384 IN THE LAND OF GORILLAS AND PYGMIES 



quite a pet companion of his master's. Poor Tommy's one great vice 

 was an inordinate love of brandy : on one occasion the traveler found 

 his brandy bottle broken in pieces on the floor and Master Tommy 

 coiled up at its side in a state of maudlin drunkenness. 



Du Chaillu made another excursion to Africa in 1863, the story 

 of which, told in his vivacious style, is very interesting, and is espe- 

 cially notable for the discovery of a tribe of dwarfs or pygmies, the 

 existence of which had been known from old Grecian times, but which 

 Du Chaillu had the honor of being the first of modern travelers to see. 

 He has thus to his credit the discovery for the modern world of both 

 the gorilla and the pygmy. 



Traversing the thick forest on the way to Yengue, he came sud- 

 denly upon twelve strange little houses built at random in :m open 

 space; and on asking Kombila, his guide, what these were, was told 

 they were dwellings of the Obongos. Thus he describes them, and 

 later on it will be seen that he saw and measured some of these pecu- 

 liar little people. 



''How strange the houses of the Dwarfs seemed ! The length of 

 each house was about that of a man, and the height was just enough 

 to keep the head of a man from touching the roof when he was seated. 

 The materials used in building were the branches of trees bent in the 

 form of a bow, the ends put into the ground, and the middle branches 

 being the highest. The shape of each house was very much like that 

 of an orange cut in two. The frame-work was covered with large 

 leaves, and there were little doors which did not seem to be more than 

 eighteen inches high, and' about twelve or fifteen inches wide. Even 

 the Dwarfs must have lain almost flat on the ground in order to pass 

 through. When I say door I mean simply an opening, a hole to go 

 through. It was only a tiny doorway. But I managed to get inside 

 one of these strange little houses, and I found there two beds, which 

 were as curious as everything else about the premises. Three or four 

 sticks on each side of the hut were the beds. Each bed was about 

 eight inches, or, at the most, ten inches in width. One was for the 

 wife and the other for the husband. A little piece of wood on each 

 bed made the pillows. It w^as almost pitch dark inside, the only light 

 coming from the opening or door. Between the two beds were the 

 remains of a fire, judging by the ashes and the pieces of burnt wood." 



