Conservative.
a number of old frontiersmen , who
were already on the plains in the
forties and over the whole length of
the Santa Fo trail. They all coincide
with Col. Dodge and Mr. Mead ; especi
ally Judge T. S. Huffaker , of Council
Grove , Kans. , a very intelligent gentle
man who came in 1846 to the frontier
as a missionary and teacher among the
Indians , made the same statements , and
while preparing this paper , I received
the following from him : "When I first
came among the Indians , now more
than a half-century ago , there were at
that time no well defined trails , be
tween the locations of the different
tribes , but between the several bauds of
the same tribe , there were plain beaten
trails. Each baud had a village of its
own , and they continually visited each
other. The different tribes would
change their location perpetually , and
never remain in one location long
enough to mark any well defined trails ,
in going from tribe to tribe. "
The conclusions to be drawn from
the above statements are :
That there were no permanent trails
orer the plains , in pre-historic times , as
shown by the facts and conditions set
forth herein , and there is neither evi
dence nor tradition for such an assump
tion. There probably were pre-historic
routes , sometimes several miles in width ,
but no trails , roads or paths , as under
stood by the use of these words at the
present day. In a timbered or moun
tainous country , the case was different ,
and pre-historic trails existed.
The assumption of such permanent
and well traveled trails , can have its
origin only in the brains of imaginative
writers , like Inman and Rishey , who
are totally unacquainted with condi
tions and facts existing at the time
when the Europeans first came in con
tact with the Aborigines on the plains
of this continent.
This trail matter , historic and pre
historic , shows again the truth of Ohas.
F. Lummis' assertion : "This is of
course out of the whole cloth , another
case where persons ignorant of facts
and conditions , have been permitted to
make what we please to call history. "
EDWARD A. KILIAN.
Alma , Kaus. , July 9 , 1901.
ABOUT DWARFS.
BY LAWRENCE IRWELL.
It has long been a matter of discus
sion whether there ever existed any na
tions which may absolutely be classed as
dwarfs. In many ancient writings are
mentioned various races of pygmies as
inhabiting the cold northern climes of
Soythia , or the tropical deserts of
Libya and Asia Minor. Aristotle
vouches for the reliability of those wit
nesses who professed to have seen
dwarf men and dwarf horses upon the
banks of the Nile , and Pliny gives de-
11
tails of their habits. Herodotxis speaks
of a race of little men of inky-black
color , who inhabited a large city on a
river which flowed from West to East
Libya , and swarmed with horrible croco
diles. Otosias , a contemporary of
Xenophon , says that he saw in Central
India a race of pygmies only two feet
in stature ; they inhabited a province in
which the animals were proportionately
small , the sheep being no larger than
new-born lambs , and the horses , cattle
and asses no larger than a ram. Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemaeus , the celebrated
geographer and astronomer mentions
a "little people" called the Pedhinians ;
he describes them as the inhabitants of
a large part of the eastern frontiers of
Ethiopia. In later times , an English
sailor named Battel , who was taken
prisioner by the Portugese about 1590 ,
and earned into Africa , relates in his
adventures that ho met with a nation
of dwarfs called the "Matimbas. " A
Dutch traveler , Oliver Dapper , describes
a little nation of elephant hunters
named the "Mimos , " whom ho discov
ered in 1685 , inhabiting a district near
the Congo river.
Mr. Du Ohaillu , writing in 1860 ,
speaks of a strange people of wild
habits , whom he found inhabiting a
largo tract of land in the country of
Oshango ; they were called "Ovongos"
by their neighbors , the Ashangos , with
whom they did not marry. The
Ovougos were of hideous aspect , their
faces being yellow in color. The men
were about four feet , five inches in
height.
People much under the average
stature have been found , in small num
bers in southern India and on the island
of Madagascar , and they are spread
widely over the southern half of Africa
where they have been studied in recent
years. There origin is unknown , but
they seem to pertain to the Negroid
families. Their existence has been
periodically reported since the dawn of
history , but when the world repudiated
the statements of some of the earliest
geographer's , it rejected the pygmy
tribes of whom the ancients wrote , and
they were not rediscovered until the
second half of the last centxiry. The
African dwarfs have been distributed
into four , great groups viz :
those who inhabit West Africa ,
and who live chiefly in the forests. An
adult male is usually between four
feet , three inches and four feet , seven
inches in height. The second group is
found in the central regions of Africa ,
and the individuals composing it are
sometimes as tall as four feet , eight
inches. The members of this group are
nomadic in their habits and are very
skilful hunters. The third group lives
east of the Nile , but I have been unable
to find anything of value concerning
the mode of life of the people who com
pose it. The bushmen who live in the
Kalahari desert , and who range between
four feet and four feet , five inches in
stature , constitute the fourth group.
Our knowledge of all these pygmies is
very scanty , but they unquestionably
exist.
Mr. A. B. Lloyd has lately published
an account of some Congo dwarfs who
are short the men about four feet
high but are much more powerfully
built than other Africans. They are
broad chested , with muscles finely de-
velopedshort thick ueckand small bullet
head. Their lower limbs are massive
and very strong ; their chests are cov
ered with curly hair , and most of the
men wear thick , black beards. Each
man is armed with a bow and quiver of
arrows or with short throwing spears.
Around their arms they wear iron rings ,
and some of them have these around
their necks also. The total number of
these pygmies is said to be about ten
thousand , and their mode of living is
very extraordinary. They never culti
vate the ground , but wander from
place to place , gathering the fruit , nuts ,
etc. , from the trees , and the wild honey.
The animals they shoot with their bows
and arrows are , of course , used for food.
They often follow a wounded elephant
for days , shooting into it hundreds of
their little iron-tipped arrows , until the
poor animal dies from sheer exhaiistion.
They then make their camp all around
the carcass , and live upon the flesh as
long as it will last , and then they go
away in search of other food. Their
method of catching wild pigs and forest
antelope is very interesting. Two or
three of the more agile of the men are
sent into the thicket to search for the
animal. These little fellows sometimes
climb the trees , and move along the
branches from one tree to another ,
peering down into the dense under
growth. In the meantime a large
net made out of creepers is held in readi
ness , and men , women , and children
arm themselves for the fray , some with
sticks , but most of the men have bows
and aiTOws. After a little time , a
shrill , birdlike whistle is heard from the
forest ; it is the signal from the search
ers that game has been found. Then
the members of the little army noise
lessly pick their way through the jungle
and the tangled undergrowth , going in
the direction of the whistle. When
they .reach the spot they quietly sur
round it , each man or woman keeping
within sight of his nearest neighbor.
The net is fastened to the bushes at one
part of the circle , and then when all is
ready the whole party commences to
shout , at the same time beating the
thicket , and very slowly driving all be
fore them into the not , where stand the
men with bows and arrows. The ante
lope or pig is then almost certain to
rush into1 the net , and it is shot through
\
and through by the expert marksmen.
This ends the hunt , the dead animal