East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-10-04
A RACE OF DWARFS.

Dwarfs have furnished themes for
| countless romances, They divide
with giants the interest of a thousand
nursery tales. To no small extent the
domain of superstition is invaded by
them. All countries, more or less are
| infested by gnomes and goblins They
| appeal to the Imagination, and con-
nected with them there is always at
least a suggestion of the supernatural.
Nevertheless the accounts of the
| pigmies given by Herodotus and 9TH
ers had long been set down as purely
| fictional when they were rediscover-
ed by Schweinfurth. He found that
the men averaged about four feet six
inches in height, while the women
were three or four inches shorter
Their color was like that of "coffee
slightly roasted" their legs were
short, their hands very small and
their stomachs huge. They had
habit of leaping about in the high
herbage like grasshoppers and one
of them, purchased by the explorer.
was to such an extent subject to this
inclination that he could never learn
to carry plate without spilling more
| or less of the contents.
| Measurements made by Stanley
showed that four feet six inches was
about the maximum height of the
dwarfs, some of whom were not more
than three feet in stature. A full
grown man might weigh as much as
! 80 pounds Scattered over a region
about two-th.rds the size of Scotland,
they live in the uncleared forest, and
maintain themselves by hunting. They
are called Aka, or Batwa.
They are fierce little folk. though
they have no weapons save bows and
spears, their warlike disposition and
poisoned arrows make them greatly
dreaded as enemies. one of these
arrows will kill an elephant with as
much certainty as a bone smashing
rifle bullet, and a mere prick will
bring death TO a man in a few min
utes. The pigmy warrior always car
ries in a small leather bottle hang
to his belt a supply of the poison,
which is said TO be obtained by macer-
ating the bodies of ants of a certain
venomous species.
The first pigmy seen by Stanley in
Africa was a young woman, only 33
inches tall, yet perfectly formed, and
of glistening sickness Of body She
appeared to be about seventeen years
old, and her complexion was that of
quadroon or the color of yellow
ivory. Her eyes were magnificent,
but "absurdly large for so small a
creature-almost as big as those of
gazelle, and extremely lustrOus."
Though absolutely nude, she was en-
tirely self-possessed
The little people wherever they now
exist in the world, are passing away,
and before very long the last of them
will have disappeared. There are only
a few thousand of them left in Afri-
ca. A few thousands more are still
to be found in the Philippines and
elsewhere. In the forests of the
mountainous interior of India some
tribes of them are said to linger,
their small size and primitive mode
of life obtaining for them the name OF
monkey men," Their final depart
ure is inevitable. A pity, too, il
seems for, although the pigmies can
not be regarded as important contrib
utors TO the welfare and progress OF
mankind, they furnish a most inter-
esting and picturesque memorial of
the ancient past of the human race
From THE Passing of the Pigmies,
by Rene Bache in Technical World
Magazine for October