Pigmies.—A while ago, says the Sun, Mr. Grenfell of the Congo Mission encountered on the Bosari River, south of the Congo, the Batwa dwarfs whom Stanley mentions in “The Dark Continent,” though Stanley did not see them. Grenfell says these little people exist over a large extent of country, their villages being scattered here and there among other tribes. Wissmann and Pogge also met them a few years ago in their journey to Nyangwe.
It was long supposed that the story of Herodotus about the pigmies of Africa was mythical, but within the past twenty years abundant evidence has accumulated of the existence of a number of tribes of curious little folks in equatorial Africa. The chief among these tribes are the Akka, whom Schweinfurth found northwest of Albert Nyassa; the Obongo, discovered by DuChaillu in west Africa, southwest of Gaboon; and the Batwa, south of Congo.
These little people range in height from 4 feet 2 inches to about 4 feet 8 inches. They are intellectually as well as physically inferior to the other tribes of Africa. They are perhaps nearer the brute kingdom than any other human beings. The Obongo, for instance, wear no semblance of clothing: make no huts except to bend over and fasten to the ground the tops of three or four young trees, which they cover with leaves; possess no arts except the making of bows and arrows, and do not till the soil. They live on the smaller game of the forest and on nuts and berries. They regard the leopard, which now and then makes a meal of one of them, as their deadliest enemy. They live only a few days or weeks in one place.
When Schweinfurth first met the Akka dwarfs he found himself surrounded by what he supposed was a crowd of impudent boys. There were several hundred of them, and he soon found that they were veritable dwarfs, and that their tribe probably numbered several thousand souls. One of these dwarfs was taken to Italy a few years ago, was taught to read, and excited much interest among scientific men. There are other tribes of dwarfs in Abyssinia and also in Somaliland.
It is believed that all these people, including the Bushmen of South Africa, are the remains of an aboriginal population that is now becoming extinct. In the migrations and subjugations that have been in progress for many centuries among powerful tribes, the dwarf tribe of Africa has been scattered, and its isolated fragments are still found in widely separated parts of the continent.
A Human Phenomenon.—M. de Quatrefages, the naturalist, has examined a real phenomenon, a Provençal of thirty, named Simeon Aiguier, who had been presented by Dr. Trenes. Aiguier, thanks to his peculiar system of muscles and nerves, can transform himself in most wondrous fashion. He has very properly dubbed himself “L’Homme-Protee.” At one moment, assuming the rigidity of a statue, his body may be struck sharply, the blows falling as on a block of stone. At another he moves his intestines from above and below and right to left into the form of a large football, and projects it forward, which gives him the appearance of a colossally stout personage. He then withdraws it into the thorax opening like a cage, and the hollow look of his body immediately reminds one of a skeleton. Aiguier successfully imitates a man subjected to the tortures of the rack, as also a man hanging himself, and assumes a strikingly cadaveric look. What most astonished M. de Quatrefages was the stoppage of the circulation of the blood, now on the left and now on the right side, which was effected by muscular contraction.—Boston Transcript.
Surviving Superstitions.—The once flourishing and wealthy colony of German Rappites, or Harmonists, who sold out New Harmony, Indiana, to old Robert Owen sixty years ago, (where Owen’s grand fiasco occurred,) and removed to Economy, Pa., held their annual festival on the 15th of February in the usual solemn manner. Father Rapp is dead long ago, and of the thousand energetic religious and industrious enthusiasts who have been so prosperous in worldly matters, scarcely fifty remain as feeble old men, and their pastor, Father Henrici, is over 83 years old; but the honest and worthy old enthusiasts are still waiting for the personal coming of Christ, who, they believe, is to come before their society dies out, establish his kingdom with his throne on Mount Sinai, and judge and rule the world. They believe that their beloved Father Henrici will never die, but will lead them to the presence of their Divine Master on Mount Sinai; and he proposes to lead them to Palestine, when they have signs of the Lord’s approach, that they may be ready to meet him.
There is a solemn beauty and grandeur in these weird old superstitions of good people; but, alas! the Rappites must soon pass away, as the Girlingites have expired in England, when Mother Girling could not be immortal.
A Spiritual Test of Death.—John R. Fowler, an old steamboat man, who died at Louisville, in January, 1887, made his wife promise to keep his body three days to see if he would not recover consciousness. On the third day after his death, the doctor and coroner pronounced him dead, but his wife sent for a medium, and through her the deceased husband stated that he was dead, and the happiness of spirit life was so great that he had no desire to return, but would wait patiently until his wife joined him.
The most perfect test of death is by Faradic electricity. As a general rule, three hours after death, the muscles entirely fail to respond to the Faradic current. When the muscles cannot be affected, death is established.