Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-09-30

dwarf Dushmen VINO pracuse Inls uethNs
Livingstone said that the dvsffs he met
killed many lions with their insignii- >
cant looking arrows. Weknowvery little
as yet about their languages and dialssts.y
but the incomplete vocabularies collected
show that not few Of the words Of These
widely severed tribes are identical.
In a number of respects the various
dwarf tribes show differences OF some
Importance. In Central Africa the
Tikki-Tikki dwarfs are little taller,
haze darker skins, more vigorous limbs.
and are covered with fewer but coarser
hairs than the Aka, who live little
north OF them. The Aka, OF the other
hand, are a little taller than the Obongo
in West Africa. The average height of
adult men among the Obongo is four
feet three inches, while the average
among the Aka men is about four fess
seven inches. The 0bongo are prob1bly
the smallest dwarfs in Africa. The tribes
differ IN color from light brown u black
Boards are a feature Of all the dwarf
peoples, but are scantily developed
among some OF them, while among
Others the beard is quite long, particu
larry among the Batua south of the
Congo.
The dwarfs OF the central regions, ths
Aka, Wambutti, Tiki Tiki and
Batua, form the most important group
of African pigmies. They are all war
like, and few of the tribes around them
have given explorers so much trouble
as the little folks, who have logged
their caravans, skulking in the forests
or Jungle where they can hardly be seen,
climbing the trees and swinging them
selves out on the limbs with the agility
OF monkeys, and from this vantage place
showering down poisoned arrows upon
the enemy below. Explorers tell OF the
Batua swinging from branch to branch,
as trapeze performers take fight from
one bar to another. Grenfell and Won
I Francois were astounded to see the Batua
scramble out on boughs overhanging the
rivers until the limbs bend low beneath
their weight. Th.se Batua tribes extend
over the whole southern part of the
; Congo basin, and doubtless much ad
ditioual information about them will be
brought home Big future explorers.
Very little is known of them at present
except the fact of their existence.
/ Schlitcher says that, like the Aka aud
the WamOurti, their intercourse with
/ the various tribes Of ordinary stature
among whom they live IS usually of
friendly nature, partly because the Bantu
tribes are afraid of them and partly
because the pigmies supply these
tribes with flesh and skins in ex-
change for vegetable food, cook
ing pots. and other articles that may be
regarded as among the luKuries CT Afri-
can pigmy life. Moreover, they are
thoroughly at home in the forest, and
are, therefore, valuable to their Bantu
friends as spies aud scouts IN time of
feuds and warfare. The sites Of their
encampments end villages are always
carefully selected to prevent surprise,
and Stanley describes their daily life as
being similar to that of the Bantu popu-
lation among whom they live. The
women do all the domestic work, erect
the beehive huts, colIec. wood and vege-
table food, watch the fires, and dry the
meat. The men spend most OF their
time in hunting or in bartering with
neighboring tribes. They usually speak
the dialects of their neighbors, but all
travellers say that they also have dis
tiuct language of their own, of which
we have little knowledge.
It is now very generally believed that
all these dwarf tribes are the remnant OF
the original population of Africa, who.
many centuries ago, were decimated and
widely scattered by the intrusion OF
stronger peoples. While there is no di'
rect evidence proving this hypothesis,
there are circumstances which give it
much strength, and among them is the
improbability that the various scattered
pigmy tribes could have immigrated into
territories already occupied by the Bantu,
Nuba and Hottento. races.-New York
Sun.