STRANGE LITTLE PEOPLE AT SHOW

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 November 1950, Page 6

STRANGE LITTLE PEOPLE AT SHOW

“Quai Qual,” half Hottentot and half Pawnee Indian, will be appearing with the little pigmies and tiny African bushmen at the show. This little chap is about 40 inches tall and belongs to the Kalahari Desert, Bechuanaland Protectorate, known as white man grave yard, and is part Hottentot and half Pawnee Indian. This strange blood mixture came about through the advent of “Texas Jack,” an American cowboy, and his Wild West circus 30 odd years ago, in which were a number of Pawnee Indian braves, bow and arrow marksmen, ropers and knife throwers. Whilst playing in the town of Mafeking (Desert Border), the Indians deserted and joined the Hottentot tribes. Thus was the blood of America’s Red Man transplanted into the mediaeval civilisation of the vast, unkindly Kalahari Desert. Hottentots are a passing people and only a remnant of their former customs and beliefs survive. Animals most feared by Hottentot hunters are the buffalo and the elephant. Of the buffalo they say: “He is as fierce as a man who has been despoiled of his wife.” Hottentots and Bushmen are near relatives in height, customs and manner of speech. The kinship of the three peoples, Hottentots, Bushmen and Pigmies, is fundamentally the same. They will a 1! be in the same tent and one price charged. ♦