Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-07-03
DWARFS OF ARUWIMI.
Stanley's Description of the Pigmies
in the Great Forest Region of
Central Africa.
These Remarkable Liliputians Have a
Stature Ranging from Thirty-Nine
Up to Fifty-FOur Inches.

the tract or country between iuurt anu
Ituri rivers. says Stanley in an address re-
ported in the London Times. They were
known to exist by the father of poets nine
centuries before the beginning of Chris
tian era. You may remember Homer wrote
about the saguinary battle that was re-
ported to have taken place between the
pigmies and the storks, In the fifth CEN
fury before Christ Herodotus described the
capture of five young explorers from Mas
samoyes while they were examining some
curious trees in the Niger basin, and how
the little men took them to their villages
and showed them about r. their fellow
pigmies, much as you would like to show
the pigmies about England. The geogra-
pher Hekateus in the fifth century loeat-
ed the pigmies near the equator of Africa,
under the shadows of the Mountains of
the Moon. and find that from Hipparchus
downward geographers have faithfully
followed the example of HekatRus, and
nearly year ago we found them where
they had been located by tradition, under
the names of Watwa and Wambutti. The
forest which we have been just considering
extends right up to the base line of the
Mountains of the Moon.
Near the place called Avetiko. on the
Ituri river, our hungry men found the first
male and female Of the pigmies squatted
in the midst of a wild Eden, peeling
plantains. You can imagine what d
shock it was to the poor little creatures at
finding themselves suddenly surrounded
by gigantic Soudanese, 6 feet 4 inches in
height nearly double their own height
and weight. and black as coal. But my
Zanzibaris, Away more tender hearted
than Soundanese, prevented the dubbed
rife and cutIaSses from eXtingulshlng
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 mammoth longlcorn for inspec-
ton. As they stood trembling before me
named the little man Adam and the
miniature woman Eye-far more appro-
pirate names in the wild Eden on the
lturi than the Vukukuru and Akiokwa
which they gave US. As looked at them
and thought how these represented the
oldest people on the globe, my admiration
would nave gone to greater lengths than
cotiing cynics would have expected. Poor
Greekish heroes and Jewish patriarchs, how
their glory paled before the ancient ances-
try of these manikins. Had Adam known
how to assume a tragic pose, how titly he
might have said: Yea you may well
look on US, for we are the only people
living on the face of the earth who from
primeval time have never been removed
from their homes Before Yusuf and
Mesu were ever heard of we lived in these
wild shades. from the Nile fountains to
the sea of Darkness. and, like the giants
of the forests we despise time and fate.
But poor little things they said moth
ing of the kind They did not know they
were heirs of such proud and unequaled
heritage IN the contrary, their faces
said clearly enough, as they furtlvely booked
at us: Where have these big people
come from? viii they eat us?' There
were some nervous witches about the am
giles Of the nose and quick upiiftings of the
eyelids. and swift, searching looks to note
what fate was in store for them 1t is not
a comfortable feeling which possesses a
victim in the presence of a possible butcher
and a possible consumer of its flesh. That
misery was evident in the little Adam and
Eve of the African Eden. The height of
the man was feet; that of the woman Il
little less. He may have weighed about
IS pounds; the color of his body was that
of half-baked brick. and a light brown
foil stood out very clearly. So far as natur-
al intelligence was concerned, within his
limited experience, lie was certainly supe-
rior to any black man in our camp. The
mysteries of woodcraft, for instance he
knew better than any of u.s. he knew what
Wild fruits were wholesome, and what
fungi were poisonous He could have
given us valuable lessons how to find our
oh, ht cor a no
he could adapt himself to circumstances.
If the pot was to eud him, a very little
shrinking only would betray his fear of
pain; if he were to be treated affection
ately, none could be so ready to appreciate
affection and kindness.
We began to question him by gestures
DO you know where we can get banan-
as?' He catches the cue, he grasps his
leg to show us the size, and mods his head
rapidly, informing Is that he knows
where to find bananas of the size of his
leg. one sees that he can exaggerate as
well as Mark Twain. Laughter. We
point to the four quarters Of the compass,
questionmgly. He points to the sunrise IN
reply. lis it far?' He shows a hand $
length All a good days journey with
out loads, two DAYS with loads! DO you
know the Ihurul" He mods his head rap
idly. How far Is it?'' He rests his
right hand sideways on his elbow joint
"Oh, four days journey. rs there
much food on the road?" He pats his alb
domen lovingly with artful smile and
brings his two hands to a point in front of
him, from which we may infer that our
paua Mes will become like PROSTATE pyra-
mids We ask him why A~eiso has so
little food The little man attempts to i'm
itate the sound Of gun-shots and cries
"Do-o-o-o, and we are informed quite in
diligently that the devastation is due to
the Manyuema.
suppose we must have passed through
as many as one hundred villages inhabited
by the pigmies Long, however, before
we reached them they were deserted and
utterly cleaned out. Our foragers and
scouts may have captured about fifty of
these dwarfs. only one of whom reached
the height Of 81 inches. They varied from
SO inches to 80 inches generally, They
are so well proportional that at first sight
they might be taken for ordinary man
kind, but when we place b. their side a
European, a Sotdanese, or hahdi