Pygmies in the Valley of the Amazon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 1, 1909

Pygmies in the Valley of the Amazon

CARLETON M. JONES, of San Juan, Porto Rico, representing a company of Boston capitalists interested in the rubber interests of South America, has returned to New York, after an absence of sixteen months on an exploring expedition through the valley of the Amazon. There he found a village of pygmies, which he describes as follows:—

“For a week we traveled by canoe without seeing a human being, and then we came to the village of the queer little creatures, which I judge consisted of at least five thousand inhabitants. They received us without surprise or emotion, due, as I afterward learned, to the fact that an immense feast of boar meat had just been finished. Men, women, and children were so gorged with food and with some sort of fermented liquor, that they were stupid and sodden and paid little attention to their surroundings. In two days they were hungry again and active, and I had an opportunity to observe them more closely. Their average height is about four feet. They are misshapen, and their large heads and faces are ludicrously out of proportion with their paunchy bodies and spindly bowlegs. So far as I could determine, the pygmies had no form of government, and it was evident that they were not warlike, because they possessed no weapons of any description. Many of the men had no forefinger on the right hand. The evidence of amputation was plain, but it was impossible to learn why the finger had been cut off. My guide spoke the language of several Indian tribes, but could not understand a word of the pygmies. I remained in the village a week, and lived on a species of bean, mixed with maize, and boiled. We brought away a number of gourds and copper ornaments as souvenirs.”

Among the Romans, in the period of their best civilization, a village of five thousand such midgets could not well be gotten together, as it was their custom to take such malformed creatures by the heels and dash their brains out against a tree, or dispose of them in some other summary manner. Among the Jews, physical blemishes disqualified a person for the highest offices in the service of Jehovah. Under a Christian civilization, physical infirmity and blight are a greater reason for human pity, sympathy, and help, and if these pygmies have not yet had the light of the gospel, it will not be long before some consecrated men and women will seek them out, to help and bless them.—The Christian Herald.