The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-09-29
pIenY TRIBES OF AFRICA.
Bold and Agile Little Folk of the
Dark Continent

whom he found in the northeastern
part Of the Congo Basin. Living
among tribes of splendid physical
development, these little people,
from four to four feet six inches in
height, are noted for their courage
and agility, for their prowess as
hunters, and for their unusual dex-
terity in the use Of the bow and
spear. In a recent lecture in Lon
don, Pofessor Flower, Director OF
the Natural History Museum, de-
scribed them as the smallest people
in the world, and expressed the
opinion, now generally held, that
they and their relatives south of
the Congo are the Pigmies who
were known to the Greeks and of
whom Herodotus and Aristotle gave
descriptions that were long ago be-
lieved to be fanciful.
One day DR.. Wolf was pushing
through the forests east Of the
Lulua river, when he suddenly
came upon a little glade i'll which
were about twenty tumbledown bee
hive huts, the homes of the Batwa.
He had seen a few of these little
people, kept as hunters at the towns
of big chiefs, but this was the first
time he had met them at their own
poorly cared for villages. Some of
them could speak the language of
the Bakuba, the great tribe which
claims this region, but they were
so awestruck by the white mans
sudden advent that they would
hardly utter word. A crowd of
nearly hundred coffee brown little
folks, none of them larger than
children two-thirds grown, stood
timidly at distance and surveyed
the visitors with astonishment. DR..
Wolf won their confidence SO far ut
least that they permitted him to
approach, and, unobserved by the
natives, he took the heights Of many
of them on a spear shaft. These
and later measurements by DR..
Wolf of full-grown adults vary from
four feet three inches to four feet
seven and one-half inches. The
average height according to the
several authorities, seems to be
about four feet five inches. Unlike
the Aka, the Batwa are not un-
unusually prognathous, nor have
they disproportionately large abdo-
mems, but they are compact, we'll
built little creatures, without any
physical peculiarly except their
small size.
All through this great forest re-
glon may be found these nomad
hunters. In little bands of eight or
more families they build their grass
huts wherever game is plentiful,
live there a few months, and then
move on to other hunting grounds.
Here and there in the woods the.y
dig pits about eight feet deep, which
they cover with branches and turf,
and in these traps they catch ele-
plants, hippopotami and butfaloes,
which are often impaled upon sharp
ened stakes driven into the bottom
of the pits. They also hunt large
game with the bow and spear. They
cannot kill an elephat at once with
their weapons, but they seldom lose
an animal they once wound. Won
Francois says that, lying in abush,
they attack the largest game, and
follow 1t if necessary for days.
Whenever the wounded animal halts
it becomes the target for a fresh
shower of spears, and finally weak
ened by loss Of blood it falls an
easy prey.
1t is not usual for explorers to
find the Batwa ,imid and undemon-
like the first villagers that
DR.. Wolf met. They have earned
the reputation of being ugly and
little fellows. In war
they use poisoned arrows. They
take the warpath at night, steal
noiselessly up to the sleeping vii
lage 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 eannibal
ieasts, for the Batwa. like the Aka,
are numbered among the antropo-
phaei of Africa. Their fame as
lighters have travelled far, and the
natives who accompanied Grenfell
and Won Francois were panic strick-
en- when they first saw q dwarf.
One of their peculiarities is the
fact that on their numerous marches
they do not sleep by camp-hres at
night, like other natives, but stretch
on the branches of trees,
which they clasp with arms and
legs, and there peacefully and safely
slumber, out Of the reach OF wild
beasts.
"Don't go near the dwarfs," was
the admonition Of the Congo ma
tives to Grenfell. "They permit no
one to enter their country. They
poison their weapons. They are the
ugliest of mortals, and have great
heads with bearded chins upon the