PYGMY FOSSIL

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 February 1935, Page 5

PYGMY FOSSIL

THE DISCOVERY IN INDIA. INTERESTING COMMENT. LONDON, Thursday. In connection with the discovery of the fossil remains of a 15-inch pygmy, a 10-inch walking-stick, and an 18-inch high cow, it is stated that the remains were found in a well 150 feet deep. A correspondent recalls that the Greek historian Ctesias, in the fifth century, described black pygmies in the heart of India, and said the tallest wore only two ells; they were ugly; their hair and beards were so long that they served as garments. Also, they were excellent bowmen, and their language and customs were similar to those of other Indians. “I think it is too good to be true, ’ said Mr M. A. Hinton, deputy-keeper of the Natural History Museum, referring to the Bombay pygmy report. He added: “It might have been a freak of some sort. One discovery is unacceptable as evidence that so small a race ever existed.” “I believe the fossils may be those of an abnormal dwarf,” said Professor Sir Grafton Elliot Smith. ‘‘l have known dwarfs less than two feet high. The conception of a man of 15 inches at present so astounds anthropologists as to appear fantastic.” Simultaneously with the Bombay discovery, the archaeologist, Major A. G. Wade, unearthed in Hampshire the skeleton of a mammoth with tusks lb feet, long and 101 inches in circumference.