The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1890-06-11
PYGMIES IN AFRICA.
Little People Discovered by Mr..
Stanley on His Recent Expedi-
ton.

ThA longevity of the animal
creation found in the rivers and
shades of these aged woods is
sometimes worth glancing at. The
elephant aud hippopotamus and
the crocodile may boast of their 400
years Of life, the tortoise century,
the buffalo 80 years, the crows, ca.
giles. ibis, and touracos nearly a
century, the parrot, the heron and
flamingo GO years.
From the chimpanzees, balloons
and monkeys, with which the for
est abounds,is but a step, accoi ding
to Darwinism, to the pygmy tribes
whom we found inhabiting the
tract of country between the Ihuru
and Ituri rivers. They were known
tc exist by the father of poets nine
centuries before the beginning of
the Christian era. You may re-
member Homer wrote about the
sanguinary battle that was report,
ed to have taken place between the
pygmies and the stUrks. In the
9th century before Christ, Hero
dotus described the capture of five
young explorers from. Nassamoves
while they were examining some
curious trees in the Niger basin,
and how the little men took them
to their villages and showed them
to their fellow pygmies about
England. The geographer Hekat-
aetus, in the fifth century, located
the 2ygmies near the equator of
Africa, under the shadows of the
Mountains of the Moor, and | find
that from Hipparchus downward
geographers have faithfully follows
ed. the example of Hekataetus, and
near ly a year ago we found them
where they had been located by ira
dition under the names of Watwa
and Wambutti. The forest which
we have been just considering
extends right up to the ba:eline
of the Mountains of the Moon.
We are just now paying due
reverence to the kings of the forest
who were born before the founda-
tons of the tower on Shinar plain
were laid, and because it seemed to
us that in then life they united
prehistoric times to this society,"
journal loving nineteenth century.
Let us pause little and pay hon
or to those little people who have
outlived the proud Pharaohs OF
Egypt, the chosen people of PaIes-
tine, and the emperors of Babylon,
Ninevah, Persia and the Macedo-
man and Roman Empires. They
have actually been able to hold the
lands tor over fifty centuries. |
have lately seen the wear and tear
on the pyramids of Egypt, and |
can certify that the old Sphynx
presents "a very battered appear
ance indeed, but the pygmies APP.
peared to me as bright, as fresh
and as young as the generation
which Homer sang about.
You will therefore understand
that |, who have always protessed
to love humanity in preference TO
beetles loud laughter], was as
much interested IT, these small
creatures as Henry Irving might
be in the personnel of the Lyceum.
Near Il place called Avetico, on the
lturi river, our hungry men found
the first male and female of the
pygmies squatted in the midst Of a
wild Eden peeling plantains. You
can immagine what shock it was
to the poor little creatures at 6nd>
ing themselves suddenly surround
ed by gigantic Soudanesc 6 feet 4
inches in height. nearly double
their own height and weight, and
black as coal. But my Zanziharls,
always more tender-hearted than
Soudanese, prevented the dubbed
rife and cutlass from extinguish,
ing their lives there and then, and
brought them to me as prizes in
the same spirit as they would have
brought big hawk moth or man.
moth lougicorn for inspection. A:
they stood tremblingly before m,
/ named the little man Adam anC
the miniature woman Eve, far NOR,
appropriate names in the wild Edel
ON the Ituri than the Vukukurl
and Akiokwa which they gave us
AS / looked at them, and though
how these represented the oldes
manila IN tho 0lohe my odni.