CURIOUS CREATURES. 31 



passage through a low bottom. The graves were from 

 eighteen inches to two feet in length, most of them being 

 of the smaller size, and were formed by an excavation of 

 about fifteen inches below the surface, in which were 

 placed four undressed slabs of rock one in the bottom 

 of the pit, one on each side, and one on the top. Human 

 skeletons, some with nearly an entire skull, and many 

 with well-defined bones, were found in them. The teeth 

 were very diminutive, but evidently those of adults. 

 Earthen crocks were also found with the skeletons. 

 General Milroy could not gain any satisfactory informa- 

 tion respecting these pigmy graves. The oldest inhabi- 

 tants of the vicinity knew nothing of their origin or 

 history, except that there was a large number of similar 

 graves near Statesville in the same county, and also 

 a little burial-ground at the mouth of Stone River, 

 near the city of Nashville. General Milroy deposited 

 the bones found by him in the State Library at 

 Nashville." 



That a race of dwarfs live in Central Africa, is now 

 well known. Ronzo de Leo, who travelled in Africa, for 

 many years with Dr. Livingstone, at one time almost 

 stood alone in his assertion of this fact. But he was 

 supported in his statement by G. Eugene Wolff, who had 

 been in Central Africa with Stanley, and he maintained 

 that, on the southern branches of the Congo, he had seen 

 whole villages of Lilliputians, of whom the men were not 

 over four and a half feet high, whilst the women were a 

 great deal smaller. He described them as being both 

 brave and cunning, expert with bow and arrow, with 

 which they readily bring down the African bison, antelope, 

 and even elephants. As trappers of small animals they 

 are unsurpassed. In a close pinch they use the lance 



