Los Angeles herald., 1890-06-09
AFRICAN PYGMIES.
The Tribe of Prehistoric Ancestry
Which Stanley Encountered.

winch SCanley encountered.
Near place called Avetiko, on the
Ituri river, our hungry men found the
first male and female of the pygmies
squatted in the midst of a wild Eden,
peeling plantains. You can imagine
what shock it was to the poor little
creatures at finding themselves suddenly
surrounded by giant Sudanese six feet
four inches in height, nearly double their
own height and weight, and black as coal.
But my own Zanzibaris, always more
tenderhearted than Sudanese, prevented
the dubbed rifle and cutlasses from ex-
tinguishing their lives there and then,
and brought them to me as prizes in the
same spirit as they would have brought
a big hawkmoth or mammoth longicorn
for inspection. AS they stood tremb-
lingly before me, named the little man
Adam and the miniature woman Eye
far more appropriate names in the wild
Eden on the Ituri than the Uukukuru
and Akiokwa which they gave us. AS L
looked at them and thought how these
represented the oldest people on the
globe, my admiration would have
gone to greater lengths than scoff-
ing cynics would have expected.
Poor Greekish heroes and Jewish patri-
archs, how their glory paled before the
ancient ancestry OF these manikins
Had Adam known how to assume a
tragic pose, how fifty he might have
said: 'Yea, you may we'll look on us,
for we are the onl ly 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
oh
the sea of Darkness, and, like the giants
of the forest, we despise time and fate"
But, poor little things, they said moth
ing of the kind. They did not know
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 victim in the presence of
a possible butcher, and a possible
consumer of its flesh. That misery
was evident i'll 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 85 pounds; the color of
the body was that of half-baked brick.
and a light brown fell stood out very
clearly. So far as natural intelligence
was concerned, within his limited expe-
rience, he was certainly superior to any
black man in our camp. The mysteries
of woodcraft, for instance, he knew bet
ter than any OF us he knew what wild
fruits were wholesome, and what fungi
were poisonous.
l suppose we must have passed through
as many as 100 villages inhabited bv 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 fifty-four inches. They
varied from thirty-nine to fifty inches
generally. They are so we'll proper
toned that at first sight they might be
taken for ordinary mankind, but when
we place by their side European,
Sudanese or Madi they appear exceed
ingly diminutive. By the side of dwarfs
OF mature age Zanzibar boy of u 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 indus
trious, and form clearing of from 400
to 1000 acres. Amid the PROSTATE for
ests they plant their banana and plan
tain bulbs. In twelve months the
prostrate trees are almost hidden by the
luXuriant fronds and abundant fruit of
unrlvaled quality, size and flavor.
IL would be easy to prove that
IN the forest an acre of banana
plants produces twenty-five times more
1000 than an acre in wheat produces in
England. The pygmies appear to be
aware that banana plantation is mex
haustible, and to think that they have
as much right to the produce as the
aboriginal owners. Therefore, they cling
to these plantations, and make the
larger natives pay dearly for the honor
OF their acquaintance. In another man
ner they perform valuable service
to them by warning them of
tne advance OF strangers and
assisting them TO defend their
settlements; they also trap game and
BIRDS, and supply the larger natives
with poultry, feathers and meat. 1t ap-
peared to me that the pygmies we're re-
garded somewhat as parasites, whose
departure would be more welcome than
their vicinity. When honey and game,
meat, poultry and feathers get low
or scarce in the .neighborhood, the
pygmies pack their household goods
on their women's backs and de-
part elsewhere to attach them
solved to some other plantations.
A forest village consists OF from twenty
to 100 families Of pygmies, and probably