Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-10-11
AFRICAN DWARFS.
Facts Concerning the Smallest
People Extant.
Interesting Accounts by Explorers-Their
Varied Peculiarities and Mode of Life
Skillful Hunters and Savage
Fighters.

None of the remarkable discoveries
made by explorers in the depths of
Africa has ever excited deeper interest
than Schweinfurth' vivid description
of the Aka dwarfs whom he found in
the northeastern part of the Congo
basin. Living among tribes of splen-
did physical development, these little
people, from four feet to four feet six
inches in height, are noted for their
courage and agility, for their proves
as hunters. and for their unusual dex-
terity in the use of the bow and spear.
In a recent lecture in London Prof.
Flower. director of the Natural History
Museum, described them as the small
est people in the world. and expressed
the opinion, now generally held, that
they and their relatives south of the
Congo are pigmies who were known
to the Greeks. and of whom Herodotus
and Aristotle gave descriptions that
were long believed to be fanciful.
The industry of four great travellers,
who took up the work of exploration
where Stanley left it, has now supplied
us with considerable information about
the remarkable Betwa dwarfs. who are
spread in little communities through
the densely wooded regions south of
the great northern bend Of the Congo.
They have been found in districts
about four hundred miles apart and in
much of the intervening regions that
are still little unknown. They have
been studied by Wolf, near the Lulua
river. still further cas-: by Wissmann
in the interminable forests which sun
light hardly penetrates north of the
Sankuru. by Grenfell and Won Francois
on the Bussera and Tchuapa rivers.
and by Grenfell on the Lubilash. south
west of Stanley Falls. These discov-
cries were made in the years 1885 and
1856, but the explorers were too busy
accommodating facts to prepare them for
public perusal. and We have had only
the most fragmentary illusions to
these unique and interesting little
folks until the writings of Wolf, Wiss-
mann and Won Francois were published
in Germany this summer.
One day DR.. Wolf was pushing
through the forests east of the Lulua
river, when he suddenly came upon q
little glade in which were about twenty
tumbledown beehive huts, the homes
of the Batwa. He had seen few OF
these little people, kept as hunters AT
the towns of big chiefs, but this was
the first time he had met them in 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 50
awestruck by the white mans sudden
advent that they would hardly utter a
word. A crowd of nearly hundred
coffee-brown little folks, none of them
larger than children two-thirds grown,
stood timidly at q distance and sur.
veyed the visitors in wonder. DR.. Vol
won their confidence SO far at last
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 measure.
ments 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 unusually
prognathous, nor have they dispropor.
tionstcly large abdomens. but they arr
compact, well-built little creatures,
without any physical popularity ex'
cept their small size. Lieutenant
Wissmann, however, received quite ar
unfavorable impression of the Batws
from the few specimens he saw among