Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2 — John Shaqi
Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2
Philosophy
Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2
Medicine -- Periodicals; Phrenology -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
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 isolated fragments are still found
in widely separated parts of the continent.
A HUMAN PHENOMENON.--M. de Quatrefages, the naturalist, has examined a
real phenomenon, a Provencal of thirty, named Simeon Aiguier, who had
been presented by Dr. Trenes. Aiguier, thanks to his peculiar system
of muscles and nerves, can transform himself in most wondrous fashion.
He has very properly dubbed himself "L'Homme-Protee." At one moment,
assuming the rigidity of a statue, his body may be struck sharply, the
blows falling as on a block of stone. At another he moves his
intestines from above and below and right to left into the form of a
large football, and projects it forward, which gives him the
appearance of a colossally stout personage. He then withdraws it into
the thorax opening like a cage, and the hollow look of his body
immediately reminds one of a skeleton. Aiguier successfully imitates a
man subjected to the tortures of the rack, as also a man hanging
himself, and assumes a strikingly cadaveric look. What most astonished
M. de Quatrefages was the stoppage of the circulation of the blood,
now on the left and now on the right side, which was effected by
muscular contraction.--_Boston Transcript_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account