The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-11-02
PIGMIES OF AFRICA.
FACTS ABOUT A CURIOUS RACE
OF MEN.
Even In the Time of Herodotus They
Notwithstanding Saw Them In the
Gloom OF 81 Forest-Their Manners
Described. n

pigmies in Africa" a nation of little
men who o garments made of palm
leaves" Hundreds of years after the
lather of history wrote, Stanley saw
them in the gloom of a central African
forest, and held an interview with one
sf their princesses. Later, Capt. Bur-
rows, OF the Kongo Free State, came
across these little freaks more than
once, and in his book, 1.-THE Land of
the Pigmies," he described their make
and manners. The pigmies' height
brings them to the shoulder of a man
Of average stature, although some of
them stand no higher than his chest.
There are black pigmies and red pig
mics. The bodies of the red pigmies
are not so hairy as those of the. ne
groes, but the blacks bodies are COW
cred with down. Although a well
proportioned race they are socially in
ferior to other tribes. They are no.
a by nature, and wander from
place to place, supporting themselves
by hunting. One place seems to be as
much a home to them as another, if it
OWN AoAhAhS 6IOuAu. 1uGlE re-
vengeful nature and their hardihood
In war cause them to be feared. They
Will lie and deceive, but they will not
steal. The pigmy is an excellent ar
cher. He will shoot three or four ar
rows, n after the other, with such
rapidly that the last will have left
The bow before the first has reached
Its goal. When an arrow misses it's
mark, the pigmy flies into a violent
passion, breaking his bow and arrows
in his rage. When it hits he pats his
left arm with his right hand and chuck
les. A certain chief of the Nom
vus was big, and SO corpulent that he
had to be carried about In a litter
borne by four men On a certain oc-
caslon he was going with his warriors
to fight a neighboring chief, for he al
ways accompanied a fighting expedi-
ton and directed its attacks from his
litter. His wife, a massive matron,
was in the litter with him. AS they
passed an invisible pigmy encamp-
ment whose inhabitants he had Of
tended, a flight of arrows from a con-
cealed foe caused the chief and his
wife to drop back from their sitting
posture and turn over on their faces.
A pigmy darted out from behind a tiny
bush, shot off two arrows, hit both
the chief and his wife, and then, ut
tering a cry of qualification and pat
ting his right arm with his left hand
disappeared behind the bush. The pig
mics take up their abode near the viii
lage OF a big chief, where banana plan
tations abound, from which they may
CLEAN when they please. They have
two methods of cleaning. One is as
follows: A pigmy will mark out a
bunch of bananas in a plantation by
shooting an arrow into the stalk. The
arrow signifies that the pigmy desires
that particular bunch when it is suf-
iciently ripe. The owner OF the plan
tatlon stands in such fear of the pig-
my's vengeance that he never dreams
OF removing the fruit or the arrow,
but leaves both to be claimed by the
awe-inspiring dwarf. By the other
method the pigmy buys the bananas,
he fixing the price and paying for it
in that which his fiat makes currency.
On returning home from a days hunt
ing with several pieces of meat wrapp-
ed in grass and leaves, he goes to a
plantation, selects several punches of
bananas, shins up the tree, cuts off the
punches and in payment affxes one OF
the small packets of meat to the stem
by a wooden skewer. He has not sto-
len the bananas, he has bought them.
His is 1.-THE good old rule" on which
Rob Roy acted:
The simple plan,
That they should take who have the
power,
And they should keep who can.
The pigmy's appetite for bananas is
such that he will eat sixty at a meal.
Then he will lie and groan throughout
the night, but when morning comes he
is ready to repeat the meal. Eyes"
said a pigmy to Capt. Burrows, when
he expressed surprise at the dwarf's
appetite, there were a few bananas
there or a bunch and l ate them. I
suppose that is what they were there
for. | should like some more" The
trangers passing through the bush
pre- fair game to the pigmies, who are
cunning in the art of compelling a
man to make a target of himself. The
pigmy fastens a cord to his foot and
pffixes the other end to the bough of a
tree that stretches across the forest
path. Concealed a few yards off, the
pigmy waits till he hears some one
coming. then no oopt1u p,Jlo ~.