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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"

Speaking of the queen of a tribe of pigmies, Stanley
says,[A] "She was brought in to see me, with three rings of polished iron
around her neck, the ends of which were coiled like a watch-spring. Three
iron rings were suspended to each ear. She is of a light-brown complexion
with broad round face, large eyes, and small but full lips. She had a
quiet modest demeanour, though her dress was but a narrow fork clout of
bark cloth. Her height is about four feet four inches, and her age may be
nineteen or twenty. I notice when her arms are held against the light a
whity-brown fell on them. Her skin has not that silky smoothness of touch
common to the Zanzibaris, but altogether she is a very pleasing little
creature." To this female portrait may be subjoined one of a male aged
probably twenty-one years and four feet in height.[B] "His colour was
coppery, the fell over the body was almost furry, being nearly half an
inch long, and his hands were very delicate. On his head he wore a bonnet
of a priestly form, decorated with a bunch of parrot feathers, and a broad
strip of bark covered his nakedness.


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