The San Francisco call., 1904-02-28
INSTRUCTIVE JTUDIEC
By BYLNO1EnAGN AND
<tASMFN


hunt with bows and arrows or spears.
Tney have all kinds of traps. such as
slipnooses attached to a flexible pole,
which is planted upright in the ground,
then bent over to set the trap. When
the animal tries to get through the
loop the pole springs back into place,
carrying the victim into the air, where
il is strangIed They have a net some
what on the principle Of that used by
the gladiators in the arena of Rome, in
which they entangle the wild animals.
They dig holes in the paths, driving
sherpened poisoned sticks in the bot
tom, then covering the holes with
leaves. In the grass they strew poison
ed thorns, and have sharpened sticks
two or three feet long set in the ground
at an angle of thirty or forty degrees,
so that they will stick in the legs as
their enemy runs into them. These are
hid away about their plantations of
plantains, or around their villages.
Three pigmies can kill an elephant,
and with only a few thrusts Of a spear
on which they use a vegetable poison.
They understand the business and con-
fidence makes them brave. My meas
urements from a tribe of these people
on the Sanga who called themselves
N'bgongo, and others of the Mobangi,
show the average pigmy to be slightly
under five feet, almost as large as an
average sized American woman. They
were much larger than had expected.
They had the strictly African features,
the fat nose and round face, legs short
and we'll developed. big hips. The
greater curvature of the spine made
the stomach protrude. The arms were
long and not so we'll developed as the
legs. which is the case with all inland
tribes, while with those using canoes
the arms are the best developed. The
women are conspicuous by their short,
stumpy legs and big hips They often
become the wives of the ordinary Afri-
can. The children of these unions are
as large as the average African. The
pigmies of the Sanga have square huts
and the others reported north of Ban
gui in the primeval forest that skirts
the Mobangui Lake are said also to
have square huts; those between the
Ouelle and Aruimma have the round
hut, which is about as large as the huts
of the larger Africans.
The greatest musical genius 1 ever
came across was a reputed pigmy at
Stanley Falls, who sang, or rather
hummed to an accompaniment which
he played on an instrument of eight
strings drawn across a board fourteen
inches long and ten inches wide. with
bridges under each string at different
places 70 tune it. 1t was very ingen-
ious, and altogether a sweet sounding
IL foir he r11trSiCi1r n
had a broken jaw.
DR.. Junker's conservative statements
would lead one 10 believe from his first
measurement Of q man of five feet that
there we're many over that measure
ment as we'll as under. Schweinfurth.
who first told the civilized world of
these small people of the Upper Ouelle.
is very conservative also, and although
he and DR.. Junker think these people
of slightly under stature a race apart,
there is still an Interrogation point
after reading their opinion, as neither
Of them saw the pigmies in their viii
lagos. Stanley gives the smallest meas
urements of these people, yet reading
his work closely for absolute state
ments we are still in doubt, as he does
not state that he saw them in their
villages. The villages were there. but
the Digmies were not, and taking the
measurements of a few is very mislead-
ing Since Stanley, though much has
been published. the question remains
where he left ii. Few have been the
additions to his picture of the great
forest. Summing up the whole thing
from my own experience and the actual
facts as given by other explorers. what
is said of the pigmy can be said of
many other African tribes. He differs
only in his stature; his features,
physique, his mode of life. hunting, his
traps. are used among all the tribes
and are essentially as much theirs as
his. The poisoned weapons are not so
common, but they are known, while his
religion and patriarchal laws are those
of the other African people.
Living in the bush without adequate
sunlight, living on meat, often resorting
to an insectivorous diet, might account
fer the slight decrease in stature. Why
should not the climate and conditions
decrease the stature as we'll as increase
it?
On the Mobangui River, situated on
high, impregnable bluff, three days be-
low BanSui, is a NlllaSe OF giants. every
man Of them over six feet and some
measuring seven. II IS well known to
the white man. These giants are of
splendid physique, their muscles stand
ing out like those of a Hercules. They
are rather lighter brown than the aver
age African. Their heads are bad
shape and impress one as unintelligent;
their faces are beastly. They live ON
plantains, manioc and the cola nut.
They are in the country of the gorilla
and chimpanzee, and seem not to have
varied from the ways of these animals
in food and general life. yet l never
heard these people spoken of as the
missing link, or degenerates and they
are more nearly related to the big apes
than the understood people known as
the pigmies.
OF all the photographs published of
these small people, there is but one that
/ have seen that is satisfactory. They
seem TO be either children or "runts.'
Children have a peculiar stomach that
is seldom found in an adult, and is
easily DISTINGUISHED nv an exnerienced