342 AFRICA SPEAKS 



When the elephant is dead the whole clan gathers 

 and scenes of wildest orgy take place. Holes are cut 

 into his stomach and men crawl inside to get at the 

 tidbits, such as the Hver, heart, and kidneys. What a 

 sight such a drama presents I Dwarfs of men, howHng 

 and yelhng, driving pygmy spears into the giant of the 

 animal kingdom until he crashes to earth among the 

 dank ferns. Then the dance of triumph, the feast of 

 meat, the savage revehies of primitive men. Not 

 unlike the early history of our own race are the present- 

 day Uves of these pygmies. 



The spears are small but well made, tipped with iron 

 points and often decorated with ivory. Their bows 

 measure twenty-eight inches of bowstring, both ends 

 being decorated with monkey fur. The bow is made 

 from a flexible wood and the string from a creeper. 

 Arrow shafts are shaped from the center stem of the 

 palm leaf, and the iron points from metal that they 

 mine from the earth and smelt and pound into shape 

 themselves. To make poison, they seek the akage 

 tree, cut chunks from it, pound these into a pulp and 

 squeeze the juice into a pot. The arrow points are 

 placed in this sap and all are boiled together. It is a 

 most deadly poison, and kills even the hardy buffalo 

 within two hours' time. 



While writing atop my ant hill in the clearing, it 

 coromenced to rain like the flood, while the hghtning 

 and thunder did their utmost to uphold the reputation 

 earned by them in the tropics. Down below, the pyg- 

 mies went scurrying about like busy ants, putting extra 

 banana leaves on their hut roofs. The downpour 

 ceased as quickly as it began, the sun shone brightly 

 again, and then we had a ceremonial parade. The 



