "Hawthrrn's Tanglegood Tales how
Cadmus sosed the dragons teeth and
-eaped a harvest of armed men; and of
the cruise If the Argonauts in quest of
the golden apples of the Hesperides.
You've heard of Scylla and Chary bdls.
Do you remember about the Sirens, the
singing mermaids, who sang so sweetly
that ali VINO heard them forget their
homes anu were allured to destructioni
Wise Ulysses made all his men stop their
ears with otton, and caused himself TO
be bound tirmly to the mast when they
sailed by; so he heard the song and es-
capped destI uction.
Modern science has found a founda-
ton for l,ese old stories of the Sirens in
the musioul sound produced by certain
fishes.
You thought fishes were mute2 Few
people kp"w that some sorts can sing,
though Aristotle wrote about it centuries
sg'.
La'ely, scientific men have been max
inp extensive observations, and have
found that out of the more than three
thousand ,pecies that exist, ffty-two are
now known to produce sounds. Some of
these make grunting, or grating, or hum
ming noises, but some utter very sweet
sounds.
The fish, rmen told Sir j. E. Tendent
late Governor of Ceylon, that certain
sounds res. milling the faint, sweet notes
of an 4Eolian harp proceeded from the