32 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



with astonishing dexterity, and an ordinary sling, in 

 their hands, is wielded with wonderful skill. 



These dwarfs collect the sap of the palm, with which 

 they make soap. The men are smooth-faced, and of a 

 rich mahogany colour, while the hair is short, and as 

 black as night. Tens of thousands of them live on the 

 south branch of the Congo. 



Mr. Stanley in his expedition for the relief of Emin 

 Pacha, 1 encountered some tribes of these pigmies, but he 

 does not agree with the account which Mr. Wolff gives 

 of them, who describes them as an affable, kind-hearted 

 people, of simple ways, and devoid of vicious tendencies 

 to a greater degree than most semi-barbaric races. The 

 women are industrious and amiable. 



Stanley, on the contrary, found them very annoying, 

 and had a lively recollection of their poisoned arrows 

 but, at the present writing, he not having returned, and 

 we, having no record but his letters, had better suspend 

 our judgment as to the habits and tempers of these 

 small people. 



Wolff says they stand in awe of their bigger neigh- 

 bours, but are so brave and cunning that, with all the 

 odds of physique against them, the pigmies are masters 

 of the situation. 



GIANTS. 



This last sentence seems almost a compendium of 

 The History of Tom Thumb, for his wit enabled him 

 to overcome the lubber-headed giants, in every conflict 

 he was engaged in with them they were no match for 



1 See his letters dated September 1888, which arrived in England early in 

 April 1889. 



