The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-10-01
PYcMY RACES.
Btanley's Wambetti, the Hcttentots ant
Bushmen, and Early Britons.

Not the least interesting of the dis
coveries made by Mr.. Stanley on his
latest expedition. says the GerattemlG,a'S
Magazine, is that of the Wambetti-
the dwarf tribe living between the
Upper Aruhwimi and the Nepoko. 1t
has long been 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 beings; and
almost every exploration of any impor-
tance undertaken of late years has
thrown fresh light on the existence of
a primitive African race, of whom the
Wambetti are in all probability one of
many fragments, scattered through
central and southern Africa.
The tribes usually designated dwarfs
or pygmies are numerous, bearing a
marked resemblance 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
scalp, grows in small tufts. This
appearance, according to Prof. Vir-
chow, is not due to the fact that the
hair grows on some spots and not on
others, but to popularity in the text
ure 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 as implying deformity or arrested
growth, and therefore conveying .
wrong impression. Nothing of the
kind can be said of the African Pyg-
mics, who. though of short stature,
are well shaped people of perfect nor.
NAL formation.
The section of th Pygmy race with
which Europeans have come most in
contact is the Hottentots and Bush.
men. The former call themselves
"Khoi-Khoi, Hottentots being merely
q nickname given by early Dutch set
tiers, who declared that the natives
spoke an uuintelligible language, con-
sisting only of sounds like hot and tot.
That keen observer. Moffatt, as long
ago as the first decade of this century,
noticed the distinct and peculiar char
acteristics of the Hottentots, and rec
ognized their racial identity with the
Bushmen.
Surveying the Pygmy race as
whole, we find them-shorn of the
mythical and magical glamor with
which distance and mystery had in
vested them-not so very different,
after all, from other human beings,
but still sufficiently interesting. No
well authenticated adult seems to be
much less than 4 feet inches; while
DIR. Petermann thinks that the Pyg-
mics, on the whole, run about head
shorter than the average negro.
can not attempt to deal with the
origin of the Pygmy race, or its rela-
tionship to the Andamese and the
Veddahs of Ceylon, who are said to
have some characteristics in common
with the Pygmies. But it seems clear
that they were once spread over
great part, if not the whole, of the
continent; that they were broken up and
partially exterminated by the advent
of the stronger dark races; and that,
as race, they are passing away. II
is interesting to look at an analogous
case in Europe. A race of small stat
ure, light frame and comparatively
low type, scarcely, if at all, advanced
beyond the hunter stage. occupied the
British islands and the northwestern
part of the continent. They were
partly massacred or enslaved, partly
driven into the mountains, by their
Kettle conquerors; and in the lonely
recesses of the hills and woods-what
with their weakness and their strength,
their cunning and their skill in metals.
their music and their underground
dwellings, and their uncanny wisdom
a growth of legend and poetry sprang
up about them, till they were no longer
known save as elves, gnomes. strolls or
Good People" whom one dared not