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Show TRAITS OF AFRICAN PYGMIES. Explorers Tell of Peculiarities of Queer Race of People. Pygmies are climbers par excellence. excel-lence. The pygmy always gets up a tree somehow. If there are convenient conven-ient vine he uses them, his big toes serving as thumbs; if there are no vines and the tree be thin, he grasps it with his hands and walks up; if the tree be thick he grips with his legs and nimbly works his way to tho top. The pygmy is a prayerful little mau. During a thunder storm he may bo heard imploring God to disperse it; but if the storm only continues in violence vio-lence he changes his entreaty to beg protection from violence. Maj. Powell-Cotton's gunbearer saw a group of pygmies in the forest seated in a wide semi-clrclo, the men wearing their okapi belts and the women their beads and all their finery. They were busily eating round a table In the center. cen-ter. Each pygmy carefully placed a little packet of his particular provision provi-sion on tho table, which was soon laden with a supply of bananas, houcy, and sweet potatoes. The pygmy teacher's explanation was that they were changing camp and by this ceremonial cere-monial feast. Invoked the supremo spirit to give them good luck in their now bunting grounds. |