Evening star., 1905-11-04
PIGMY FREAKS.
Men Twenty-F Four Inches High and
Tigers Size of Kittens.
From Pearson's Weekly.

From Pears0n's Weekly.
The pigmies at present in England are
giants compared with some OF the tribes of
natives who inhabit the wild. desolate and
almost unknown Pamir plateau to the
northwest Of the Hindoo Koosh range Of
mountains in Central Asia. So great is the
altitude OF this great tableland that geog-
raphers refer to 1t as "the roof of the
world" Few, indeed, are the travellers or
explorers who have ever ventured even on
to its southern fringe, lying just beyond the
northwest frontier Of India
But the scientific world is being startled
by the news which is leaking out of the re-
suits of the explorations by the two Danish
officers, Messrs. Oloufsen and Philipsen,
who have recently penetrated into some
strange corners of this hitherto mysterious
region They have an astounding tale to
tell. But they have brought back with them
over 300 photographs incontestably proving
what they say. In parts of the Pamlrs, IL
appears, the people are not only all owarls.
but the very animals of the district, both
wild and domestic, are correspondlngly
diminutive In stature.
The full-grown men and women are rarely
q yard high. Their donkeys and their
horses, which in appearance resemble our
smallest ponies, are about the size or large
dogs. The bulls and cows-herce little crea-
tures-are no larger than newborn Euro
pean calf and the sheep are about the size
of small poodles. Tigers no larger than KIT
tens are said to infest the hills. Smaller
and lower even in the human scale, how
ever, than these Asiatic pigmies are some
creatures which the natives of the great
Congo Basin in Africa call Kaieke, and Will
insist are men and not beasts.
The aieke are said to have very long hair,
small, keen eyes, to be very wlld-never
coming into towns-and only to be seen in
the bush, where they sometimes try to hold
converse with the natives
3 Mr.. H. F. McGarvie, too an American
sshowman, recently returned from trip to
Mexico with photographs of some extraordi-
nary tribes of pigmies he discovered In the
vicinity Of Tuxpan. One man named Pedro
and his two diminutive daughters ran out
tall grass completely hid them from view.
The grass was hardly knee-high TO the
Snowman. Yet 1t was like forest 10 the
little peaple. and Mr.. McGarvie could only
locate them by the commotion rhey caused
in the vegetation by their shrill cries. He
found them to be a race Of midget Indians,
speaking a patois of Spanish. so that ne had
little difficulty In understanding them.
None of the little people are more than two
feet high, and Mr.. McGarvie expects to
have a group Of them on view shortly in
New York.
Another race of dwarfs, discovered by a
Mr. ]. D. Sullivan on one of the tributaries
of the Amazon, are people remarkapie
chiefly for their ugliness. Their stomach,
which is distended In the back as well as
in front, is out of all proportion to their
tiny spindling arms and legs. This is be-
cause of their habit of gorging. After
hunt they will eat like animals, and then
lie listlessly in the hot tropical sun Tor
days. TIL hunger again impels them to get
more game.
In the same way among the wandering
African pigmies a slain elephant becomes
the site. of a new camp until al It's Hesn is
consumed when the little men move on in
search of a fresh quarry, which they bllnd
before spearing to death by shooting poison
ed arrows into their eyes. lndIVldual pig
mics however 1t is said, may also be en-
-ountered In the villages of the big negroes.
where they are petted as curiosities.