Evening star., 1898-01-15
DWARF LIFE IN AFRICA
The Natives Are Noted Trappers and
Hunters.
Their Women Intermarry With Other
and Thrifty Ways.

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 sometimes
married into these tribes. They deserve the
name dwarf more from the similarity of
their habits to the true dwarfs further in
land. They live a wandering, Indian-like
life. hunting. They have nets 12O feet long
and three or four feet high, a number of
which they stretch across the bush, and the
men. women and children drive the game
into these nets. They are experts in trap
ping, too. They do not stay in one place
long enough to plant, so they trade their
game to their agricultural 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 success
ful In the hunt they must depend upon the
wild plants, nuts. honey, which they know
so well how to find. They often have a
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
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, sup
ported by forked sticks four or five inches
from the ground. There is a space lei. for
a fire between every two beds. If they
have any boxes small tin trunks. they
keep them hid in the bush; there is moth
ing to be seen unless they have pot, or
bowl, or basket, a net or gun, or a native
AK; and no one man is rich enough to pos
sess all of these. They can move all their
possessions on fifteen minutes notice; may
be living here today and twenty miles away
tomorrow. Three moves do not equal one
fire with them.
For amusement a man goes through vio-
lent form of exercise, trying to move as
many of the muscles of his body a, 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 being
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 place where one Of
their number died. They fear and try to
appease many evil spirits, Of which
takes a dreadful form for his punishment.
Among the Mabeyas near here L know of
but one blind man; yet it is the rule to find
one blind man in community of from fif-
teen to fifty dwarfs, and sometimes 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 peo-
pie. 1t is the purpose to establish station
about ninety miles from the beach. doing
regular station work with the Mabeya-
speaking people there. and at the same
time doing everything possible for the
speedy evangeization of these wandering
people. But the workers are needed men
with good constitutions and a real love for
itinerating bush travel. If man has a
love for plants and insects and birds, SO
much the better. These people might be
able to show him 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 Winchester
ought not to be lightly overlooked in a
country where everything is eaten, from a
snake to a monkey.