The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-23
A QUEER RACE OF
P|GM|ES FOUND
Rawling Writes of Recent
Explorations
VISITED CANNIBALS
Stanley J. Weyman, Famous Novelist,
Has Conformed to His Announce
ment That He Will
Wrtfa No Mnra
VISITED CANNIBALs
Nv HAYDEN CHURCH

| Lordon, February %. 2.-(Special) lone of
the queerest regions under the sun-a
| land peopled by pigmies-has just been
explored by British officer This is
Capt. G. G. Rawling, who set out as an
agent of the British Ornitholoogical So
ciety to explore the parts of Dutch New
Guinea which lie in the neighborhood of
the Snow mountains. and was rewarded
| by the discovery of hitherto unknown
race of human midgets.
OF the pigmies of Tapiro mountain their
| discoverer can tell us comparatively lit
tie, however, for these tiny people whose
average height is A feet. inches, who
can count only up TO TO- and whose IA
vorite weapon, both for purposes of wife
beating and defence against their enc
! mics, is wooden club with a. stone head,
proved exceptionally coy and refused to be
studied to any extent.
These piemies are not cannibals. but
near by tribe visited by Rawling and his
companions are, and vigorously defended
their 'diete' from a health standpoint.
IN their case" said the explorer this
gruesome custom is not without a touch
! of unconscious humor, the members claim
ing that human flesh is preferable to that
of pig, as no matter what quantity IS
eaten the former never induces indises-
ton.
These cannibalistic Paquans refraned
! from butchering any human beings Gun
less they did so on the quiet, while Raw
ling and his party were in the village,
but they entertained the Englishmen
with pig killing festival which might
have been an extraordinary spectacle.
The nigs slain numbered two, and pre-
vious to the orgy accompanying their
deaths, in which the entire village took
part. were penned up in a native hut.
1.-THE men, says Rawling, EARNED with
large rattan -hooses, placed themselves
on either side of the hut within which the
pigs were confined, and at a given sig
nal the animals were driven FORTH sue
cessfully overpowered and trussed, their
snouts tightly bound and chalk thrown
into their faces and eyes. With man
seated astride each animal and to the
accompaniment of loud walls from the
women they were lifted shoulder high,
carried to the place of slaughter, and
! lashed to the platform.
| 1.-THE executioners with their clubs took
! up position, whilst the audience, num-
bering some two hundred souls, crowded
| closely around, and as the rain of blows
fell drowned the squeals of the Victims
| by yells and the beating of drums. Death
must have been instantaneous, but the
basting continued until the carcases had
| ceased to culver. when for quite five min
! utes the entire audience gave itself up
! to unrestrained wailing and gnashing OF
| teeth; the women hugging and clasping
! the carcases in their unnatural grief
! whilst the air rang with shrieks, and
] tears coursed down every cheek"
| OF the land through which he journeyed
| to reach the pigmies' country the eX-
| plorer draws anything but a pleasant pic
! ture. 1t seems to be composed about
| equally of swamps and almost impenetra-
BILE jungles-"sago swamps and mangrove
swamps, near which sickening clouds OF
blue bottles and mosquitoes swarm, and
lothsome leeches drop on one from the
trees.
1t is about the wettest country. too, on
earth. Heavens, how it rained,' gasps
] the explorer. "One of our party took the
trouble to keep an account of the wet
days, and found that during the first
year rain fell on three hundred, and thirty
days. and on two hundred and ninety
five days was accompanied by thunder
and lightning. Was there ever such a
streaming land?'
Captain Rawlings, discoveries make al
uncommonly readable book. which, by the
bye, no American publisher seems to have
secured up to date.
II For successful novelist who still is q
II comparatively young man to announce
ell of a sudden. that he will write nc
more is a rare occurrence: for him to keeI
his word is rarer still. But Stanley j.
Weyman has done both. Since the author
of "A Gentleman of France" and "undel
the Red Robe" declared a few years ag,
that he proposed to quit novel writing no
so much as a short story have we haC
from him, which is a pity.
One is reminded of Weyman by the ap
/ pearance in the London Times" of {
letter signed with his name. The ex
author. of courJe. is a welshman, ant
this letter which is written from Llanr
hydd is ringing protest against the
threatened disestabishment OF the Welsl
church, one of the dearest projects o.
Chancellor Lloyd Georges heart Refer
ring to, the useful who's Who dis
covered with some surprise that weymar