The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-28
THE ARUwIMI DwARFs.
SANKEY'S Description of the Pigmies
in the Great Forest Region.
Frof,1 fbe london Times

Ituri rivers. 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 sanguin-
AIRY battle that was reported to have taken
Mace between the pigmies and the storks.
In the fifth century before Christ, Herodo-
tus described the capture of five young ex-
plorers from Nas:amoves 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
10 show the pigmies about England. The
peOgrapher Hekataus, in the fifth century.
located the pigmieS near the equator of
Africa, under the shadows of the Mountains
of the Moon, and | find that from Hip
parchus downward geographers have faith
fully followed the example of Hekat8us.
and nearly year ago we found them where
they had been located by tradition, under
the names of Watwa and Wambutti The
forest which we have been just considering
extends right up to the base line of the
Mountains of the Moon.
Near place called Avetiko, on the Ituri
river, our hungry men found the first male
and female Of the pigmies squatted in the
midst of a wild Eden peellng plantains.
You can imagine what g shock it was to the
poor little creatures at finding themselves
suddenly surrounded by gigantic Soudanese,
feet inches in hight, nearly double their
own hight and weight, and black as coal.
But my Zanzibaris, always more tender
hearted than Soudanese, prevented the
dubbed rife and cutlasses from extinguish-
ing their lives there and then, and brought
them to me as prizes in the same spirit as
they would have brought a big hawk, moth
or mammoth longlcorn for inspection As
they stood tremblingly before me l named
the little man Adam and the minia-
ture woman Eve, far more appropriate
names in the wild Eden OF the Ituri
than the s.Vukukuru 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 soothing
cynics would have expected. Poor Greek
ish heroes and Jewish patriarchs, how their
glory paled before the ancient ancestry of
these manikins! Had Adam known how to
assume tragic pose, how fifty he might
have said: Yea, you may well look on us,
for we are the only 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 wild shades, from the Nile
Fountains to the Sea of Darkness, and, like
the giants of the forest, we despise time
and fate"
But, poor little things, they said nothing
Of the kind. They did not know they were
heirs of such proud and unequaled heri-
tage. On the contrary, their faces said clearly
enough, as they furtively looked at one and
the other of US, Where have these big peo-
pie come from! Will they eat us?' There
were some nervous twichings about the
angles of the nose ard 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 a
victim in the presence of possible butcher,
and possible consumer of its flesh. That
misery was evident in the little Adam and
Eve of the African Eden. The height of
the man was four feet, that of the woman
little less. He may have weighed about
eighty Five pounds; tine color of the body
was that of b half-baked brick, aud light
brown fell stood out very clearly. So far
as natural intelligence was concerned,
within its limited experience, he was GER
tainly superior to any black man in our
camp. The mysteries of woodcraft. for in
stance, he knew better than any of us: he
knew what wild fruits were wholesome and
what fungi we're poisonous. He could have
given US valuable lessons how to find our
way through the forest | saw also that he
could adapt himself to circumstances. If
the pot was to end him, very little shrink
ing only would betray his fear of pain; if
he were to be treated affectionately none
could be so ready to appreciate affection
and kindness.
We began to question him by gestures
"Do you know where we can get bananas!'
He catches the cue, he grasps his leg to
show US the size and mods bis 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. questioningly. He points
to the sunrise in reply. SIS it farg' 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. Show far
is its" He rests his right hand sideways.on
the elbow joint. go, four days Journey"
rs there much food on the roadg' He pats
his abdomen lovingly with an artful smile
and brings his two hands to point in
front of him, from which we may infer
that our launches will become like pros
trate pyramids We ask him why Aveliko
has SO little food. The little man attempts
to initiate the sound of gunshots and cries
DO 90 o" and we are Informed quite in
diligently that the devastation is due to
the Manyuema.
l suppose we must have passed through
as many as 100 villages inhabited by the
pigmies. 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 thirtynin
inches to fifty inches generally. They are
so well proportioned that at first sight they
might be taken for ordinary mankind. but
when we place by their side a European,
Soudanese or Mahdi they appear exceed
ingly diminutive. By the side of dwarfs of
mature age a Zanzibar boy of Is would
appear large.
The agricultural settlements in this re-
g;on are to be found every nine or ten miles
apart, and near each settlement at an hours
mrrch distance will be found from four to
eight pigmy villages situated along the
paths leading to it. The larger aborIgnes
are very industrious, and form a clearing of
from 100 to 1000 acres. Amid the pros
trate forests they plant their banana and
paintain bulbs In twelve months the pros
trate trees are almost hidden by the luxu-
rant fronds and abundant fruit OF
unrivaled quality, size and flavor. 1t
wovld 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 England.
The pigmies appear to be aware that
banana plantation is inexhaustfble and to
think that they have as much right to the
produce as the aboriginal owners. There
fore they cling to these plantations and
make the larger natives pay dearly Tor the