The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-23
DWARF LIFE IN WEST AFRICA.
Their Nomodic ways Described by n
Missionary.
Oscar Roberts in the independent.

MlShtOhnfI.
Oscar Roberts In the Independent.
Most of these people are smaller than
their Bakoko and Mabeya neighbors, but
not all as the dwarf women are some
times married into these tribes. They de-
serve the name dwarf more from the sim
ilarity of their habits to the true dwlrfs
further inland. They live a wandering
Indion-like life. hunting They have nets
100 feet long and three or four feet high
a number of which they stretch across
the bush, and the men. women and chill
dren drive the game Into these nets. They
are experts in trapping too. They do not
stay Ia one place long enough TO plant
so they trade their game to their agri-
cultural neighbors for vegetable food
These Mabeya head men have a certain
kind Of ownership over them, sometimes
furnishing them with powder and guns,
and nets and a very little cloth for their
game during the time they are in that
community. When not successful in the
hunt they must depend upon the wild
plants, nuts, honey, which they know so
well how to find. They often have feast
and more often a famine.
Their sheds are from fifteen to fifty feet
long, the leaf roof touching the ground
on one side and being about four feet and
a half high on the other side. Where
there are large trees the roofs are made
of the bark of a tree four or five feet in
diameter, which often does not have time
to crack and leak before the dwarfs want
to move. Under these sheds are the pole
beds, supported by forked sticks four or
five inches from the ground. There Is a
space left for a fire between every two
beds. If they have any boxes or small tin
trunks, they keep them hid In the bush
there is nothing to be seen unless they
have a pot or bowl. or basket a net or
gun. or a native ak; and no one man is
rich enough TO possess all of these They
can move all their possessions on fifteen
minutes notice; may be living here to-
day and twenty miles away tomorrow.
Three moves do not equal one fire with
them.
For amusement man goes through vio-
lent form of exercise trying to move as
many OF the muscles of his body at one
time as possible, the spectators clapping
their hands and calling, beating on sticks
and their drums during the performance
They seem to believe In one supreme be-
ing who Is good and kind but OF course
have no definite knowledge of him. They
fear the spirits of the departed, and are
said to move at once from a place where
one of their number died. They fear
and try to appease many evil spirits one
of which takes a dreadful form for his
punishment. Among the Mabeyas near
here ! know of but one blinI man; yet Il Is
the rule to find one blind man In COM
munity of from fifteen to fifty dwarfs, and
some times as many as three blind ones.
made blind some night by the agent Of
this evil spirit as a punishment for some
offense.
Miss MacClean, a lady OF Glasgow, has
given the funds for the work for these
people. II is the purpose to establish a
station about ninety miles from the beach,
doing regular station work with the Ma
beya-speaking people there, and at the
same time doing everything possible for
the speedy evangelzation of these wander
ing people. But the workers are needed,
men with good constitutions and real
love for itinerating bush travel. If a man
has a love for plants and insects and birds
so much the better. These people might be
able to show him a medical property OF
some of the plants they know that would
be helpful to all. The power to shoot a
parrot out of high tree with a Winches-
ter ought not to be lightly overlooked In
a country where everything is eaten from
a snake to a monkey