o find a
single indictment."

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

PIGMIES.--A while ago, says the _Sun_, Mr. Grenfell of the Congo
Mission encountered on the Bosari River, south of the Congo, the Batwa
dwarfs whom Stanley mentions in "The Dark Continent," though Stanley
did not see them. Grenfell says these little people exist over a large
extent of country, their villages being scattered here and there among
other tribes. Wissmann and Pogge also met them a few years ago in
their journey to Nyangwe.

It was long supposed that the story of Herodotus about the pigmies of
Africa was mythical, but within the past twenty years abundant
evidence has accumulated of the existence of a number of tribes of
curious little folks in equatorial Africa. The chief among these
tribes are the Akka, whom Schweinfurth found northwest of Albert
Nyassa; the Obongo, discovered by DuChaillu in west Africa, southwest
of Gaboon; and the Batwa, south of Congo.

These little people range in height from 4 feet 2 inches to about 4
feet 8 inches. They are intellectually as well as physically inferior
to the other tribes of Africa. They are perhaps nearer the brute
kingdom than any other human beings. The Obongo, for instance, wear no
semblance of clothing: make no huts except to bend over and fasten to
the ground the tops of three or four young trees, which they cover
with leaves; possess no arts except the making of bows and arrows, and
do not till the soil. They live on the smaller game of the forest and
on nuts and berries. They regard the leopard, which now and then makes
a meal of one of them, as their deadliest enemy. They live only a few
days or weeks in one place.

When Schweinfurth first met the Akka dwarfs he found himself
surrounded by what he supposed was a crowd of impudent boys. There
were several hundred of them, and he soon found that they were
veritable dwarfs, and that their tribe probably numbered several
thousand souls. One of these dwarfs was taken to Italy a few years
ago, was taught to read, and excited much interest among scientific
men. There are other tribes of dwarfs in Abyssinia and also in
Somaliland.

It is believed that all these people, including the Bushmen of South
Africa, are the remains of an aboriginal population that is now
becoming extinct. In the migrations and subjugations that have been in
progress for many centuries among powerful tribes, the dwarf tribe of
Africa has been scattered, and its isolat