IN THE LAND OF GORILLAS AND PYGMIES 385 



These little people mostly live on serpents, rats and mice, and 

 what berries and nuts they can collect in the forest. On the next occa- 

 sion the traveler was more successful and found the pygmies. On 

 coming to one of their settlements everything appeared to be deserted, 

 but Du Chaillu lay flat on the ground at the door of one of the little 

 huts, and put his arm in at the entrance in the dark. Sweeping it 

 r^'^und, he suddenly grasped hold of something; then a piercing shriek 

 was heard ; he had caught some one by the ankle, and unceremoniously 

 -dragging the creature out, it was found to be a poor wrinkled-looking 

 old woman. Two poor women were discovered in the other huts, and 

 when dragged out they began to shriek and cry and wring their hands, 

 probably thinking that their last day had come, and it was for a long 

 time in vain that the Ashangos assured them that the Oguisi did not 

 mean to harm them. 



"For the first time," says Du Chaillu, "I was able to look care- 

 fully at these little Dwarfs. They had prominent cheek-bones, and 

 were yellow, their faces being exactly of the same color as the chim- 

 panzee's; the palms of their hands were almost as white as those of 

 white people; they seemed well proportioned, but their eyes had an 

 untamable wildness that struck me at once; they had thick lips and 

 flat noses, like the negroes ; their foreheads were low and' narrow, and 

 their cheek-bones prominent ; and their hair, which grew in little, short 

 tufts, was black, with a reddish tinge. After a while I thought I heard 

 a rustling in one of the little houses, so I went there, and looking in- 

 side, saw it filled with the tiniest children. They were exceedingly 

 shy. When they saw me they hid their heads just as young dogs or 

 kittens would do, and got into a huddle, and kept still. The'se were 

 the little Dwarf children who had remained in the village under the 

 care of the three women, while the Dwarfs had gone into the forest 

 to collect their evening meal — that is to say, nuts, fruits and berries — 

 and to see If the traps they had set had caught any game." 



The finding of these little people was Du Chaillu's last success. 

 He afterwards met with serious misfortunes, and was forced to fight 

 his way through hostile tribes to the coast. At last, on the 21st of 

 September, 1866, the mouth of the Fernand' Vaz was reached, and 

 once more the traveler looked on the sea. Six days afterwards, though 



