A Race of Pigmies.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 208, 25 June 1887, Page 8

A Race of Pigmies.

Since the Lime of Herodotus travellers in Africa have brought home vo\ ovts of pigmy tribes scattered about, in various regions of Africa. Readers of Kchwcinfurth will remembei the Akkas> H'hom he met in the Monbutta country, and now Dr. Luclwig Wolf, who, with "Wiseman, recently explored the Sankuru, the great southern Uihutary of the Congo, gives us many details of a similar pigmy lace, among whom he sojourned for some time, in the district to the north-west of the station Lulaburr, 1 . lie found enthe \ Wages inhabited by tiny men and -women of a height not more than 4ft. Sin. Among their neighboius they are known as Batua. The^e arc nomad tribes, devoting themselves evlu-u"cly to the chase and the manufacture of palm wine. Their villages, consisting of huts <ivc met with in clearings in the foi ests which cover the greater part ot the country. Each district thus pos sesses a village of pigmies. As is the case of the Akkas among the Monbuttas, so the Batua among the Bakubu are regarded as liltle benevolent boin»s whose special mission is to provide the tribes among whom they sojourn with game and palm wine. In exchange, manioc, maize, and bananas are given to the pigmies. Generally they live apart, but sometimes they unit© themselves with races of larger statue. They excel in the art of scaling palm trees to collect the sap, and in setting traps for tramc. Their agility is almost incredible. In hunting they" bound through the high grass like grasshoppers, facing the elephant, antelope, and buffalo with the greatest audacity, thooting their arrows with rare precision, following up rapidly with a stroke of the lance. Physically the Batua are very well umde, having ab solutely no deformity. They are simply little men, well-proportioned, very bravo and very cunning. Their mean height is 4ft. 4in. Their skin is a yellow brown, less dark ihan that of larger races. Their hair is short and woolly. Neither the Aklsas nor the Batua have any beard.

An inscription on a monument winds up with the following touch obituary :-— " She lived a lifo of virtue, and died of the cholera morbus, caused by eating green fruit in the hope of a blessed immortality, at the early age of twenty-one years, seven months, and sixteen yoars. Readers, go thou and do likewise." A custodian of the Bodelian Library ab Oxford used to show a chorished memento labelled the skull of Oliver Cromwell. A wandering anatomits, well up in osteology having inspected the treasure, observed in dignantly, "But this is the cranium of a youth of twenty !" " Well, sir," was the answer, " what prevents its being the sku.U of the Lord Protector when he was a young man?"