Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-15
THE DwARFs OF MOROCCO.
A Race of Human Beings Under Four Feet
in Height.


A Race of Human Beings Under Four Feet
in Height.
At recent congress of orientaists in
London, r. 6. Halliburton read an inter
esting paper on dwarfS, In the course of
which he said:
The singular and at first sight incred-
IDLE fact that the existence of race of
dwarfs under feet high in the Atlas
mountains, only few hundred miles from
least been KEEP! profound secret by the
the scientific world by a paper of mine,
read In my absence at the Bath meeting
of the British association in 1888. The
information which had been collected by
me, confirmed by that subsequently OBJ
tanned at Tiemcen, Algeria. by Miss Day
and at Tangier by the Rt.-Hon. Sir John
Drummond Hay, who for more than
quarter of century held the post of Brit
ish minister in Morocco. had placed the
fact that such a race really exists beyond
any question; but it seemed to me to be
prudent to defer publishing the paper until
a point almost as interesting as that of
the existence If that race could be cleared
strangers knowing about this pigmy race?
Even to the inquiries of our late minister,
Sir William KIRBY Green, Blu Bekr,
the confidential agent of the British
govern ment at the city of Morocco, replied
that no Moor had ever even heard of such
a race.
at was clear that an ancient and deep.
seated superstition must be at the bottom
of oil h. hot vi 70,
clear up the point [ must spend several
months in Morocco. After lapse of two
years visited that country early in No.
vember last, and remained until June 10,
seven months in all, aud during the
evidence both from natives and from
Europeans who resided in that country.
Every dwarf, it appeared, is called Sidi
Borracker COur Blessed LordO, and is
looked on as a great saint and a holy man.
The mystery that has so long been kept up
about them is apparently vestige of an
and protectors, bringers of good luck.
When my Susi servant early in 1888 told
me of a race of dwarfs who are to be found
in Aka, district south of Morocco,
bounding southerly on the Sahara, he des
cribed them as being about 4 feet high,
possessing wonderful agility, and in color
like the red Indians of America. Two
months after that his apparently incredi-
Tile story was confirmed by my reading
that a reddish complexion Cresembl-
ing the color of slightly roasted coffee )and
great agility are Distinguishing marks of
the dwarf Akkas Of the district of Aka,
near the Albert Nyanza, who are also
about feet high, but are savages.
I'm equatorial Africa it has been OBJ
served with interest that the larger races
near the dwarfs resem BILE them in color. In
the Ora valley, south of Mount Atlas, the
dwarfs are called the little Haratin'
The large Haratin' Tor, more properly,
the larger were known to the ancients as
the MelaEo-Gatuli, or the Dare, or Gatuli
Dare, and have either a reddish black
complexion, from iLtermarriages between
the dwa1fs and negritian race, or yell
lowlsh color, from a cross between the
dwarf and light -colored tribes. The Ora
is spelled by Leo Africanus Oars, and one
of the names for its inhabitants is Draoui.
Gatuii-Dua means ORA Geculians. The
larger Harath are generally about feet
high, though many tall men among thea
are to be found. In Sus, which lies
between the ocean and Ora and Aka, the
dwarfs are called Aglimen. and their off
shoots are rather small race with light
red complexion. tribe of acrobats called
Ait Sid Hamed Moussa ('the tribe of
our Lard Hamed, then son OF Moses' with
whom the dwarfs perform in southern Mo-
rocco, avoiding the coast towns where Eu.
rOpeans are.
''These acrobats from Morocco, who are
smiths and thinkers, are according to Bruy-
sal Bey egypt Under the Pharaohs, vol.
l., p. s., presented on the monuments of
the fourth dy nasty as performing in Egypt!
How long previously they had been known
to the Egyptians can not be conjectured.
NO doubt centuries, perhaps thousands of
years, nor is it likely that they limited
their wandering to Egypt. They prob
ably found their way to the southern or
northern shores of the Mediterranean.
Troy they did not exist. The Greeks
were savages. The dwarfs were regarded
and reverenced is very holy men, even
though it can not be denied that they
shave their faces, and are not supposed to
have the prophet as much as they should
Some say that they are Christians; others
say that they are idolaters and worship
Didoo Istri.' sometimes | have little
difficulty In getting the Moors to speak of
them, though they have exclaimed with
surprise: How do you come to know
anything about then.?' But superstitious
natives, and especially the Haratin living
near Tomanart in the ORA valley, have
often cut short the conversation on my
pressing them to tell me as to the dwarfs,
etc One said: Ut is sin to speak about
them to you. | shall say nothing.
Others say: God has sent them to us
We must not talk about them A
young Jew now living in Manchester. but
a native of Mogador, said that the Moors
worshipped these Bankers, ana would no
talk freely about them to the Jews. He
had tried to find out about them, but
without success. He had constantly when
ooy seen an old Barker who died at
Mogadoa1 about eight or ten years ago
and who was looked on as great saint
and as such was kissed on the shoulders
by the Moors as they passed him In the
street. These dwarfs are supposed to
bring good luck to the towns where they
reside and are guardians and protectors
resembling in this respect the Palladium
of the Trojans. IL strangers were to
succeed in carrying them out of the country
good luck would depart with them. 1t is
probable that some such superstitlonsu be-
lief was at the bottom of the dI fculty
which puzzled and baffied Schweinfurtb
in his attempt to get sight of the dvarfs
Akkas of the Monbuto country, the King
of which sent away by night his regi ment
of dwarfs, so as tc keep them out Of the
way of bis visitor. The dwarfs of Moant
Atlas are called Pa.H ('ancestors patti