The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1906-05-04
AFRICAN PYGMIES,
LONDON LNSPECTS SIX SMALL
NDIHzDUALS FROM THE CON.
GO COUNTRY.

Men Average Four Feet Six. ane
Women About Four Feet in Height
Without Religion. Go Naked ane
have Peculiar Customs.
London town is very much interest
ed In six small human beings who
have recently arrived from Africa
Colonel Harrison, an officer in the
British Army, has brought with him
from the Ituri forests of the Belgium
Congos a half dozen pygmies.
Colonel Harrison went last year
into the Ituri forest, also known as
Stanley forest, hoping to capture one
or more okapis. This part of his ex.
petition was a failure. On the other
hand, he succeeded in living four
months amid the pygmies and per.
suaded four men and two women of
the tribe to accompany him to
Europe.
The long Journey has been accomp.
Hshed by the six dwarfs in the face
Of thousand difficulties. Colonel
Harrison and his proteges were de-
tanned at Khartoum and later at Cairo
for several weeks, certain English
philanthropic societies having earnest.
ly opposed their expatriation. The ex.
plarer was obliged to prove to the
British Government that the dwarfs
were with him voluntarily.
The six pygmies were of course duly
measured by the English anthropolo-
gists on their arrival in London. Their
mean height was feet 6 inches for
men and A feet l inch for women.
The Congo Pygmies are very strong
and also brave without being gener.
ally aggressive, although Colonel Har.
rison reports that last winter, during
his stay in the forest of Ituri, a party
OF pygmies attacked Belgian cara
van, killing seventeen carriers and
plundering the goods. They are no
MAIDS, having neither fields nor houses,
and live only on game and wild fruits.
Their household utensils are limited
to few earthen saucepans, in which
they cook game without taking the
trouble to skin it. They eat the skin
as well as the meat, even breaking the
bones with their teeth.
Are Sons of Nature.
They walk about completely I'M
clothed. Only among the tribes that
live on the confines of the forest and
have relations with the negroes of
greater stature, do the women wear a
girdle Of leaves.
Both the men and women shave the
head partially; some cut straight paths
across their woody hair; others dress
it with birds feathers or squirrel
tails.
They have absolutely no religious in.
stincts and believe in neither God nor
devil. They generally practice polyg-
amy. AS with the Chinese, the birth
Of girl is regarded as a calamity.
Strangely enough, the young mothers
sometimes steal the newborn children
Of the neighboring tribes of normal
stature, leaving their own babes in
exchange.
Last of a Great Race.
"The Pygmies do not live to
great age" said Col. Harrison. Life
is hard in the somber Congo forests;
nature is a pitiless task-master to this
remnant of the race that once peopled
the greater part Of Africa. The rain
that falls in torrents for eight months
transforms the ground into marsh.
It may be added that the pygmies
are remarkably intelligent, that they
appear to have the gift of language to
an incredible degree, that they excel
In the art of extracting iron from the
ore, of forging II, and of making arrow
heads Of 1t without other tools than
round stones.