Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1891 — MORE DWARFS DISCOVERED. [ARTICLE]

MORE DWARFS DISCOVERED.

Tribes of Little Men Extendinjj Hall ; way Acrose. Africa. When Paul d u Chaillu, about thirty years ago, reported the existence of a dwarf race in west Africa his statements were received with derisive incredulity. The world little thought that his story would be proved to be perfectly accurate, and also that later explorations would bring to light ‘many tribes of these little people stretched far across Africa. The latest discoveries concerning the dwarfs have been made' this year by the French explorer Gaillard, during his fruitful researches.on the upper Sauha river, one of the largest northern tributaries of the Congo. He found near the towns of important chiefs many families of dyaffe- ■ who in that region -are called, Babingas. They are great elephant hunt, ers. They do not live in the villages but camp in the forests. They are of less than medium stature and very muscular, are extremely skillful in the chase, and their weapons are assagais, with a head like that of the harpoon They wear their hair and beard uncut and have no ornaments. When they feel that they have a grivauce against a chief under whose protection they have been living they disappear into the forest wTthout saying a word and begin again in other regions their lives as nomad hunters. In return for the fruits of the chase, with which they supply the chiefs, vegetables and articles of native manufacture are given them. They are a source of profit to the tribes among whom they live, and consequently they are almost always well treated. The discovery of the Babingas adds another link to the almost unbroken chain of these dwarf tribes, extending from the region west of the Gaboon to the Nile. The Obango of Du Chaillu, the Babingas of Gilliard, the Akka of Schwdinfurth, the Tikitiki of Stanley are all evidently the fragments of an aeient tribe of little men. who were probably scattered separated regions by the fortunes of war, in which they werq vanquished by intruding races whq were physically more powerful than' themselves. The numerous dwarfs known as the Batwa, who have been found in the qsouthem part of the Congo basin, are also near relatives of the people north of the Congo. All jof them, though their various fragments are widely separated, have the same characteristics. ! It is sur - prising that such svidely t separated people, wflo perhaps had not heard o| one another for centuries, should retain so much in common.