The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1892-10-14
AFRICAs PIGM1 TRIBES
BEARDED DwARFs INHABrT rHR
DARK CoNTINENT.
The Tribes of Little People Are wide
~ Separated, Bue Have Strikin,
ResembIauces-So Are Warlike

n that tribes OF dWaWe existed In
Africa. To-day authorities Hike
Schlichter, Feikin, and Others
affirm moi, only that the ancient writers
were dealing with fact and not fable
when they wrote of the dwarfs OF Central
Africa, but also that the world derived
important geographical facts from these
nwarfs. They believe, as did the
late Captain Stairs, that dwarfs found
their way in ancient times iuto Egypt,
and that they doubtless gave some infor.
nation about the 'sMountains of the
Moon" and the sources OF the Nile. The
theory that dwarfs from the upper Nile
regions did reach Egypt is fortified in
striking manner by the recent discovery
on an old Egyptian monument of the
picture of a dwarf with the name Aka
beside it, which is the name of the most
famous of the Central African dwarf
tribes; but later centuries had No faith
in dwarf tribes; and the Testimony of
more than one recent discovery was
needed before the Interesting subject
attracted much attention. Some fifteen
explorers have within the past few years
added many facts to our knowledge ~s
the dwarfs, and though oyr acquaintance
with them is still incomplete, enough
facts have been obtained to enable us to.
take a general view Of th@se curious lit.
tie people.
One group of these pigmics, the
Dokos, have not yet beenIvisited by any
explorer, and yet it is cettain that they
inhabIt, approximately, the region as
signed to them on our map south Of
hbyssiuia. 1t is hoped that before long
some explorer will visit them in their
home and tell us more about them.
Avauchers, Krapf aud d'Abbadie, all
travellers Of authority, have met many of
them, and, Independently of one another,
have borne testimony to their existence.
They were described by these men as
having the same characteristics that
mark tho Equatorial dwarfs who were
not known for years after the Dokos mad
excited the curiosity Of ethnologists.
Professor Hartman in 1875 collected on
the east coast trustworthy reports about
the Dokos. confirming th4 earlier reports.
The Dokos are said to be dark brown in
color, extremely ugly in physique, aud
about four feet high. They go entirely
without clothing and build most print
tive huts, which they cover with skins
or leaves. Their only occupation is
hunting. They change their quarters Us
soon as game becomes scarce, use only
poisoned arrows, aud are expert in catch
ing animals in traps and pitfalls. They
do not know the use of fire and cat the
flesh of serpents and other animals raw.
DIR. Henry Schlichter, who has collated
all the evidence at hand relating to these
perfect savages, says, that although
their country has never been visited, it
can safely be said that steast of the Milo
and to the south of Kaffa in the unex-
plored territories to the south of the
river ONO there exists a pigmy race
similar in size, appearance aud habits to
the dwarfs of tho uppes Nile and Congo
sssiisTsd amsds IL is grobsble that they are
race and customs like Ss...s.-.-.-..---
West aud Central Africa.
1t is now possible to divide the dwarfs
OF Africa into four groups-the pigmies
of West Africa, known as the Obongo,
Akoa, aud Babongo, who were first met
in recent times by Du Chaillu; the
dwarfs of the central regions, known as
the t.%ls, Wambutti, and Batua, dis
covered aud described by Grenfell, Won
Francois, Lenz. Wolf, Wiseman, and
others; the East African pigmies, known
as the Dokos, though they probably
compose several tribes speaking several
different dialects; and the dwarfs south
of the Congo basin who are the bushmen
and their relatives of South Africa.
Some time ago Mr.. Halliburton reported
the discovery of dwarfs among the Atlas
Mountains of Morocco, but the reports
about these alleged pigmies are not yet
sufficiently authenticated to be accepted
as fact.
Among all these widely separated
dwarf tribes exist resemblances SO strik-
fng that these little peoples are now
believed to be tho branches of the same
great family that by one cause or another
was separated perhaps centuries ago,
until to-day its parts are divided by
hundreds OF miles of territory in which
no dwarfs are found. They are all inis
gratory, never remaining long in one
place, though they do not often wander
far out OF their own district. Although
! all of them are savages of the very low.
est type, their cunning and skill as hun
tiers are most remarkable. They live
among tribes OF ordinary stature whom
they supply with dried meat aud fish in
exchange for vegetable food, knives, and
other articles. They iatormarry only to
a small extent with their larger neigh
bors, and as rule ATE very shy in their
intercourse with other peoples, which
accounts for the fraJ Jmentary information
we at present pd;sess about them.
Beards are deyclopeG among them wpsa
largely than among lareer neiobbors
All Oh tnem exss ne, In nimbieness.
an aex'e5,y * insys.ieiss a kss. for aakehiaa
game. Every 81 1aoy has seen pc Z
lures of native SO sds dis yuising tha1tf
selves in ostrich skins to get withiQ3fSf
| shot Of these shy birds. It is.o q
dwarf bushmen who practise thisteY YteeS
Livingstone said thpt the dYaFf Iufl
killed many lions with dior iAj ahi az
aut.lookiug arrows WekhSSS<es Ifttic
as vet about their languages aud dialects,