This is what we are told about them; but, of course, those stories are
fables. There never were men so small as one foot high.
But there are real people in Africa called pygmies. They are very
small. The men and women look as if they were boys and girls. The men
are about four feet high.
There are a great many large forests in Africa. It is in the forests
that the pygmies live. The forests are so dark in many places that one
could not see to read at noonday. Only a few white men have been in
the land of the pygmies and seen them. They are shy, like children,
and hide their faces when spoken to.
Some of the pygmies are black and some are red. They do not wear much
clothing. They do not need much, for the weather is always very warm
in the country in which they live. The men and boys wear only a strip
of cloth around their loins.
Many of the pygmies have no houses. They wander from place to place,
and sleep on the ground under a bush. But some of them have little
houses, or huts, built in the shape of beehives and about four feet
high. They are covered over with long leaves. The door is only about
a foot and a half high, just high enough for the pygmies to creep in.
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