PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



The Dwarf Domestic Animals of Pygmies. By R. G. Haliburton, 

 Q.C., F.R.G.S. 



(Read November 14, 185)6.) 



For years I have enjoyed the honour of being a corresponding member of the- 

 Institute, but up to the present I have contributed nothing to its Transactions. If 

 I have not shared the fate of the proverbial " unproductive fig tree," it is due to the 

 forbearance of the Institute, and their charitable hope that, if spared by them, I 

 might do better in future. 



It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I offer my first instalment, a paper 

 of interest, not on account of the vi^ay it is dealt with, but because it opens up for 

 the first time an untrodden field of science that is likely, in proper hands, to yield 

 important results. Whatever will hereafter account for the diminutive size of the 

 domestic animals of pygmies will also explain the origin of the dwarf races of men; 

 and, possibly, this may be true vice versa. 



Before dealing with these little animals I must explain that, when my paper on. 

 " Dwarfs and Dwarf Worship " was read at the Congress of Orientalists at London, 

 1891, the subject of pygmy races was considered to belong rather to myths and 

 marvels than to science. A quarter of a century ago Schweinfurth revealed the 

 then incredible fact of the existence of little tribes of hunters and warriors, not^ 

 much exceeding four feet high, and dwelling near the great lakes of equatorial 

 Africa. At first he was discredited and ridiculed; but Stanley and others have 

 since that more than confirmed his statements. But to reluctantly admit that this 

 was the case in that remote region was the limit of endurance of incredulous 

 scientists. When, therefore, I openly claimed that the very same race of dwarfs 

 were to be found in the Great and the Saharan Atlas, some of them only a few 

 hundred miles from the Mediterranean, there was a howl of indignant incredulity. 

 My paper, which created an" unexpected amount of public interest in London,' 

 and was reported in full in The Times, was denounced by it, The Standard and 

 other papers in abusive and personal editorial critiques rarely seen in the press. 

 I was called a Munchausen, and an inventor of Gulliver narratives; my Moorish 

 servant and I must have been in league with the sixty or seventy natives who had 

 testified to impose pygmies on the simplicity of the scientific world. 



As the Congress had awarded a medal to me, I withdrew a reply which I had' 

 sent to The Times, and made up my mind that to republish these articles in four 

 or five years' time, by the light of the discoveries that would be made, would be 

 the most bitter reply that could be devised. 



In my paper it was suggested that in early ages these Atlas dwarfs must have 

 found their way to Europe, and that they still survive there in popular tradition as 

 fairies and dwarf smiths with magic powers: and that dwarf tribes were also the 

 subject of very similar traditions in the West Indies and America. 



After that it was discovered and shown by me that there are dwarf survivals in 

 the Pyrenees, and also in America. 



One of my most persistent critics was among my friends, called " fascinating 

 subject," as this was a pet term of his. Judge my dismay in June last, on reading 

 in an article on " Pygmy Races," the following ominous sentence, with which it 

 begins. " Professor Starr's article on ' Pygmy Races of Men ' in The North 

 American Review contains much interesting information regarding a curious and 

 fascinating subject." To my relief I found that he admitted most fully all my 

 contentions. The existence of dwarf tribes in the Atlas, similar to the Akkas of 



