The morning call., 1893-03-27
AFRICAN DWARFS.
Facts About the Small People of the
Atlas Mountains.


Atlas Mountains.
New York Sun.
About two years ago X. G.. Halliburton
attracted a good deal of attention by a
pamphlet in which he asserted that a tribe
OF dwarfs lived among the Atlas Mountains
In Southern Morocco He had never been
among them, but he had seen members of
the tribe further north in Morocco, and the
evidence he had secured from many of the
inhabitants convinced him that hitherto
unknown tribe of pigmies was living among
the mountains. He said they called them
selves Akkas. noteworthy coincidence,
inasmuch as the first Central African dwarfs
known In modern times were revealed to the
world by DIR. Schweinfurth under the same
name of Akkas.
AnthroDoligists have not regarded Mr.
Haliburton's reports as sufficiently authen-
tlcated to be accepted as facts. No other
traveller had heard of a tribe of pigmies in
the Atlas Mountains, though they had seen
dwarfs in Morocco whom they regarded
merely as freaks of nature. Mr. Halliburton
told some remarkable stories about them,
ana II seemed very strange that their exist
ence had not been reuorted before. He said
the Moors were very reticent about men,
tl0ning the little people, because they were
regarded as holy. He described them as
very wild, living in houses built among the
their duty to kill any venturesOme person
who visited their Businesses. He also told
OF large bands of plgmies who lived south of
the mountains, east OF the Wad Draa, on the
edge OF the Sahara Desert
Inc travellers statement, which drew ont
considerable contradiction and even ridi-
cule, are at last so far confirmed tn at we
may say with confidence that the existence
Of abnormally small people in the Atlas
Mountains has been proved. w. 3. Harris,
well known as the traveller who a few years
ago visited in disguise some of the fanatical
Berber towns of north Morocco, has re-
Gently returned TO Tangier from the Atlas
Mountains south of the city of Morocco.
In that city he heard. both from native
sources and from the Scotch missionaries.
of small people inhabiting the upper ranges
Of the Atlas. With a white comrade he left
the city early in November last to inYesti-
gate these reports.
AT the loot OF the mountains the Cover
nor OF the district told him that many of
these small people are nominalY under his
government, though they do not in fact ac-
knowledge the Sultan's Jurisdiction nor
pay any taxes. One of his soldiers was
dwarf, not over four feet high. from the
snowy ranges Of the Atlas, and lie as we'll
as the Governor and the inhabitants assured
the traveller that there were many people
guile as small among the mountains.
Mr.. Harris pushed further east and south
ne dld not venture far up among the noun
tans. but In two or three days he secured
ample evidence, as he believed, Of the ex-
lstence of this diminutive folk. He met
altogether fourteen of them, seven in one
party None of them was more than four
feet six inches 10 height. Some of them
wore boards, characteristic of many Of the
dwarfs in the Congo basin. In most re-
spects he confirms Haliburton's account of
them, but he says they are not looked upon
as holy nor are they the objects Of supersti-
lion. Living tn the upper part Of the noun
tains, which are covered with snow most Of
the year, they are inaccessible and have
never been brought under the control of tie
Sultan.
Mr.. Harris is disposed to doubt that these
people are properly to be classed among the
plgmy tribes Of Africa. He thinks 1t more
probable that in the course of centuries
they have been greatly stunted in stature by
grinding poverty and the hard lives they
lead among the rocks and SHOWS of the
upper mountains, where they can raise no
crops aud the food they gather is poor in
quantity and quality. 1t seems 10 us that
he has not yet adduced evidence that makes
MS theory more probable than the pigmy
Ike the Batwa dwarfs of the Congo.
de found them speaking a language
OF their OVID, not Ineligible to the people
living near them, in which respect again
they resemble the known pigmy tribes.
Like the dwarfs OF the tropics they also
were found TO be wilder and more intract-
able than the tribes around them.
What is now needed more than ANYTHING
else to advance our knowledge of the dwarf
tribes of Africa is a knowledge OF their
languages. If there are ethnic affinities be-
tween these little mountaineers and the
small peoples beyond the desert, the fact
Will probably be revealed by comparison
OF the idioms peculiar to them. Mr.. Harris
has at any rate opened an inviting field for
chronological research.