Chapter 1: The World of the Forest * Ituri Forest – Northeast corner of the Belgian Congo * Stanley’s Dark Continent – * country he loved and hated * scene of ill-fated expedition to relieve Emin Pasha * Emin Pasha – expedition costing hundreds of lives and imposing hardships on survivors trekked across great forest three times, losing more lives each time through fighting, sickness and desertion * Outsiders: All came from open country full of plains, sunlight and warmth – thus people who visited the Ituri and feel overpowered by damp air, drying out between violent storms, and remoteness and loneliness * For those who live there: cool, restful, shady world with light filtered hazily through the trees. No silence to them: forest full of exciting and mysterious sounds * Believe cry high up in trees is the chameleon telling them honey is nearby (scientists say chameleons are unable to make these sounds) * World of forest is closed, possessive, and hostile to those who do not understand it. * May think it hostile to humans because in every village, people have fear of forest * Villagers are friendly and hospitable to strangers, offering them the best of whatever food they have and clearing out a house where the traveler can rest in comfort and safety * Villages set among plantations in clearings cut from heart of forest – it is from the plantations that food comes, not from forest, and for villagers life is a constant battle to prevent their plantations from being overgrown * Villagers speak of world beyond plantation as fearful, full of spirits and not fit to be lived in except by animals and BaMbuti * BaMbuti – what village people call the Pygmies * Villagers – some Bantu and some Sudanic, keep to their plantations and seldom go into forest unless necessary because it is evil * BaMbuti – real people of the forest * What village people call the Pygmies * Other tribes are relatively recent arrivals, but they * Don’t cut forest down to build plantations – know how to hunt game and gather wild fruits that grow in abundance * Know how to distinguish innocent looking itaba vine from others it resembles and follow it so it leads them to nutritious roots * Recognize sounds that tell them where bees hid honey * Recognize weather that brings different mushrooms and know what leaves and wood hide them * Know exact moment termites swarm at which they must be caught to provide an important meal * Know a secret language that is denied all outsiders * Roam Forest in small isolated bands or hunting groups * Little hardship so no belief in evil sprits – believe it is a good world * Less than 4 and a half feet tall – life may depend on ability to run swiftly and silently * Among oldest inhabitants in Africa – may be original inhabitants of tropical rainforest * Earliest recorded reference: an expedition sent from Egypt in Fourth Dynasty to discover source of the Nile * Pharoah Nefrikare sent commander Herkouf to bring one of these “Dancers of God” back – story ends here
Another Record: Homer’s lines of battle between Pygmies and the cranes:
Describes a battle between Greek and Trojan forces in the Iliad
Mosaics in Pompeii show, whether Pygmies were believed to be a fable or not, makers of mosaics knew how they lived, even the types of huts they build in the forest
Knowledge then began to decrease to the point where they were thought of as mythical creatures, semi-human, flying about tree tops, dangling by their tails, with the power of making themselves invisible
Edward Tyson published a book comparing the Pygmie to an ape. He obtained a skeleton from Africa on which he based his conclusion that the pygmie were not human. This skeleton was preserved until recently, yet now is known that it is the skeleton of a chimpanzee
Portuguese explorers responsible for the more extravagant accounts
Though the Pygmies as being able to make themselves invisible and having the power to kill elephants:
Saw this because Pygmies today still kill elephants single-handed, armed only with short handled spear and blend so well will forest foliage that you can pass right by without seeing them
Thought to have tails because of their dress:
The loincloth they wear is made from the bark of a tree, softened and hammered out until it is long and slender cloth, tucked between the legs and over a belt.
Women in particular have a long piece of cloth so that it hangs down behind, almost to the ground
George Schweinfurth in the Congo
Wrote book The Heart of Africa
Wrote pygmies not only existed, but were human
Following the work of Miani who died before he could return. He had sent two Pygmies back to Italy, to the Geographic Association where they were educated
Reverend Paul Schebesta: little was known beyond the actual fact of their existence until a “White Father” set out from Vienna
First trip: surveyed forest area and established fact that this was a stronghold of pure Pygmy as opposed to Pygmoid in other parts of equatorial belt, where there has been intermarriage with Negro Tribes
Later: Gathered material showing that Ituri Pygmies – aka BaMbuti are racially distinct from Negro peoples, Bantu and Sudanic who live around them
Experience did not ring true to author’s:
Schebesta says Pygmies are not great musicians and sing only simplest melodies and wrote only a few pages about music – doesn’t agree
Schebesta described relationship between Pygmies and Negros giving impression Pygmies were dependent on Negroes both for food and for metal products and that there was an unbreakable hereditary relationship by which a Pygmy and all his progeny were handed down in a Negro family, from father to son, and bound to it in a form of serfdom, not only hunting but also working on plantations, cutting wood and drawing water
Experience that agreed with author’s:

Reasonable to assume BaMbuti were original inhabitants of the great tropical rain forest stretching from the west coast right across open savannah country of east, on the far side fo the chain of lakes that divides Congo from East Africa