A STRANGE PYGMY PEOPLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3129, 7 August 1922, Page 2

A STRANGE PYGMY PEOPLE.

(By George P. Busch.) f

Wo landed on the coast of Soyth America at Cartagena., looking tor oil. Thou we asked the people who travelled in and out of that dirty town : W ho had .seen puddles, thick and black. \> ho had seen a rainbow film on the surface of a swamp Y Who had (seen lakes' that were pitchy and cracked and sticky asphalt? There were as many different reports of there things as there wore folks questioned. Jsat Mike Spallacy, who had bei'ii there befoi’e ,wus to clioohc. It seemed to he a pretty safe bet that there was asphalt, at least yin the Sierra do I’erija. Heckle-, figured Mike, that country" is almost unexplored and there was an old padre in a mission beyond the Magduilena who tgld some queer talc about a crude lost tribe up there—he would make us a. good guide. When we put the finishing touches to cm equipment by buying such things as could be had in a stale South American town wo told where we were going, and the people of Cartagent began to grin. The .Sierra do Perija! Nobody ever went there S The mountains were full of cannibals. So we spent a few thousand pesos on life insurance in the form of handkerchiefs, beads. bright-colored cloths, cigars stuff that would be easy to carry and good for bribing wild men. These things proved useful, in another way. After three days in native boats along the Magdalena Hirer, we struck into the country for four days more, until, thanks to Mike, we found the Spanish mission at La Grange. Padre Camilo stood on the doorsill and roared a welcome to use five grmgoes. The Padre was one of those monks who vow never to let a razor come near his face, so ho looked like a grizzly bear, His eyes were dark eaves; Ins beard was like a great clump of bushes; he wore a broad-brimmed straw hat. .sackcloth shirt like a nightgown, and baggy trousers hitched up like a couple of empty gunny sacks. He had a mg, heart and a big hulk, and that is how he managed, all by himself, to be tinwhole civilised world to the Indians ! am going to tell you about. Nobody else could have done that job better than our hairy old Padre. After a two weeks’ scramble', one morning we pushed aside the last lur-di which grew between the world we know and the, little world of strangers. Wc wore perhaps doOOft high, ami the place we found was the only clearing in all that jungle. It was about live miles long and a mile wide. The place might, if seen without the heavy forest’growths that shut it in, have been taken for a part of England. Here was some lolling land with grassy fields broken Ip. jutting rocks and dumps of clear, trees. The Padre did not hesitate, hut guided us towards a curious sort of community. Four canopies were grouped together in a hollow. Each was made of a matting of large flat leaves, resembling the leaves of a banana tree, wiili their stems twisted together to make a slanting roof, supported, from 7ft to 411 above the ground, by flimsy poles at careless intervals. Each of these canopies was Hie shelter of 10 or Id persons, who were- either sitting on the ground or walking around doing little, if anything. There was no pretence of walls for these “shacks, ’ ,so that the people of the community find a clear view in every direction and saw ns as soon as we came into sight. Wc found ourselves surrounded hy d() red pygmies. They had the Irgh cheekbones and narrow eyes of .Mongols, hut not one was over lour led tall and mostly they were stark naked. They seemed to he neither hostile nor afrud; hut they just stood around and grunted. They recognised the Padre, because when they laid recovered a gone! deal from looking at us, they began to hark at him with grunts that quickly increased in number and volume. Indeed, as they got nnlimhered, the abdominal grunting trailed upwards and off m squeaks of excitement. '1 here was rising and falling of strange voices Ilia! sounded like a squall at sea. And wc could see that the strain on tic pygmies was great. After wc had lived among them a few days, I found that their language n as about all grunts down in the pit of the stomach ; hut when they felt like wc do when wc pound on the table, the:: voices grew high and trailed off. For example, the word for “f*U'” was nisi a short grunt, penapa ; but the expression for a long way oil was penaapa. which was pitched higher and higher and prolonged indefinitely in show some tremendous distance. That is why, on the day of our arrival, there was no wail high enough or long enough to lit t ho situation. The pygmies said Ilia l we were (in first while men they had evi r seenexcept the Padre, who was dark like a Spaniard ami who hid behind Ins heard, anyway. Wc soon saw that lids must be iruc. They began (,o examine our size. Wc were none of us small I am fill oin and the other four were large men hid in a crowd we could pass lor I lie a verage. Now xvhew we sealed «uv-.’.ws on a stone, these pygmies came and lilted up our feet with both hands, ami gave long grunts, and then made motions showing that they thought onr legs were like tree-trunks. Hut the wonder ol wonders v. a - dim skin. We had been out in I he weather and tropical sim and were mil (>.ac,ly pale, except compared to our little red friends. Moreover, I am called blonde, and the effect of the sun had been to bleach rather than darken my sandy, rather curly hair, so that the contrast with Hie straight black spike-: of the Indians made them wonder and laugh every time they saw me with my fail off. One of the handiest filings about these people was the way they caught (isli with their hows and arrows. I greatly enjoyed watching the proceeding. The little men waded into the stream up to their waists and stood there as still as a rock .waiting for the fish. Perhaps the fisherman would hold his how so that the point of the arrow was just under water, but not always. If you have ever watched a fish wmch is unaware of danger, you know that its course is not a steady one. It darts here and there, but between each dart it is practically motionless, as though taking its hearings. The Pygmies watched their prey while it zig-zagged among the rocks under the watei. until finally it came within a few feel of the waiting man and quivered there lor an instant considering where to turn next. Hut that was the final instant, the bow-string twanged, a long black arrow slipped under the water and a few moments later there floated up the body of a fish transfixed by a black palm rod. Shooting monkeys was diiteient. Monkeys make harder targets than h-ii. so if was not often that a monkey which was sp.-y among the Inch branches could he killed outright with an arrow. A special way had to he ft i mi red out. A weak spot was cut nee. the centre of the arrow, and a small was fastem'd at that pomt to keep the shaft from going into the monkey too far. That slews with whet force thev wore slug. Then a tairfv loim cotton cord had its two ends tied (~ Hi" two halve.- of the arrow, and lie slack in between was wound around to

keep it from interfering with the flight. What happened? Suppose the monkey was struck out not killed. Ho would make oft' screeching among the branches, and rigtn away that part of Hie arrow which was left “sticking out of his hide would get broken off, and go falling toward the ground, unwinding the cord, in© animal, nearly crazy with pain and fright would go jumping up and down amt Pack and form, witn half the aiiou ,-tiU with him. pulling the cord along. ■So in a jittv, he got Hopelessly tangled up. After mat, as long as the mo-nkoj meat lasted, the Indian who caught linn had nothing to do. About the only Hung Hi at- made him stir a loot was Uie need to get something to cat. At first, 1 couldn’t figure out how limy wore'going to prepare the animal tor the table, i ceuUl not see an> knives or kitchen utensils either, i here were rough clay vessels for holding water, but those would not do for tins purpose. Therefore, when a monkey was caught while wc wore there, i. was on Hand to see what would happen. . , Two pvgmies took the animal one h} its arms* tne. otner by its legs—so to speak—men, stand,ag on opposite s.dcs or the fire, they swung the body back and forth' through the llainc. I his went on lor some time, perhaps an nour, but time was of no consequence. At first the hair of the animal was burned oft, and then gradually he was roasted. When it came to eating tn<s mail, the partakers seemed to be tiie family of me man who had brought in me monkey; but with various lamil-es under Uie same roof it was not clear which people belonged 1 towinch famJy. At any rate, the hands and the head— that is, the brains — winch were considered the choicest parts, went to the men who had patiently swung the rations back and forth tlirougn the flames. In the meantime, what was the chief diuy of the women, besides minding the children? They put their babies astride their necks and went out to spots on the hillsides protected from the winds where wild cotton grew. When a, mass of this was collected, a sumo was tied to the lower end, and then twirled. Thus the cotton was slowly puiled out and twisted into cords. The coarse blankets winch the women wove out of this raw cotton and colored with dyes made from berlies and twigs was the only proceeding you could call an industry. Those blankets w,re the sole native article of clothing, although the- nights were cold at that altitude. But, for some unexplained ic-ason, the women and children never wore l a, blanket —that garment was only for the men. If there were some frocks on the- children tbo explanation lay in the load of the padre’s mule.