Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-05-25
THE AKA DWARFS.
Specimans of Them are Exhibited in
Europe.

English Mechanic:-Some of these So
called pigmies of which so much has
been heard, have been exhibited by DR..
Stuhlmann in Berlin for the first time
| in Europe. They are members of the
dwarf tribes who appear to have been
known to the ancient Greeks as resi-
dents of the districts about the sup
posed sources of the Nile. DR.. Stuhl-
mann, in the course of his lecture, is
reported to have said that, taking the
growth and development of these little
people into account, it would not be
correct to call them dWarfs, since this
term is connected with the idea of NAL
formation. The height of the men
varies from feet inches to feet g.
II inches; but those who are above
4 feet inches are probably not of pure
descent. The upper part Of the body is
the portion most fully developed; the
legs are thin-thoSe of the women,
however, rather less so than the men.
The feet are thin and slender in walk.
ing the toes are not turned outward,
but inward, or at least held straight.
The gait is wavy and cautious, but not
feeble. The arms are well formed, the
hands remarkably small, with elegant,
rounded, whitiSh nails. In the whole
formation of their bones is seen sim
| ilarity with those of our children. The
head is rOundish, although strong later
al projections of the forehead id of
the parietal bone cause it to look
square. The forehead is high and verti-
cal, the eyebrows often strongly devel-
oped. The nose is Of the broad, fiat,
negro type, and consequently the innel
angles of the eyes are very widely
separated from each other. The eyes
are large and brown. The formation of
the upper lip, which stretches forward
convexly, is very characteristic. The
lips are not very thick, and the pecr-
| liarity noticed by Emin is clearly per-
ceptble- viz, that their mucous mem
brane is rose colore<i, whilst in the ne
groes it is very dark colored. The hair
is woody, and as soon as it grows more
than an inch and half long it forms
itself into little punches. The roots of
the hair do not appear in groups, like
the bristles of a brush, as is the case
with many negroes, but are pretty
! equally disposed over the skin of the
head. The color of the hair is bril-
| liant black, often with a shade of
brown in il. The beard grows chiefly
on the upper lip, on the chin it is quite
feeble. The color of the skin varies
from a chocolate brown to a yellowish
brown. Many wrinkles are seen, which
seem, however, to be consequence of
insufficient nouriShment or of old age.
The women seem to be, as rule,
smaller than the men.
The clothing of the men consists only
of Il narrow strip of bast or inner
bark from a species of fig tree. Their
only ornaments are small holes in the
upper lip, into which thin grass stalks
are stuck. Occasionally the septum of
the nose is also bored through, as well
as one of the ear laps, through which
they then thrust small wooden pegs
The teeth are very seldom filled. The
dress of the women is if possible, even
simpler than that of the men. It con-
siStS of n cord round the loins on which
fresh leaves are hung, these are fetched
every morning from the woods. The
men generally shave away their hair
except narrow strip above the right
ear. They are very dirty and have an
aversion to water; whilst the negroes
are very cleanly-mOre so, indeed, than
the average European When they
sleep they draw up their knees and lay
one hand under the head. They keep
up their fires continually; they seem
unable to obtain fire by rubbing sticks
together, and therefore, when they
change their quarters, they take with
them a torch, which they carefully
keep glowing Their weapon is a small
bow with a string of rattan.
From their exclusive use Of wood in
making their weapons, we may suppose
the pigmies TO be still in their most
primitive ''age of wood" They have