The San Francisco call., 1898-01-27
PICMIES OF THE UPPER
 AMAZON Discovery Made by a Traveller From
 Boston. Strange Race Which Is Evidently of Indian
 Descent. Ugly in Shape and Too Lazy to Do More Than Hunt
 and Gorge.
THE MEN ARE WARRIORS.
To the Number of Ten or Fifteen Thousand They Rove the
 Rio Negro Country.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

BOSTON, Jan. 26.-A Boston man just returned from South America has brought marvellous tale of the discov- cry of a race of pigmies inhabiting the valley of the Amazon. He has not only seen them, but stayed in their villages, entered their houses, sat about their camp fires, been with them on the hunt and witnessed some of their religious ceremonies.
 Eben J. Sullivan, for months accom- panied only by natives, rowed up the mighty Amazon and the tributaries in a dugout canoe. In this way he pene- trated to the headwaters of the Rio Ne gro, where he came upon a nomadic race of pigmies.
 R. G. Halliburton of Boston, fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, one of the best authorities in the world on pigmy races, thinks it of the greatest value to anthropologists to have the tradition of pigmy races in South America, recorded by Humboldt in the hrst years of this century, so strikingly verified. In MT. Haliburton's opinion. Sullivan's observations clear the sub Ject and leave no doubt as to the exist ence of numerous pigmy tribes in Gui- ana and Venezuela. MT. Sullivan said to-day:
 T met while on the Rio Negro, one of the tributaries of the Upper Amazon. race of remarkably small people, who were more likely of an Indian than of a negro origin, judging from their hair and the peculiar color of the skin, which was brilliant livid reddish yell low
 They are very ugly in shape; their stomach, which is distended in the back as well as front, is big and out of all proportion to their tiny, spindling arms and legs. I think this is caused by their anaconda-like practice of gorging. After hunt they will eat like animals, and then lie about listlessly in the hot tropical sun for days till hunger again impels them to get more game
 Cautiously enough, they appear to be metal-workers and tip their darts with bits of hardened iron or steel made from native ores. These darts are pro- jected from a blowgun, like a boys toy. but with deadly effect. They can actually propel light dart several hundred feet by the mere power of their lungs in blowing through a tube They are race of rowing hunters and warriors. They are a vain and boast ful people. I think that they may num- Der ten to fifteen thousand souls.
 These people are not over four feet eight inches in height and the women are less than this. Clothing Is worn only by adults and consists of merely a cloth over the lOins. Their hair is done up and stuck together by mud in a most grotesque and repulsive fashion They have tribal marks that cover the upper body and head, made by slits in the skin.
 Their huts are sometimes construct ed of mud, in which case they are low and resemble half egg with an open ing at one end called massongos. The same name applies to their huts when made from poles and woven grass. They have many fetish gods or idols which represent animals and are very ugly. As to the name of these pigmy people, they were, as I remember them, Makalak. Malaka and Malakrat"