Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-10-04


game with the bow and spear.
They can not kill an elephant at once
with their weapons, but they seldom lose
an animal they once wound. Won
Francois says that, lying in ambush,
they attack the largest game, and fol-
low it if necessary for days. Whenever
the wounded animal halts it becomes
the target for fresh shower of spears,
and finally weakened by loss of blood
it falls an easy prey. The cunning
| pigmies incur small loss of weapons in
these long chases after elephants and
buffaloes. Their arrow and spear
heads are barbed and can not drop out
OF the wound, neither do they lose the
spear shafts, for they are fastened by
stout cords to the head, and if the
animal in his fight brushes against
trees, the shafts, instead of falling to
the ground, merely dangle against his
Sides
1t is not usual for explorers to find
the Batwa timid and undemonstrative,
like the first villagers that DR.. Wolf
met. They have earned the reputation
of being very ugly and pugnacious lit
tie fellows. In war they use poisoned
arrows. They take the warpath at
night, steal noiseltssly up to the sleep
ing village of the enemy, fire the huts,
and kill the people with arrows and
spears by the light of their burning
houses. Their fallen foes and their
prisoners become food at cannibal
feasts, for the Batwa, like the Aka,
are numbered among the anthropop-
hagi of Africa. Their fame as fight
ers has Travelled far, and the natives
who accompanied Grenfell and Won
Francois were panic-stricken when
they first saw dwarf. One of their
| peculiarities is the fact that on their
numerous marches they do not sleep
by camp fires at night, like other ma
tives. but stretch themselves on the
branches of trees, which they clasp
with arms and legs, and there peace
fully and safely slumber, out of the
reach of wild beasts.
Don't go near the dwarfs, was
the admonition of the Congo natives
to Grenfell. "They permit no one tC
enter their country. They poison
their weapons. They are the uglies
oil mortals, and have great heads will
{ bearded chins upon the smallest o
> bodies. " Sure enough, Grenfell ant
1 Won Francois found beard on the fac,
) OF many a Batwa, but the heads o
t the dwarfs are not disproportionatel,
large, and their features not especial,
hgly. Unlike the Aka, who ar
4 nearly Naked the Batwa wear wild
/ strip of native cloth around thei
t loins. Unskilled in any arts, saw
. those of war and the chase, the,
l chiefly depend for their weapons
f their grain and vegetables upon tn,
tribes of large people near whom
S they live, most of whom &C
a knowledge their inferiority as hunter
t to the Batwa, and gladly encourag
Q them to barter their loads of gam
u for products of the garden, brass wiz
n and beads The Batwa use these Euro
: pean commodities to buy wives, an
Q Throughout the wide region they in
S habit they are thus becoming gradual
, ly merged with the surrounding pee
: pies. Not few communities of pur
: Batwa have been found, but mike
d breeds are also common. The Batw
Y and the Aka. 1t is believed, are tn
r remnants of once very numerou
Y race, and both are gradually dyin
o out, victims of the more powerfl
o tribes around them and of their il
y ferior attachments in the arts of living
d Many of the Batwa children die fc
lack even of such imperfect care 8
G most savage mothers give their of
a spring. There seems to be little m;
a ternal affection, and in fight the tin
v mothers have often been known I
IS abandon their babies to their fate.
# At the furthest points reached O
It both the Bussera and Tchuapa river
s about two hundred and fifteen mile
r apart, the continued advance of til
e little steamer Peace was rendere
If impossible by the frantic hostility
h the Batwa and their neighbors. Va
% Francois, one of the most graph
n writers and accomplished geographei
a who have visited Africa make live
d picture of the bowling little demon
n on the shores of the Bussera, shown
/, hundreds of arrows that, Shiny wit
r poison, dashed against the steel ne
If work which protected the steamer {
st stuck in the wooden sun roof. I
/, gives us vivid idea of the agility ar
Ie acrobatic accomplishments of the
a people two hundred and fifteen mil
E. away on the Tchupa. He saw the lit
Is warriors clamboring along PERCEPTION
% slopes above the river, where the
S. seemed hardly foothold; saw the
lie swinging like monkeys from limb
1T limb of trees. and climbing out {
lie branches overhanging the water
" that they might speed their arrows
r shorter range against the putting al
re impertinent monster that had dared
5, intrude upon the privacy of the lit
K folks He heard their ear-splittir
Mt yells, which were wholly out of pr
IN portion TO their physical insigni
"a canoe. Grenfell is man of peac
g and, unlike some other explorers,
rs did not choose to shoot lead at thel
If A few blank cartridges. however, h:
ne an excellent moral effect when 4
enemy took to canoes and seemed be
IN on making prize of the little yess'