The morning call., 1891-01-25

men and women of the period, and we can
produce evidences to prove that man,
throughout all periods since he came on the
earth, has been creature separate and dis
tlnct from all others, from the fact that he
possessed a mind.
intellectually the pigmies of the African
forests are the equals of about 30 per cent
OF the modern inhabitants of any great
American city of to-day. And yet there has
Deen no change or progress of any kind
among the pigmies of the forest since the
time OF HerodotuS. as the bird has bulded
its nest, the bee its cell, and the ant its new
colony, the pigmes have survived the lapse
OF twenty-three centuries, and have con-
tlnued to build their beehive huts after the
same sklileSS fashion as they built them in
the days when HerodOtuS recited the story
of his travels before the Council IF Atheus,
AS years before the birth of Christ.
Many centuries before the Asiatics came
to Lower Egypt the ancestors of the pgmies
must havAoccupied the lower delta of the
oxerdsman Living in Ungovo they were located
- Lake Albert, near the equator.
1t Will be inferred. then, that the an
cestors of the pigmies were in much more
comfortable circumstances than their wild
progeny are to-day within tile recesSes of
the sappy woods of the rainy zone of
Africa; that there has been a degradation,
in fact, though not to any great extent, from
a former happier state.
As We travelled nearly 100 miles through
the forest in our marches to and fro we
came across particular section of the forest
region situated between the Ihuru and Itu.i
rlvers-about 10000 square miles in extent
which simply SWarmS with the pigmieS. We
passed some days by dozens of their forest
encampmentS, and We discovered by timing
our distances, that plgmy village was from
an hour to an hour and half from any
agricultural settlement.
A.. nj, inc. n Ir,.
earthly duties beyond providing for the
necessities of the day, there is not the
slightest doubt that "A slain foe would be
eaten. Such articles of use or or
nament as the pigmles possess they have
purchased or stolen from the agricultural
aborigines. They themselves neither hoe,
plant nor manufacture. Their head -dreSSes
belong to the fashion of the neishborh0Od
they are in their bark-coth ClOut has been
beaten INTO consistency by the planters and
bartered TO them for a scOopfu Of honey or
fur. Their arms OF defense, their utensils,
their wuudman's knife or AKIN fact every
thing has been obtained by purchase or
theft.
Their weapons consist of a small barbed
spear, short bow with a culver full of
wooden or iron pointed arrows, dagger
and small, handy, double-edged knife, at
tached by string above the elbow of the
lett arm. The bow is of very tough red
wood, generally of iron-w0od, aud the string
Is broad and polished strip of rattan (cala =
mus fiber. The bow is frequently decora-
ted with tasSelS at the ends, and strength
ened at the back by being run into a raw
monkey-tail, which, on drying, gives it
greater strength and preserves it. The ar
rows are shOrt-not more than from Is to 20
inches long.
The poisoned arrows seemed to have been
plunged into pot containing goodly
quantity of a resnous substance, and
twirled around in it and well soaked, and