, 1889-05-16
FEEtt.5 ~ AFRICA.
a Rare Field fer The CURIOSITY Seekers.

a Rare Field frr tEc CURIOSITY Seeker.
Carl Steckc.El-uu, Who lived scyera
. years i'll West Area, made a large col
lection OF curiUs. les Illustrating the arts
habits and super-iiti5ns of the natives
His collection, winch il BOW in indiana
where he lives, las attracted attention
ana there were many visitors TO the mu.
scum which he oEeucd IN Indianapolis
last winter. There are curiooities Of 9th
er sorts, however, in all parts OF Africa,
and it would not take smart Snowman
long TO pick up freaks enough on the
west coast to stccl dozen museums.
Entirely outside the dwarf tribes, who
are the stransest people in the world,
explorers find hege and there little folks
OF advanced years who are made much OF
| and are usually seen AZ the residence OF
some cHief. Only ore Of these little
fellow. hos been Louored with much at
teHtion III records of travel, aid his pic-
ture appears in Spese's story Of his dis
coyery of the Nile sources. On the west
coast Doko dwa.fs may sometimes be
seen in the crowds along the shore when
a vessel arrives. i. b. Ellis was OF the
opinion that with one of these dwarfs,
boy be saw with two stomachs, few al
binos, who are by 40 means uncommon,
ana two or three horned men he could
set up dime museum Of no mean pre-
tentioDs.
The horned meu, sad to relate, wear
their horns not on their soreheads, but
on their cheek bones. They belong to a /
small tribe that is found north of Ashan-
Il, and a few of them sometimes get down |
to the coast wLere they have ceased to /
be euriosities. Some surgeoss who ex-
amined two of these men ii few years ago |
decided that the excresceuces on their /
cheeks were OF an osseous nature. They |
form Jumps, rounded at the extremity |
and projecting about an ircll from the
f""e. They are not uaTticularlily orna-
mental bat they would probably be
worth 4 fair salary to the possessor il ex-
hibited ~ Bowery place of amusement.
Two or three travel rs have written of
a ROMAN Catholic priest in Fernando
F. who Is wiling to make affidavit that
nc has see1 three men il Gaboon with
short tGita. These curiosisies seem to
have made good their escape. Many
travellers IL tie carly days recorded mar.
yelou5 stories OF Africans who wore tails,
but more Of the cHrOicieFs had salt sniff
ciTnt to chicI them. Years ago female
slave, who was said to have come from
Central Africa, was examined in Con-
stantinople by physician in the bospit-
al there, and he declared she had an un-
mistakable tail about two inches long,
smooth and hairless. She said she be
longed to the great Nam Mann tribe.
The fame of this tribe as weaFers of tails
was spread far ard wide in Africa long
before white man ever visited them,
and Me-. Ellis says the story still circu-
iates on the coast. But Schweinfurth
spoiled the sensation, though he pro
nounced the Man \ lam the finest speci-
mems of physical beauty he ever saw.
Other curious people In Africa are per-
SONS who seem 10 be naturally spotted, |
not like the leopard boy known to our
museums, but with patches OF yellow or
brown which diversity their otherwise
black skins. Another interesting pecu-
liarity has also been recently observed.
That is, that different members of the
same family are sometimes OF different |
coiors. Black children and brown child
rem are found to &c brothers and sisters
just as We have brunettes and blondes in |
the same family. This peculiarity has |
also been recently observed by DR..
Finsch among the natives of New Gui- |
uea.-New York Sun. /