mies do not dig the ground or plant or sow anything. Bananas
grow in Africa, and the pygmies are very fond of them. Often they come
out of the forests to get bananas from the trees on which they grow.
If a pygmy sees a good bunch of bananas that he would like to have, he
shoots his arrow into the stalk. When the owner of the tree sees the
arrow he knows how it came there. So he leaves the stalk until the
pygmy takes it away. Sometimes a pygmy pays for the bunch of bananas
with pieces of meat. He wraps up a piece of meat in grass or leaves,
and fastens it to the stalk where he has cut off the bananas.

A pygmy can eat twice as many bananas as the largest white man. He can
eat as many as sixty at one meal.

Though the pygmies are small, they are very brave, and all the other
people who live near them are very much afraid of them.

THE INDIANS.

Long, long ago, before Columbus found America, the Indians lived where
we live now, There were no cities or houses then, such as we have.
There were no farms or gardens or fences or roads. A large part of the
country was covered with trees. The rest was great grass plains and
swamps.

The Indians built their houses where they pleased, beside the rivers or
near the mountains or on the wide plains. What sort of houses did they
live in? They lived in tents made of skins. The Indian tents were
called wigwams.

[Illustration: An Indian Wigwam.]

There were many tribes of Indians. Each tribe had a great many men and
women and children. Some of the tribes lived in the north, some in the
south, some near the sea. In nearly every part of the country there
were Indian tribes. Often some of the tribes went to war with other
tribes. They fought with bows and arrows and tomahawks. The tomahawk
was a sort of hatchet. The head of it was made of a stone with a sharp
edge.

[Illustration: Indian Bow and Arrows.]

[Illustration: Tomahawks.]

The Indians were very cruel in war. When they killed a man, they cut
the skin and hair off the top of his head. This was called scalping.

When about to go to war, they painted their faces to make themselves
look very fierce. They also wore a band around their heads, and in
these they stuck some long feathers.

There are Indians still in some parts of our country, and many of them
live in wigwams. They sleep in these wigwams, but they cook their food
outside. They have no coal or stoves or fire-places. Instead of