The Rugby news. (Rugby, Morgan County, Tenn.) 1890-189?, 1890-11-29
The PIGMY RACES.
The Dwarfs of Mythology and Those Seen
by Stanley in Africa.


by Stanley in Africa.
Not the least interesting of the dis
coveries made by Mr.. Stanley on his
latest expedition is that of the Wam-
batti-the dwarf tribe living between
the Upper Aruhwimi and the Nepoko.
1t has long been a well-known fact that
the Pygmies of Homer, Herodotus and
Ktesias-those of whom Pliny speaks as
dwelling among the marshes where
the Nile rises'-are something more
than mere mythical bein gs, and almost
every exploration of any Importance
undertaken of late years has thrown
fresh light on the existence of priml-
tive African race,-of whom the Wam-
BATH are in all probability one of many
fragments, scattered through central
and southern Africa.
These tribes, usually designated
dwarfs or pygmies, are numerous, bear
ing marked resent blance to each other
and showing marked difference from
the people among whom they are scat
tered. Their surest and most perma-
nent characteristic is their hair, which
is woolly, but instead of being, as in the
negro, evenly distributed over the escalp,
grows in small tufts. This appearance,
according to Prof. Virchow, is not due
to the fact that the hair grows on some
spots and not on others, but to pecu'
liarity in the texture of the hair itself
which causes it to roll naturally into
closely curled spiral locks, leaving the
intervening pieces of scalp bare.
The name of dwarfs, applied by some
to these people, has been objected to a:
implying deformity or arrested growth
and therefore conveying wrong i'm
preston. Nothing of the kind can b.
said of the African Pygmies, who
though short of stature, are well-shape(
people of perfectly normal formation.
The section of the Pygmy race will
which Europeans have come most il
contact is the Hottentots and Bushmen
The former call themselves "Khoi
Khoi," Hottentots being merely nick
name given by the early Dutch settlers
who declared that the natives spoke a
nnintelligible language consisting onl
of sounds like hot and tot. That kee
observer, Moffat, as long ago as the frs
I decade of this century, noticed the ai
tinct and and peculiar characteristics {
the Hottentots and recognized the
racial identity with the Bushmen.
Surveying the Pygmy race as who'll
we find them (shorn of the mythical an
magical glamour with which distanc
and mystery have invested them) not s
very different, after all, from other HI
man beings, but still sufficiently inte1
esting. No well-au authenticated adu
seems to be much less than four fee
six inches, while DR.. Petermann think
that the Pygmies, on the whole, I'll
about head shorter than the averag
negro.
1 can not attempt to deal with tn
origin of the Pygmy race, or its rel;
tionship to the Andamese and the Vet
dahs of Ceylon, who are said to hav
some charac teristics in common with tn
Pygmies. But it seems clear that the
were once spread over a great part,
not the whole, of the continent; tina
they were broken up and partially e1
terminated by the advent of tn
stronger dark races; and that, as race
they are passing away 1t is interes
ing to look at an analogous case i
Europe. A race of small stature, ligh
frame and comparative low type
scarcely, if at all, advanced beyond tn
hunter stage, occupied the British is.
ands and the northwestern part of tn
continent. They were partly massacre
orenslaved, partly driven into the mou1
tains by their Keltic conquerers; and
) the lonely recesses of the hills an
woods-what with their weakness an
their strength, their cunning and thei
skill in metals, their music and the!
underground dwellings and the:
strange. uncanny wisdom-a growth {
legend and poetry sprang up abor
: them, till they were no longer know
save as elves, gnomes, trolls or ''goo
: people," whom one dare not name.
Gentlemans Magazine.