Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-10-11

uelgnOOfS, 1ll.SQapeO. huO "V0OO6OA0
specimens of humanity.
All through the great forest region
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 few
months and then move on to other
hunting grounds. Here and there In
the woods they dig pits about eight
feet deep, which they cover with
! branches and turf, and in these traps
they catch elephants. hippopotami and
buffaloes. which are often impaled upon
sharp stakes driven into the bottom
of the pits. They also hunt large
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 noiselessly 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 a 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 60 near the dwarfs," was
the admonition of the Congo natives
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 smallest of
bodies" Sure enough, Grenfell and
Won Francois found beard on the face
of many Batwa, but the heads of
the dwarfs are not disproportionately
large, and their features not especially
ugly. Unlike the Aka, who are
nearly naked, the Batwa wear a wide
strip of native cloth around their
loins. Unskilled in any arts, save
those of war and the chase, they
chiefly depend for their weapons,
their grain and vegetables upon the
tribes of large people near whom
they live, most of whom &C
knowledge their inferiority as hunters
to the Batwa, and gladly encourage
them to barter their loads of game
for products of the garden. brass wire
and beads. The Batwa use these Euro
pean commodities to buy wives, and
throughout the wide region they in
habit they are thus becoming gradual
~ merged with the surrounding peo-
pies. Not few communities of pure
Batwa have been found, but mixed
breeds are also common. The Batws
and the Aka. it is believed. are the
remnants of once very numerous
race, and both are gradually dying
out, victims of the more powerful
tribes around them and of their in
ferior attachments in the arts of living.
Many of the Batwa children die for
lack even of such imperfect care as
most savage mothers give their Off
spring. There seems to be little ma
ternal affection. and in fight the tiny
mothers have often been known to
abandon their babies to their fate.
At the furthest points reached on
both the Bussera and Tchuapa rivers,
about two hundred and fifteen miles
!; apart, the continued advance of the
little steamer Peace was rendered
; impossible BY the frantic hostility oil
} the Batwa and their neighbors. Won
Francois, one of the most graphic
writer's and accomplished geographers
} who have visited Africa make lively
picture of the bowling little demons