1954-11-06 — Page 6

Page

And the Family Came Too!

by

the author of

THE JUNGLE

IS NEUTRAL

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1954.

My wife, children and I call on

pygmies in the village of Banana

Jungle The

Spancar Chapman, whose book “**

Is Neutral" swopt him to the front rank of British writers, is a man who loves adventure. But in this one The Family Cama Too. · Here in Chapter II he takes you with them into the jungle 'to moet giants. to meet Pygmies. and, oddly, to meet an American couple who live in the hourt of the forest, ` by F. Spencer Chapman, D.S.O.

"A

RE those really foliage almost met more than glants, Daddy 100 feet above our heads, Every- thing suddenly seemed still and naked Nicholas. green; even the dim light in gazing 1. group of graceful, aristocra- tic-looking Watutsi, about 6ft. tall.

the van was green.

As we passed vast trees, held up by flat buitresses running out 10 feet on each side of the Yes; I suppose they are," trunk, I recalled how, when 1 replied, "But they don't benighted

tho Malayan eat little boys. And soon Jungle, I used to set my back to we are going to the forest auch a free in the angle of two buttresses and, if there were no dwarfs Japanese about, light a fire to keep away wild beasts.

10

the little nee

called pygmies."

"Are they really

real.

or just story people?" asked Plank and pole

Stephen.

A short time after this con versitiion, which occurred) Ruunda-Urundt.

the

ip

mutated THE very clearings made by

in

territory of the Belattan Congo, wc really entered the jungle. the great Iturl Forest deep the Belgian Congo. We had beard

many stories of this vast forest, and I could not help wondering if it would bring back memorles that other Jungle in Malaya, which had been my home for than three years of the war.

T

of

more

One way only

E road from Deni to Mon-

basa (so named by the old Arab elave traders in memory of the port of Mombasa) in so

tortucus And

narrow

open

that

in

ordinarily it is only alternate days of the week rach direction. Inul on Sundays you can drive either way at your own risk.

Having camped one Saturday night on the edge of the great

The Jungle dwellers were the same in Malaya and the Congo the crops of maize and manioc (a coarse potato

from which lapioca la made) springing from between

the

fallen branches, and the tree stumpa so huge that they would only be sawn through 10 feet above the ground.

A

slight rain was falling which made the muddy track very skiddy, and we kept a close look

round

ufter corner not only for elephants COMTOT but la case another early riser try to hurry

out

had decided to

through before other cars were Ituri river spanned by a on the road.

river

of

We crossed river after by frail bridges consisting planks only just the width of the van, placed across poles held together by native ropes.

Troops of baboons often to scamper away from the mud occupied deserted villages, only

steel bridge.

пен

We stopped to gaze at this red river flowing rapidly between huge overhanging drooping creepers

trees and The Congo

Coming suddenly round

Their

bunches of leaves tied round their legs, were weaving way, ligging, dancing, and sing- ing, among the native huts of the village. They were led by two grotesquo Hitle men, who heat drums furiously as they danced.

We all stoppad to watch and taka photographs, and the dancers seemed quite unaware of our presence.,

When the dance was over a

Idrge African came up, to us at us from the undergrowth and

botter view.

to ask in a proprietary manner climbing the trees to obtain for cigarettes; and for the first ume we realised that D

of pygmics will attach th selves to an African family, in a stato of friendly servitude. For the pygmy, though a skilful hunter, Jacka the necessary forethought to cultivate the ground and produce crops.

So silent

+

Suddenly we heard piercing screams coming from the back of the hut, so I left the family in the van watching the antics of some pygmies who had made a swing out of a huge loop of rattan, and went to investigate.

On

Us

CHEZ

CHAPMAN

This is how they lived for

250 days-Chapman, his wife Faith, Christopher (2), Stephon (4), Nicholas (6), and Nurse Valeria Searle,

entering the house I heart! Bome people speaking laughter, we looked round to French; then П woman in

stark see Christopher,

naked trousers came towards me. In except for his shoes and a pair IN return for tobacco, salt, and

my best French I nsited it it of blue socks, chusing away the pinatains the green bananas would be possible for

to pygmies with his prom. The little men that form their favourite food camp here.

were playing the

up to him and shouting with Bygmies provide their

laughter as masters

they with fresh meat and

before his

retreated fish. They are completely at

Onslaughts. Chris home in the forest and can come

topher looked so very naked and ro as silently as the wild

compared to the dusky-skinned animals themselves.

pygmies that we too roared with laughter.

A broad New York voice drawled: "Say, you don't have to talk French here." She in- and said her husband was troduced herself as Anne Putnam

but could she do anything to help us?

l

II.

She hastily explained that we need not fear the screams as it only some doctors taking blood tests from group of pygmics who had been collected Never having from the forest. seen a needle before, they were registering fear and horror,

Their method of hunting elephants, for instance, is to stalk so close that they can give the unfortunate animal an up- ward stab in the belly with a WOR Fpear. Then they follow It until it dies of peritonius.

Aa

we continued along the highway, little

groups pygmies suddenly appeared the jungle edge.

The women' would often be carrying vost loads on their backs, the strain of which was taken by a strap across the forehead.

This made

of at

them pop-eyed and even more ugly than the men, who carried nothing.except bows and arrows.

Those loads

The little men hunt elephants and kill them with a spear

Soon after this

leaves

сол-

sisted of large shiny

that the pyg mies use for building their bep-hive: shelte

We had heard that'

I

Grotesque

INTRODUCED. Anne Putnam

to Faith. Valerie, and the children and inquired about camp site,

Under the amazed

gaze of

many pygmies, we parked the van and put up Valerie's tent. Nicholas was astonished to find. hat he was, heirlÿ ́hs tall as

grown men about 4ft.

The fact that their heads are of normal size givea them of grotesque appearance and they

and

to see him

I was astonished suddenly twist himself wideways and with his cupped right hand beat upon his left bleep.

This, presumably the tradi tional method by which pygmies signal to each other, mada loud booming sound, and noon a dozen hunters had collected, each with his net draped round his neck and almost read

reaching the ground. In single file wo followed a tiny jungle path for half an hour and then the hunters uncolled their nets and spread them end to end in a wide semi-circle.

then Each mon

returned along his section of the net, about 50 yards in length, and attached li to twigs and saplings so that it reached from the ground to a height of three or four feet.

Bow and arrow

there

Was д

The children caused much amusement while We Vers here. Anne Putnom said that OON.

loud the pygmies had hardly ever clamour in the Jungle. This seen white children, let alone was the women who had not so naked ones, and Stephen and far put in an appearance. Their Christopher's very falr hair job was to drive a section of seemed to intrigue them vastly.

the jungle towards the not.

Meanwhile cach That evening we dined with Anne Putnam. The sitting room was dominated by a raised hearth about six feet square in

crouched motionless beside his net with

his bow and strow ready. This proceduro Was

half

though there

a dozen times, was great ex- once when a small

the centre of the room where repeated

but The huge logs smouldered,

citement smoke rose to the roof

and altered through tho leoves antelope managed to wriggio beneath the not, we did not which were so told that they cupture anything; I feared kept out the rain-such rain as they might think I was

ps

the

only known near the Equator. Jonah of the party I left them Outside the unglazed win at midday and returned to the 'dows, the river rushed past, camp.

The trople night fell fast, and

while we sat talking and hear- Although the pygmies spend ing fastinating tales of 'pygmy | most of their time in mud huts life, the night chorus of the adjacent to their masters' forest started up."

villages, they also establish hunting camps in the jungle where they build their tradi- tional leaf shelters.

Oddly enough I hardly noticed it, so familiar had it become in

the reached the wider road running ran a guest house that they have hollow cheeks, huge eyes, those days when the jungle whe

forcat, we decided to set off very and wattle huts at our approach. corner we had to brake violently from Mombasa to Stanleyvilo,

early next morning in the hope that we should cover the 70-odd miles before meeting any other vehicle.

Almost

at once this narrow ribbon of track dived, like railway entering a tunnel, be neath immense trees whose

43

The children

ox. to

so

The rain stopped and the

that the

Bun

ground

never

And

women

my home, and I was quite sur

that Faith and Valerie prised were astonished and dentened by the chorus of clicks anding of our chirrups and the thousand other noises of the forest. aro

soil is unbelievably red and the ly no one was hurt, and there an American couple lived in the Incessant rain washes it down was just room for us to squeeze heart of the Ituri Forest to the river to dye it the colour by.

know all about of blood.

the habits we safely the

pygmies-

As we had fint noses, and abnormally broad already realised

should wo

ostrils. avold hitting a large petrol shone

Though the arms and were very

a clearing where shoulders are rited

well developed, and kep!

asking lorry which had turned over on on

we could park the van in this the buttocks are enormous and when they would see a pygmy.

its side at the foot of a steep steamed and a myriad raindrops dense jungle, we decided to call the legs short and spindly. hill. The African, normally so

gilstened.

on them and ask if we could Suddenly the narrow strip of lethargic, seems to be possessed

The

singularly A halt by the roadside sky above the road, widened out by devils when he takes

was camp on their ground.

unfeminine in appearance; in- the now possible, and after lunch Wo and we came to

crossed the Epulu river deed from a glance at the head the mighty whoel of a lorry. But fortunate- wo came to a village with the and almost at once saw a little of a pygmy it is often impossible surprising name of Banana. track cut into the jungle, and to tell whether you are looking Here the children shouted: a signpost to "Putnams Camp" at a man or a woman-both are "Look; look; Pygmies dancing! We

drove through an African equally ugly, Pygmies dancing!"

village and reached a clearing And there, sure enough, was front of a long low mud hut a fantastic sight. A long stream thatched with leaves. of diminutive women, clad only All around us there seems to In a bit of bark-cloth and with be dozens of pygmies, peering

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Faith, and Valerie were soon busy bathing Nicholas and Stephen in the baby's plastic bath on the step outside the van. Hearing a good deal of

ATOM GUNS BANNED

FOR BRITISH ARMY

By CHAPMAN PINCHER DEFENCE chiefs have can be fitted with a more cfkelent

that the British dotomting mechanism

Army is not to be equipped with atomic guns.

British chicken farmers are which keen to interest housewives in so far less explosive

young birds for broiling. So to This mechanism was devised find out if women know what by Sir William Penney and was the word meant, a quiz Was successfully tested of Woomera carried out by B firm of last year.

poultry-food manufacturers.

The U.S. Freies have so much atomie explosive at their disposal that they can afford to use some of it in shells,

∙Do

Net hunting

I had intended to visit a true pygmy village; but unfortunate- a storm broke on the mom- last full day at Pulname Camp and, apart from the danger of falling branches, there was deep mud underfoot and every leat, was dripping with water.

When the rain stopped wo went to visit the camp

THAT night, and in fact, every where the Belgians, with the night slept in the jungle, help of pygmies, capture okapi I was tormented by the most in pitfall traps and send them dreadful nightmares about Jap, to zoological gardens in various and often woke up with a shout; parts of the world. while Faith and Valerie.com.

plained that they could not. We saw half a dozen of these sleep for the noise of the bird rare animals in a largo enclo- and insect life.

The adults, which were about six feet high at the at shoulder, were of rich purplish

auro.

We spent three days Putnams Camp, and were only brown.. Wheir legs and hind- sorry that we could not moot quarters were striped like Pat Putnam ag. ho is a great zebra, but the long neck and authority on the pygmies, tapering muzzle were remini having lived among them for scent of a girode. many years.

He came out to the Congo 25 Claustrophobia

years ago; then he married Anne, a New York artist, and brought her out to his jungle THE strange and beautiful home. She had soon settled 'beast, which lives in the down to this strange life and heart of the forest, was quite had grown to love these queer unknown to Europeans

undi little people, even learning their about 40 years ago... language.

Sir William Penney, Director

I must say. I should h Havo of Atomie Weapons, has advised

We would sit by the fire and loved to have spent some weeks that the atomic shell developed for the giant gun now in ser

Out of more than 400 rupee-

ten to her tales for hours on studying the pygmies, but there vice with the US Army wastes

sentativo housewives not one end, and we soon got used to was very little for the children soeing practically naked to do once the novelty of being too much expensive explosive.

could define "broiling cor- pyginies wandering through the among the little people wore Ono shell would cost tho

rectly, They thought it meant house, often with babies slung .of. Government up

to £1,000,000. What's To Broil? steaming chicken or rasting from one shoulder.

Falth and Valerio were suffer- Several "baby" atom bomba,

It, after it had been bolled. Our chudren were delighted jungle and they also found it ing from claustrophobia in the each as powerful as a shell, could be made for this sum.

you know what "brolling"

Most of them thought that a by a minute naked pygmy child quite impossible to dry the chicken *

means, madam? British artillery experts have You are n housewife in

"broiler" was a tough okt bird of. about 18 months who used clothes they had washed w advised against building anything hundred if you do, according to not fit for roasting instead of a to come in and beat with paton- 50 we reluctantly, said fare Like the 85-ton American alomie the results of door-to-doc quiz tender, young chicken weighing Ishing rhythm on a drum which well, to Anne Putnam and her gun after seeing it on manoeuvres carried out in Ibridore

lees, than 3lb.

was nearly as tall as himself, pygmies and set off northwards in Germany last month.

Aylesbury, Bucks,

The quiz showed that most arranged for me to : go

Anco Putnam very kindly to visit the station where they Instead the Army will con

"Broiling" means grilling women prefer a chicken weigh hunting with some

not capture and train - Chirigan) centrate on co-operating with the baby chicken split in half and ing Alb, to 516, and buy one only

of her elephants. R.A.F., which is training pilola basting it with fat, It is the once or twice a year,

Pygmies. A little gnome-like to support ground troops with favourite method of coolding

man with a board came for mo baby

tactical atom bombs, poultry In America, where wall-brolled broller, I recom-accompanied him to the pygmy-

As one, who has, sampled a of soon as it was light and I As thage bomba much chicken is so chaoop that it is mand it as the tastiest way of village some distance into the bigger than an atomle shell, they the poor man's food,

Jungle.

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

MANDRAKE COMING: THE WHOLE THIS WAYE HURRY ARMY'S WITH THE ROADBLOCK. LOOKING

FOR HIM!

and

all of cooking chicken.

IF WE GET HIM, WELL GET PROMOTIONS?

HERE COMES THE CARS

ROAD BLOCKED

By Lee Falk and Phil Davia

MOTORCYCLE TAQOPS 'BEHIND USƒ 'AND, WE'RE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE / BARTUN

JE ANXIOUS TO GET USI

.

.ז

Next week School of the Jungle

TALK

ABOUT

De 1926, Roku produét

all karmit

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