Punch (98.1890)

230 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [May 17, 1890.

THE MODERN HERCULES AND THE PYGMIES.

{Extracts from the Diary oj an Explorer in the Society Islands.)

Foioii the bears, apes, and foxes with which the thickets of the
great forest of Societas abounded, it is but a step to the Pygmv tribes
whom we found inhabiting the tract of country between the TJperten
and the Suburben rivers. The Pygmies are as old as Swelldom, as
ubiquitous as Boredom, the two secular pests of the earth. Tou will
remember that Hercules once fell asleep in the deserts of Africa,
after his conquest of Antseus, and was disturbed in his well-earned
rest by an attack of a large army of these troublesome Lilliputians,

who, it is recorded, " discharged their arrows with great fury upon
his arms and legs." The hero, it is added, "pleased with their
courage, wrapped a great number of them in the skin of the Nemean
lion, and carried them to Eurystheus."

I was not "pleased with their courage," but plagued with their
importunities. Herodotus described the capture of five young
explorers from Nassamoves while they were examining some carious
trees in the Niger basin, and tells how the little men took them to
their villages and showed them about to their fellow Pygmies. So,