Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-09-26
DWARFS OF ARUWIML
SANKEY'S Description of the Pigmies in
the Forests of Central Africa
These Remarkable Liliputions are From
Three to Four Feet High-Thsy are Pos
sessed Of Much Natural Intelligence and
Know the histories of woodcraft.

try between lhuru and lturl rivers,
says Stanley in an address reported in
the London Times. They were known
to 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
ture 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 to
their villages and showed them about
to their fellow pigmies, much as you
would like us to show the pigmies
about England.
Near q place called Avetiko, on the
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 a shock it was to the poor little
creatures at finding themselves sud
denly surrounded by gigantic Soudan-
csc, 6 feet inches in height, nearly
double their own height and weight,
and black as coal. But my Zanzibaris.
always more tender-hearted than Sou
danese, prevented the dubbed rifle and
cutlasses from exti3guishing 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 trent bling before me |
named the little man Adam and the
miniature woman Eve-far more APP
propriate names in the wild Eden on
Ituri than the Fukukuru and Akiok q
which they gave us. AS Ielooked at
them and thought how these repre-
sented the Oldest people on the globe.
my admiration would have gone to
greater lengths than soothing cynics
would have expected.
The height of the man was feet;
that of the woman little less. He
may have weighed about So pounds;
the color of the body was that of "a
half baked brick, and light brown
foil stood out very 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 to find our
way through the forest. | saw also
that he could adapt himself to circum-
stances If the pot was to end him, a
very little shrinking only would betray
treated affectionately, none could be
so ready to appreciate affection and
kindness
We began to question him by ges-
lures. 'Do you know where we can
get bananas?" He 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 well as Mark
Twain. Laughter. We point to the
four quarters of the compass, question
ingly. He points to the sunrise in re-
ply. sis it far?" He shows a hands
length. All, a good days journey
without loads, two days with loads!
"Do you know the Ihuru?" He mods
his head rapidly. "How far is it?"
He rests his right hand sideways Oh
his elbow joint "Oh, four days Jour-
ney." as there much food on the
roadP" He pats his abdomen loving
ly with an artful smile and brings his
two hands to a point in front of him.
from which we may infer that our
paunches will become like pros trate
pyramids.
| suppose we must have passed
through as many as 100 villages in
habited by the pigmies. 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 of 81 inches. They
varied from 80 to 80 inches generally.
They are so well proportional that at
first sight they might be taken for
ordinary mankind, but when we
place by their side a Euro
pean, a Soudanese, or Mahdi
they appear exceedingly diminutive
By the side OF dwarfs of mature age a
Zanzibar boy of - would appear
large
The agricultural settlements in this
reg ion are to be found every nine or
ten miles apart, and near each settle
ment at an hours march distance will
be found from four to eight pigmy vii
lagos situated along the paths leading
to it. The larger aborigines are very
industrious and form a clearing oil
400 to 1000 acres. Amid the PROSTATE
forests they plant their banana and
plantain bulbs. In twelve months the
PROSTATE trees are almost hidden by
the luxuriant fronds and abundant
fruit of unrivaled quality and size, and
fla or. II would be easy to prove
that in the forest an acre of banana
plants produces twenty five times more
food than an acre in wheat produces
| in lA ,Ntx.,