AMONG THE PYGMIES 39 



forest beans or a little handful of rice. I also saw 

 little pots of honey placed at the foot of these forest 

 giants. It seemed as if the Pygmies venerated the 

 spirit of the great trees amongst which they made 

 their home. I also found some little temples, very 

 neatly made, that could not have belonged to any 

 but the Pygmies. Upon their arms and round their 

 necks some of them, especially the women, wore charms 

 little pieces of carved wood from some sacred tree, 

 or else a leopard's claw or tooth. The latter, I 

 learned, were to ward off the leopards which are 

 roaming in the forest, and with which the Pygmies 

 constantly wage war, the former to keep disease away, 

 especially smallpox." 



Further information about the Pygmies is supplied 

 by Mr. T. Broadwood Johnson in his record of 

 African travel. It is interesting to note the difference 

 of opinion in regard to their religious beliefs. 1 " An 

 object of great interest for us was a little fellow 

 coming along the road laden with a basket of rubber! 

 on his back. The bearer, apart from a little madman 

 at Mbeni, was the first Pygmy we had so far en- 

 countered. Watitaru, as he called himself, was of the 

 Batwa tribe, like the baptized boy we had at Kabarole : , 

 of fair, smooth, chestnut-coloured skin, and though a 

 fully grown young man, came only up to the second 

 button from the top of my jacket. The rubber that 

 he was carrying looked, to use a homely comparison, 

 like long strips of potato chips. It is sometimes used 

 by them, he informed us, for burning in strips as 

 torches, but this was more likely needed to make up 

 the quota of tribute required from his village at the 

 Government fort. 



* See Bibliography, 5. 



