Often they come
out of the forests to get bananas from the trees on which they grow.
If a pygmy sees a good bunch of bananas that he would like to have, he
shoots his arrow into the stalk. When the owner of the tree sees the
arrow he knows how it came there. So he leaves the stalk until the
pygmy takes it away. Sometimes a pygmy pays for the bunch of bananas
with pieces of meat. He wraps up a piece of meat in grass or leaves,
and fastens it to the stalk where he has cut off the bananas.
A pygmy can eat twice as many bananas as the largest white man. He can
eat as many as sixty at one meal.
Though the pygmies are small, they are very brave, and all the other
people who live near them are very much afraid of them.
THE INDIANS.
Long, long ago, before Columbus found America, the Indians lived where
we live now, There were no cities or houses then, such as we have.
There were no farms or gardens or fences or roads. A large part of the
country was covered with trees. The rest was great grass plains and
swamps.
The Indians built their houses where they pleased, beside the rivers or
near the mountains or on the wide plains. What sort of houses did they
live in? They lived in tents made of skins.
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