The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-07-19
DWARFS OF ARUWIML
stanley's Description Of the Pigmiss in
the Forests Of Central Africa
Those Remarkable Liliputions are From
Three to Four Feet High-rhey are Pos
sessed Of Mnch Natural intelligence and
Know the histories OF woodcraft.

Darwinlsm. TO the pigmy tribes whom
we found inhabiting the tract OF coun-
try between Ihuru and lturi rivers.
says Stanley in an address reported In
the London Times. They we're known
10 exist by the father OF poets nine
centuries before the beginning OF the
Christian era. You may remember
Homer wrote about the sanguinary
battle that was reported to have taken
place between the pigmies and the
storks. In the fifth century before
Christ Herodotus described the cap
tnre of five young explorers from Mas
samoves while they were examining
some curious trees In the Niger basin.
and how the little men took them 70
their villages and showed them about
to their fellow-pigmies. much as you
would like US 10 show the pigmies
about England.
lturi river, our hungry men found the
first male and female OF the pigmies
squatted In the midst OF wild Eden.
peeling plantains. You can imagine
what shock IL was 10 the poor little
creatures at finding themselves sud-
denly surrounded by gigantic Soudan-
csc, feet 4 inches In height, nearly
double their own height and weight,
and black as coal. But my zanzibaris.
always moro tender-hearted than Sou
danese, prevented the dubbed rifle aud
cutlasses from extiSguishing 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 longicorn for inspection.
As they stood trembling before me /
named the little man Adam and the
miniature woman Eve-far more APP
propriate names 10 tho wild Eden on
Ituri than the Vukukuru and Ahiok wa
which they gave us. As | looked at
them and thought how these repro
scented the oldest people on the globe.
my admiration would have gone to
greater lengths than scofiing cynics
would have expected.
The height OF the man was feet;
that OF tho woman little loss. He
may have weighed about IS pounds;
tho color OF tho body was that OF a
half-bakcd brick. and light brown
foil stood out livery clearly. So far as
natural intelligence was concerned.
within his limited experience he was
certainly 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 He could have given
US valuable lessons how 10 find our
way through the forest. l saw also
that he could adapt himself to circum-
stances. II the pot was to end him, a
very little shrinking only would betray
his fear OF pain; IL he were TO be
treated affectlonately. none could DO
so ready TO appreciate affection and
kindness.
We began to question him by ges-
lures ''Do you know where we can
get bananasp" lie catches the cue, he
grasps his leg to show US the size. and
mods his head rapidly. informing us
that he knows where To find bananas
OF the size OF his leg. One sees that
he can exaggerate as we'll as Mark
Twain. Laughter. We point to the
four quarters OF the compass, question
ingly. He points to the sunrise in re-
ply. "Is IL farP" He shows a hands
length. An. good days journey
without loads. two days with loadsl
"Do you know the Ihurup" He mods
his head rapidly. GLOW far Is itP"
He rests his right hand sideways on
his elbow joint '-Oh. four days jour
ney" ''Is there much food on tho
roadpr He pats his abdomen loving
ly with an artful smile and brings his
two hands TO point In front OF him.
from which we may infer that our
paunches will become like PROSTATE
pyramids.
suppose We must have passed
through as many as 100 villages in
habitcd by the plgmies. Long, how
ever. before we reached them they
were deserted and utterly clean-
ed out. Our foragers may
have captured about fifty OF
these dwarfs, only one OF whom
reached the height of59 inches. They
varied from 80 TO so inches generally.
They are so VOL proportional that Mt