"ADAM AND EVE" OF THE PIGMIES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XV, Issue 4723, 18 July 1890, Page 4

"ADAM AND EVE" OF THE PIGMIES.

JVIr Stanley describes the race of pigmies inhabiting the foreat who were known to exist by the Father cf the Poets, he observed, nine centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. "Nearly a year ago we foand thtta where tbey hid been located by tradition under the names of Wataa and Watnbutti. Wo were jus: now paying dne reverence to the kings of the forest who were born befor9 the foundations of the tower on Shinar plaia were hid, and becaueo it seemed to ns that in their lift) they united prehistoric times to this society journal-loving 19: h centnry. Let ns panae a little and pay honor to these little people who have ontlived the proud Pharaohs of Eiypt, the chosen people of Palestine, and the Empornra of Babylon, Nineveh, Persia, and the Macedonian and Roman Empires. Tbey have actually been able to hold ibeir lands for over fifty centuries. I have lately seen 'he wear and tear on the Pyramids of and I can certify that the old Spblok presents a very bat'.ered appearance Indeed, bnt the p'gmiea appeared to me as bright, and fresb, and youog as the generation which Homer saDgabont. Yon will therefore understand thai I, who have always professed to love homanlty in preference to beetles, was aa tnnch interested in these small creatures as Henry Irving might be In the personnel of the Lyceum. Near a place called Avetiko, on the I'.arl river, our hungry men found the first male and female of the pigmies squatted in the midst of wild Eien peeling plantains, Yon may imagine what a shock it was to the poor little creatures at finding themselves suddenly sarronnded by gigantic Soudanese 6ft 4:n in height, nearly double their own height and weight, and blaok as coal. But my Zanzibaris, always moro tender-hearted than Soudanese, prevented the clubbed rifl* and cullaaaea from extinguishing their lives there and then, aud broazbt them to me as priz:s, in the samo spirit as they wou'd have brought a big hawk moth or mammoth loogicorn for inspection. As they stood tremblingly before me I named the little man Adam and the miniature woman Eve, far moro appropriate names in the wild E len on the I ura tbsn the Yukokom and Akiokwa which they gavo ui. As 1 looked at them and thought bow thesa represented the oldest people in the glob. l , my admiration wonld have gone to greater lengths than scoffing cyoics would have expeoied. Poor Greek bh heroes and Jewish patriarchs, how their glory paled before the ancient aucca ry of these mannikins! Had Adam known how to Bssume a tragic pose, how fitly he might have said : ' Yea, you may well look on ns, for we are the only people living on the face of tba earth who from primaeval time have never been removed from their homes. Before Yusuf and Mean were ever beard of we h«ve lived In these wild shades, from the Nile fountains to the Sea of Darkness ; and, like the giants of the forest, we despise time and fate.' But, poor little things, they said notbiog of tie kind. They did not know they were heirs of soch prond and unequalled heritage. On the contrary, their faces said clearly enough, as tbey fartively looked at one and the other of us, ' Where have these bl£ people come from J Will they cat ai V The height of the man was 4ft,

that of the woman a little lees. He may hare weighed about. 85 pounds; the color of the body was that of a half-baked brick, and a light brown fell stood out very clearly. So far as natural Intelligence was concerned, within his limited experience, he was certainly superior to any black man in ourcsmp. The mysteries of woodcraft, for instance, he knew better than any of ns, he knew what wild frnits were wholesome and what faogi were poisonous. He could have given ns valuable lessons how to find our way through the forest. I saw also that he could adapt himself to circamstaccas. Our foragers nod scouts may have captnred abont SO of these dwarfs, only one of whom reached the height of 54 in. They varied from 39 In., to 50 Id. generally. A forest village con', slats of from 20 to 100 families of pigmies, and probably in that area between the Ihum and liuri rivers there are as many as 2000 families living this nomadic and free life in the perpetual twilight of the great and umbrageous foreat of Equatorial Africa."