Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-09-23

and Skill as hunters are most remark
able They live among tribes of ordil-
| AIRY stature, whom they supply with
| dried meat and fish in exchange for
vegetable food, knives and other
articles. They intermalTy only TO Il
| small extent with their neighbors and
us q rule are very shy in their inter
course with other peoples, which ac-
counts for the fragmentary information
we ut present possess Of them. Boards
| are developed among them more large
| ly than among other African tribes.
All Of them excel their larger neigh
! bOrS in deXterity as archers, in nimble-
ness and i'll ingenious devices for catch
ing game Every schoolboy has seen
pictures of native Africans Disgusting
| themselves in ostrich skins to get with
in bow shot Of these Shy birds. 1t IS
only the dwarf bushmen who practice
this device. Livingstone said that the
dWarfs he met killed many lions WITH
their insignificant looking arrows. We
know very little, as yet, about their
languages and dialects, but the incOm-
pletc yocabuIalies that have been col
(
Of these widely sevcScd tribes are iden-
teal
On the whole ii may be said that tn :
differences between these tribes are OF
, much less significance than the TIE
ScnnblanceS between the groups, and
Schweinfurth is doubtless correct in
saying that where the general similar
al II 81,
sink into insignificancc
The dWarfs Of the central regions
the Aka. Wambutti, Tikki-Tikki and
Batua, from the most important group
Of African pigmieS. They are all war,
, like, and few Of the tribes around them
have given explorers so much trOubl"
as the little folks who have logged
their caravans, skulking in the forest or
jungle where they can hardly be seen,
Ginning trees and swinging themselves
ont Oh the limbs with the agility of
monkeys, and from this vantage place
ShOW"ring down poisoned arrows upon
the enemy below. Explorers tell Of the
Batua swinging from branch to branch
rs trapcZc performers take flight from
one bar 10 another. Grcnfoll and No3
Francois were aStoundcd to see the
Batua scramble out on bOughS over
hanging the rivers until the limbs bent
low beneath their weight These Batlll
tribes extend over the whole southern
part Of The Congo basin ana doubt
less much additional information about
them viii be brought home by future
explorers. Very little is known Of them
ut present, except the fact Of their ca
. istcncc. CrhIirhtcr says that like III ,
Aka and the Wambutti their inter
course With the yariuOS tribes of oriin-
AIRY stature among whom they live is
usually Of Il friendly nature. partly be
cause the I;antu tribes are afraid 81
them and partly because The pigmirS
supply these tribes with flesh and skins
in cXchan%" for vegetable food. cooking
pots and other articles that may be TO
&arded as among the Injuries Of Afri-
can py@my life. Moreover. they are
thoroughly nj home in the forest, and
are, therefore. valuable to their Bantu
friends as spies and scouts in time of
feudS and warfare. The sites of their
cncampmCntS and villages are ALWAYS
carefully selected to prevent surprisa.
and Stanley describes their daily life as
being similar to that OF the Baatu 1On;i-
latIon among whom they live The Wo.
men do al the domestic work. erect
the beehive hutS. collect wood and
vegetable food, watch the fires and dry
the meat. The men spend most Of their
time III hunting or in bartcrinn Will,
neIGhbOrin% tribes. They usually sneak
the dialects of their neighbors, but all
travellers say that they also have 4
distinct language Of their own Of which
W" have rs vet very little knowledge.
S"rna Pinto describes the dWarfS hn
met III the Ambuella country as III"
most complete SavageS he ever met
fh"y arc regarded MS the connecting
Ink between til" dwarf bushmcn fur
tl"r south and the more northern
dwarf tribes. Living in the forests be
tween the Cubando and tho Cuand,
rivers they speak Il language of their
own which is unintclligiblc to other
surrounding tribes. knowing nothing OF
agriculture. have only bows and arrows
rs weapons, erect no dwellings,. but
I'VE III encamnmentS whore branches of
+, trees, bent downward and intcrlaced
III front constitute their shelter.
The buShmcn south of them live in
caves. or inhabit temporary huts of
pushes or sticks set ND against each
other and covered with grass grass
mats or huShwood Like tho other
dwarf tribes they do not live long in
on" phase, and their chief means of
subsistence are the products of tho
chaSe and the roots and fruits of the
desert, Separated far from their
northern relations they strikingly re
semblc them in many respects
1t is now very generally believed thar
all these dwarf tribes are the remnant
OF the original population of Africa
who. many centuries ago. were de.
clmated and wildly scattered by the it,
truSlon of stranger people While there
Is no direct evidence proving this
hypothesis. there are circumstances
that give it much strength. and among
+. them is the improbability that the var
louS scattered pigmy tribes could have
mmigratcd into territories already oc-
cupled by the Bantu, Nuba and Hot
tentot races
lnere Is no question wnatcycr b,1t
! that the newspaper is the chcancst Ink
ury on earth. On no occasion docs :,
man get 4 greater return for his invest