AFRICAN PIGMIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 72

AFRICAN PIGMIES.

(By Wiixiam Stamps Chehry, African ■traveller, explorer, and big game hunter.) (Copyright. 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles.) Some anthoiiti€& seem to think that tho undersized people found in the gloomy di-pths of the dark forests ore the. abori"inal pet tiers of Afiica. Tlu'l the pigmies', as th^y are called, have any better claim than an\ other African races of to-d.iy to tho distinction of being the living repre-oma-tives of the first people seems to me improbable.

These people, vlio are slightly under stature, live in the forest, -where they get lit fe furl ; ghf-. They live on 51 1 il vrinciI'filly, "'id when thai, crmiol be 1 ,d."ivsort to reptiles and insects. They hunt -with bow* and aii'ows, or spears. They have all kinds of traps, such as slipnooses attached to a flexible pole, which is planted upright in the ground, then bent over to set the trap. When the animal tries to get through the lopjp the poj,e_ /ypriiigis back into

' pbee, naming tlip victim into ihe air - j "rhtie it is strangled. They have a ne I «oine^hat on the principle of that used b; > ' 'he yladi.itors 111 the arcn< of Rome, ii I ' they entangle the wild animals. The" , ' dm holes m the path^, duvins <-harpenc'< , poisoned st-cks i:> '.he bottom. "th^n covri,ng the hole* with leave*. In the £ra« . the}- str. w poisoned thorn*, and liavi fi-aipcned sticks 21 1 or 3ft long set in tin . ground at an angle of 30deg or 40dorr. si ! that thoy will btick in Iho legs as thei: enemy mn«. jnto thtir>. Thcsp a iv hid cl \ia' ' r.bouf tlair p'antation^ of plantain-, o: ( arouKil their village*. i ' Three pigmle* can kill an elephant, am with only a few thru.se* of a spear, on -nlrcl they use a vegetable poison. They under stai.d the business-, and confidence make I them brave. My me 1 Mir em en t^ from a trib; j of these people on the Sa-nga who callet the-selves N'bgongo, and others of the Mo l bu!i£ui, show the nveiage pi^my to b< ! slightly undT sft, almost as Taige as ay avtrage-&izcd American woman. They wen I much larger than I had expected. Thej j had the strictly African features-, the fla! no&e and round face, legs short and welldeveloped, big hips. The greater curvature I c.f Mie soinc made the stomach protrude. I The arms w ere long, and not so well j developed as the legs, which is ' the case with all inland tribes-, while with those using canoes the aa-nit, arc the best developed. The women are conspicuous by their short, stumpy legs and big hips. They often become the wives of the ordinary African. The children of these unions are as large as the average African. The pigmies of the Sanga have square huts, and the others reported north of Bangui in the pr.mevMl foists tint skirts the Moban^ui Lake ate said also to have square huts ; those between, the Ouelle and Aruimma have the round hut, which is about as . large a." the huts of the larger Africans. The greatest musical genius I ever came aeic^s was a reputed pigmy at Stanley Falls-, who sang, or rather hummed, to an accompaniment which he played on an instrument of eight strings drawn acros« a board 14 in long and lOin wide, with bridges under each string at different places, to tune it It was veiy ingenious, and altogethei I -i sweet-bounding and pleasant little affair. ! The musician had a broken jaw. Dr Junker's conservative statements would lead one to believe from his first measurement of a man of sft that there were many over that measurement as veil as und-er. hJch^einfurifv ■«ho first told the civilised woild~of these small people of L ac Upper Ouelle, is very conservative oho, and although he and D*i Ju^kc- think the^-e people of slightly undei stature a raca apart, theie is still an interro gat ion point after reading their opinion, as neither of them saw the pigmies in theiv villages. Stanley give* the smallest mea-sur-onients of the.se people, yet reading hi« I vo-lv closely for absolute 'statements' we are still in doubt, as he das.* not state that he saw them in their village*. The villages were there, but the pigmies were not, .•nd taking the measurements of a few is xery misleading. Since Stanley, though murh has been published, the question remain« wlieie he left it. Few have be-en the additions to his picture of the great forest. Summing up the whole thing "from my own expeiienoe and the actual facts as given by other explorers, what is said of the pigmy can be said of many other African tribes. He differs only in his stature ; his features, physique, his mode of life, hunting, his traps, are used among all the tribe* , and aiv essentially as much theirs as his. Ihe poisoned weapons are not so common, but they .mv known, while his religion and patriaivh.-.i Jaws are those of the other African people. Living in the bu?h without adequate sunlight, living on meat, often reporting to an insectivorous diet, might account for the slight decrease in statute. Why should not the climate and conditions decrease the stature as well as increase it? On the Mobangui River, situated on a high, impregnable bluff, three days below Bangui, is a village of giants, every man of them over 6ft, and some of them over it. It_ is w-ell known to the white man. These giants are of splendid physique, their muscles standing out like ihos'e of a Hercules. They are rather lighter brown than "ie average African. Their heads are a bad shape and impress one as unintelligent ; their faces are beastly. They live on pbLitain*. manioc, and "the cola nut. They are -a the country of the gorilla and chimp.iiisee, and seem not to have, varied from the ways of these animals in food and general life. Yet I never heard these p-eopie spoken of as- the missing link, or degenerates, and they are more nearly related to the big apis than the undersized people known as the pigmies. Of all the photographs published of these small people, there is but one that I have seen that is satisfactory. They seem to be either children or "runts." Children h-ive a peculiar stomach that is seldom found in an adult, and i^ easily distinguished by an experienced observer. Among tribes, of average build I found smaller spec£ mens than among the people called pigmic. I found a dwarf that measured under 3ft 6iu, an old wrinkled man ; but he was a M'Sacklaw. 1 found another slightly taller; he could stand under my arm°with ease, avcl the people were very proud of him. H? was a Linda. Among the Banzirri was a man with ape feet and hands; the big toe was .split ay.ay hack short, and held m tho position of a monkey's; lie \ias =m-.1, and his fe;vt me-, scon-cd bono-uod from a chimpanzee.

Relief After Six Tfah«.— Mis M. A. Claik, of Timbeny Range, X.S.W., Australia, writes: • I \\i-h (.0 mfoim you of the wondcilul benefit I have lcccucd fiom ' ivi'Ts'tu'';:. .'.r'rrj. I u^ f, 1 a povcre crujfh f'.r six yrars, and obtai.' cJ no relief until I took Chamberlain's Cough \ Reoicdy. One bottle cured me, and lam j thankful to say that 1 have, never had the j cough since. Make any use of this Infer thai you like for the good of any other poor suffcrci-n. 1 ' Tor sale by all dealers. 1