3 S 4 
IN THE LAND OF GORILLAS AND PYGMIES 
quite a pet companion of his master’s. Poor Tommy’s one great vice 
was an inordinate love of brandy: on one occasion the traveler found 
his brandy bottle broken in pieces on the floor and Master Tommy 
coiled up at its side in a state of maudlin drunkenness. 
Du Chaillu made another excursion to Africa in 1863, the story 
of which, told in his vivacious style, is very interesting, and is espe¬ 
cially notable for the discovery of a tribe of dwarfs or pygmies, the 
existence of which had been known from old Grecian times, but which 
Du Chaillu had the honor of being the first of modern travelers to see. 
He has thus to his credit the discovery for the modern world of both 
the gorilla and the pygmy. 
Traversing the thick forest on the way to Yengue, he came sud¬ 
denly upon twelve strange little houses built at random in an open 
space; and on asking Kombila, his guide, what these were, was told 
they were dwellings of the Obongos. Thus he describes them, and 
later on it will be seen that he saw and measured some of these pecu¬ 
liar little people. 
“How strange the houses of the Dwarfs seemed! The length of 
each house was about that of a man, and the height was just enough 
to keep the head of a man from touching the roof when he was seated. 
The materials used in building were the branches of trees bent in the 
form of a bow, the ends put into the ground, and the middle branches 
being the highest. The shape of each house was very much like that 
of an orange cut in two. The frame-work was covered with large 
leaves, and there were little doors which did not seem to be more than 
eighteen inches high, and’ about twelve or fifteen inches wide. Even 
the Dwarfs must have lain almost flat on the ground in order to pass 
through. When I say door I mean simply an opening, a hole to go 
through. It was only a tiny doorway. But I managed to get inside 
one of these strange little houses, and I found there two beds, which 
were as curious as everything else about the premises. Three or four 
sticks on each side of the hut were the beds. Each bed was about 
eight inches, or, at the most, ten inches in width. One was for the 
wife and the other for the husband. A little piece of wood on each 
bed made the pillows. It was almost pitch dark inside, the only light 
coming from the opening or door. Between the two beds were the 
remains of a fire, judging by the ashes and the pieces of burnt wood.” 
