Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 15 September 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

THE FOREST DWARfS Of COJIGO. THE existence of a tribe of Dwarfs, not as a mere ' lusus naturce, but as an independent branoh of the human race, has been an oft-disputed point, which the explorations of Mr Stanley in the great forest of the Congo have gone to solve. Dwarfs figure largely in all heathen mythologies, whence they have descended into the pages of modern fairy tales. As early as the fifth century b.c. the geographer Hecatams of Miletus speaks of a race of tiny beings no more than a span in height, dwelling in Libya, who cut down corn-stalks with an axe, and whom Hercules is said to havo gathered up in his lion's skin as a present for King Eurystheus. Dwarfs also play an important part in the folklore of the nations of northern and western Europe, whose imagination peopled the hills, the woods, and the rivers of their respective countries with numerous elves, fairies, sprites, trolls, and water-nixies—beings endowed with supernatural powers, employed for the most part in the service of man. Modern writers have occasionally adapted the same tales to meet their own requirements—for example, the rivalry between Oberon and Titania forms the background of the plot of ' A Midsummer Night's Dream ': while Swift, under cover of Gulliver's visit to Lilliput, takes the; opportunity of directing a scathing satire against the political intrigues of his own country.

But altogether apart from the imaginations of ancient and modern writers, it is interesting to notice the persistent and reiterated tradition which asserted the existence of an undersized nomadic race in the heart of the African- Continent—a tradition whose first appearance dates*! Rom the timo of Homer, nearly a thousand years before the Christian era. In a passage found in the third bock of the ' Iliad,' Homer refors to the wars carried on between the Pygmies and the Cranes. By the time of Herodotus their position had become permanently fixed in the centre of Africa. That historian relates the adventures of five young men of the Nasamones, a fierce Libyan tribe on the north coast of Africa, who started to explore the unknown parts of the interior: and describes how ' they at length saw some trees growing on a plain ; and having approached, they began to pluck the fruit; and while they were gathering it, some diminutive men, less than men of middle stature, came up and seized them and carried them away. Later on, Aristotle, with evident reference to the passage in the 'lliad,' alludes to the same tradition. 'The cranes,' he says, ' fly to the lakes above Egypt from which flows the Nile. There dwell the Pygmies; and this is no fable, but the simple, truth. Tfiere, just as we are told, men and horses of diminutive size dwell in caves.' Strabo, the Soman geographer in the time of Tiberius, had heard of the Pygmies, but disbelieved in their existence. In the seventeenth book of his Geography, which deals chiefly with Egypt and Liba, there occurs the following statement: ' The Ethiopians for the most part live a miserable and nomadic life. They go naked; and their domestic animals are of small stature, as are also their dogs. The inhabitants themselves are small, but active and warlike. Perhaps it is their small stature which has given rise to the fables about the Pygmies; for there is no man worthy of credit who has spoken of them as an eye-witness.'

From these statements of early historians and geographers, it may be clearly gathered that the existence of a nomadic race of undersized men was an article of popular belief among the ancients. 'lt remains, therefore, to inquire how far the investigations of modern African explorers tend to confirm the truth of this tradition. On the disruption of the Roman Empire, civilisation and literature perished for a time under the smouldering ruins of Athens and Rome. During the period that ensued, the cause of exploration and scientific investigation was roughly interrupted, and was not resumed until the nations of modern Europe began to emerge from the chaos. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the tide of exploration was for the most part turned to America; nor was it until the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century that attention was once more fully directed towards Africa. During the first half of'the nineteenth century, a fair knowledge was gained of those parts of Africa adjoining the sea-coast; but the interior of the Continent long remained unexplored*, until the modern era of exploration began under Livingstone, Speke, Burton, Grant, and others, and culminated in the successful expeditions of Mr Stanley. With the increased knowledge of the interior, it is interesting to notice the revival of the traditions concerning the Pygmy race of Central Africa. As early as 1848. Du Chaillu, a wpll-known African traveller, had heard reports of a tribe called Dokos, no bigger than boys ten years old—that is, about four feet in height—with dark olive-coloured complexions, whose main articles of diet consisted of serpents, ants, and mice. At a later date he himself came across a race of, dwarfs called Obongos, whose appearance and customs are fully described in a book entitled ' The Country of the Dwarfs.' He found them dwelling in a forest, scattered at intervals near the settlements of the full-grown aborigines. He describes them as skilful hunters and trappers of game, using no iron weapons, but only bows and arrows, the latter of which they tip with poison. They never remained long together in the same place ; but when food began to grow scarce, moved off in search of new quarters. On several occasions he entered their huts, which were oval' in shape, resembling the half of a severed orange, and high enough to allow a full-grown man to stand upright without touching the roof. They are represented as having prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, flat noses, and low, narrow foreheads, while their average height is about four feet seven inches.

The next explorer who makes mention of the forest dwarfs is Dr Sohweinfurth, a Professor of Heidelberg University, who in three years (1868-1871) penetrated the heart of Africa as far as the previously unknown region of Mombuttu. He gives an extremely interesting account of the dwarfs, whom he describes under the generic term of Akka. According to him, they inhabit the forest region lying to the south of the Mombuttu people, whom they assist against the neighbouring tribes. They are skilful hunters, very cunning and cruel, and have no domestic animals except poultry. Two specimens whom he captured measured respectively four feet one inch and four feet , inches ; and he never came across any whose height exceeded four.feet ten inches. The personal characteristics of-the two captured dwarfs are thus described : * Their skin was of a dull brown tint, the colour of partially roasted coffee ; their heads were large, set on thin, weak necks ; chests flat and contracted, with .protuberant bellies; hands small and well formed; jaws projecting and very prognathous, their facial angles measuring sixty and sixty-six degrees respectively.

Emin Pasha during his eight" years' residence at the Equator occasionally encountered individuals of the same race. By him they are described as being divided into numerous small tribes, with no settled abodes, leading a nomadic .life among the Mombuttu arid.Amadi. "They have neither lances nor spears, but make' exclusive use of the bow arid arrow. Two distinct marked types of physiognomy are found among them; some having a. pale yellow skin, the colour of ivory, while others possess a dark skin tinged with red. Their general appearance is described in termß nearly identical with those of Dr Schwainfurth, with the addition that their bodies are covered with a thick stiff hair almost resembling felt. Individual specimens measured five feet five inches (a man of exceptional height), three feet six inches, and three feet one inch, the last being a girl of fourteen. The man, however, to whom we are chiefly indebted for full and accurate information about the forest dwarfs is Mr H. M. Stanley, the result of whose investigations was made known to the world in '.Darkest Africa.' - In 1875 he first hoard rumours of them from Arab traders at Ujiju, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika; and shortly after, during his adventurous descent of the Congo, he actually encountered an isolated member of the Pygmy race.

But in his search of Emin Pasha he passed through the centre of the forest district inhabited by the dwarfs. Ascending the Upper . Conco by stoamcr, he entered the. mouth of the Aruwimi Eiver, and formed an intrenched camp at Yambua. Thence pressing forward with the advanceguard, ho traversed the great forest of the Congo, a vast district, as large as the whole of Franco and Spain, six hundred and twenty miles in length, and upwards of five hundred miles in breadth. There, thickly scattered along the course of the Aruwimi and the Ituri Rivers, he passed through more than one hundred and fifty villages of the dwarfs. Like Emin Paslia, he saw two tribes with different characteristics—the Wambutti to the south, and the Batwa to the north of the district traversed. The Wambutti he describes as having a bricky complexion, long heads, narrow faces, and red ferret eyes, with a sour, anxious look. The Batwa, on the other hand, are of rich ivory-yellow complexion, with round faces, and gazelle-like eyes, set far apart on broad open foreheads.