AFRICAN PIGMY MAN AT THE SHOW

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 November 1950, Page 6

AFRICAN PIGMY MAN AT THE SHOW

Shorina was shipped at Zanzibar, East Africa, and. is a Uteri Forest Pigmy. He is a worshipper of Kam (the Sun), and when at its full the pigmies make offerings of parts of their kill. After rains they offer thanks to Kam, for rain means grass, and gras means fat game and plenty of food—zebra buck, war.thog giraffe, etc. Pigmies are noted as clever hunters. Only a half-dozen of the most experienced hunters go on an elephant hunt. When the giant blue-grey is sighted he is stealthily stalked to windward, and when close enough they shoot their arovvs and continue to shoot and follow perhaps for days until the elephant is killed. The little foragers and hunters are continually impelled by wanderlust to keep on the move, great, is their itch for rambling. Pigmies select those regions where the vegetation is most dense to provide cover, or where there is an abundance of fruit to attract wild animals. The tropical forest, with its juicy rank vegetation, gives a constant, though at times scanty, supply to the pigmy larder. In lean times he can bear hunger stoically. They call the sun “Kam,” the all-seeing eye. The Pigmy will be seen in the same tent as the tiny Congo bushmen and the Hottentots for the one price of acmission. They all sing tribal songs and Gance in native fashion.*