The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-06-14
AFRICAN PYeMIEs.
The Tribe Of Prehistoric Ancestry
Which Stanley Encountered.

The Tribe Of Prehistoric Ancestry
Which Stanley Encountered.
Near place called Avertiko, on
the Ituri river, our hungry men
found the first male and female of
the pygmies squatted in the midst
of wild Eden peeling plantains.
You can imagine what a shock it
was to the poor little creatures at
finding themselves suddenly sur
rounded by gigantic Sudanese SIX
feet four inches in height, nearly
double their own height and weight,
and black as coal. But my own
Zanzabaris, always more tender
hearted than Sudanese, prevented
the clubbed rifle and cutlasses from
extinguishing their lives there and
then, and brought them to me as
prizes in the same spirit as they
would have brought a big hawk
moth or mammoth longicorn for
inspection. AS they stood trem-
blingly before me, | named the
little man Adam and the miniature
woman Eve, for more appropriate
names in the wild Eden on the Ituri
than the Unkukuru and Akiokwa
which they gave US. AS | looked
at them and thought how these rep
resented the oldest people on the
globe, my admiration would have
gone to greater lengths than scoffing
cynics would have expected. Poor
Greekish heroes and Jewish patri-
archs, how their glory paled before
the ancient ancestry of these man.
ikins! Had Adam known how to
assume tragic pose, how fifty he
might have said: "Yea, you may
we'll 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 forest, we despise time
and fate"
But, poor little things, they said
nothing of the kind. They did not
know that they were the heirs Of
such proud and unequaled heritage.
On the contrary, their faces said
clearly enough, as they furtively
looked at one and the other of US,
"Where have these big people come
from? Will they eat us?" There
were some nervous twitches about
the angles of the nose, and quick
upliftings 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 posi-
BILE butcher, and a possible consumer
of it's flesh. That misery was evi-
dent in the little Adam and Eve of
the African Eden. The height Of
the man was four feet, that,of the
woman a little less. He may have
weighed about 50 pounds; the color
of the body was that of a half-baked
brick, and a light brown fell stood
out very clearly. So far as natural
intelligence was concerned, within
his limited experience, he was GER
tainly superior to any black man in
our camp. The mysteries of wood
craft, for instance, he knew better
than any of US; he knew what wild
fruits were wholesome, and what
fungi were poisonous.
/ suppose we must have passed
through as many as 100 villages in
habited by the pygmies. 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 "a in
ches. They varied from 80 inches
to 50 inches generally. They are
so we'll proportioned that at first
sight they might be taken for ordi-
nary mankind, but when we place
by their side European, Sudan
ese or Madi they appear exceed
ingly diminutive. By the side of
dwarfs of mature age Zanzibar
boy of thirteen would appear large.
The agricultural settlements in
this region are to be found every
nine or ten miles apart and near
each settlement, at an hours march
distance, will be found from four to
eight pygmy villages situated along
the paths leading to it. The larger
aborigines are very industrious and
form a clearing of from 400 to 1000
acres. Amid the PROSTATE forests
they plant their banana and plan
tain bulbs. In twelve months the
PROSTATE trees are almost hidden
by the luxuriant fronds and abun-
dant fruit of unrivaled quality, size
and flavor. It would be easy to
prove that in the forest an acre OF
banana plants produces twenty-five
times more food than an acre of
wheat produces in England. The
pygmies appear to be aware that a
banana plantation is sinexhapstible,
and to think that they have as
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