Evening star., 1921-10-16
Pv9mies of Africa.

HERoDoTUs records the existence
| - of pygmies in Africa-"a nation
! of little men who wore garments
| made Of palm leaves" Hundreds of
years after the Father of History"
| wrote. Stanley saw them in the gloom
/ of a central African forest and held
an interview with one of their prin-
i cesses. Later Capt Burrows Of the
Congo State came across these little
freaks more than once.
! The pygmies' height brings them
to the shoulder of man of average
stature. although some of them stand
no higher than his chest. There are
black pygmies and red pygmies. The
bodies of the red pygmies are not so
hairy as those ofthe negroes. but the
! blacks bodies are covered with down.
Although a well-proportioned race.
they are socially inferior to other
tribes. They are nomads by nature
| and wander from place to place, sup
! porting themselves by hunting. One
place seems to be as much a home to
ground.
Their revengeful nature and their
kardihood in war causes them to be
feared. They will lie and deceive, but
they will not steal.
The pygmy is an excellent archer.
He will shoot three or four arrows.
one after the other. with such rapid
| ity that the last will have left the
| bow before the first has reached its
goal. When an arrow misses its
! mark the pygmy flies into a violent
| passion. breaking his bow and arrows
| in his rage. When it hits he pats
| his left arm with his right hand and
chuckles.
A certain chief Of the Momvus was
big and SO corpulent that he had to
be carried about in litter borne by
! four men. On certain occasion he
was going with his warriors to fight
companied a fighting expedition and
directed it's attacks from his litter
His wife, a massive matron. was in
the litter with him. AS they passed
whose inhabitants he had offended a
flight of arrows from concealed foe
| caused the chief and his wife to drop
back from their sitting posture and
turn over on their faces.
A pygmy darted out from behind
tiny bush, shot two arrows. hit both
the chief and his wife and then, ut
tering a crv of qualification and pat
ting his right arm with his left hand,
disappeared behind the bush.
near the village of a big chief. where
banana plantations abound. from
which they may CLEAN when they
please. They have two methods Of
doing this. One is as follows:
4 pygmy will mark out bunch of
bananas in a plantation by shooting
an arrow into the stalk. The arrow
signifies that the pygmy desires that
particular bunch when it is suffici-
tation stands in such fear of the
pygmy's vengeance that he never
dreams Of removing the fruit or the
arrow, but leaves both to be claimed
BY the other method the pygmy
buys the bananas. he fixing the price
and paying for it in that which his
fiat makes currency. On returning
home from a days hunting. with sew
or leaves. he goes to a plantation. Sc
lects several punches of bananas.
shins up the truce. cuts off the
punches and in payment affixes one
stem by wooden .skewer: He has
not, in his view. stolen the bananas
he has bought them!
The, pygmy's appetite for bananas
at meal. Then he will lie and groan
throughout the night. but when
morning comes he is ready to repeat
the meal.
Strangers passing through the bush
are fair game to the pyGmies. who
are cunning in the art Of compelling
a man to make a target of himself.
The pygmy fastens a cord to his foot
and afixes the other end to o'the bough
Of tree that stretches across the
forest path. Concealed few yards
off. the pygmy waits until he hears
some one coming; then he gently
pulls the string SO as to shake the
bough. The stranger stops to watch
the moving branch and Is shot in the
back by the pygmy.