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fHE DWARFS OF MOUNT ATMS.

STATEMENTS OF NATIVES OF MOROCCO AND OF

EUROPEAN RESIDENTS THERE AS TO THE

EXISTENCE OF A DWARF RACE

SOUTH OF THE GREAT ATLAS.

WITH N0TB8 AS TO

DWARFS AND DWARF WORSHIP.

R. G. HALIBURTON, Q.C., F.R.G.S.

&on^on:
DAVID NUTT, 270-1, STRAND.

1891.

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NATIONAL LIBRARY
BIBLIOTHtQIJE NATIONALE

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THE DWARFS OF MOUNT ATLAS.

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STATEMENTS OP NATIVES OF MOROCCO AND OF

EUROPEAN RESIDENTS THERE AS TO THE

EXISTENCE OF A DWARF RACE

SOUTH OP THE GREAT ATLAS.

WITH NOTES AS TO

DWARFS AND DWARF WORSHIP.

R. G. HALIBURTON, Q.C., F.R.G.S.

DAVID NUTT, 270-1, STRAND.
1891.

LONDON :

HABBISON ANB SONS, PBINTBB8 IN OHDINABT To HEB MAJESTY.

ST, MABTIN'a LANK.

PREFACE.

If it is conclusively settled, as it will be, I hope, ere long,
that there is a race of dwarfs South of Mount Atlas, I fear I
shall not be able to claim much credit for my having made
the discovery, for it required very little sagacity to understand,
when told by my servant, a highly intelligent Susi, that in Akka,
within a hundred miles or so of his native place, there was a
race of dwarfs only four feet high, that the story, if true, was
very important in an ethnological point of view, and should
be looked into. It will be seen that there is really no shadow
of excuse for gross personalities in this discussion, as will
be clear on reading the evidence which I have been tempted to
publish on the subject. It must be remembered that the two
men who stand far above all others as authorities on Morocco
and the Moors, and who have each spent a lifetime in that
country, agree with me in my views. A part of Mr. Hunot's
letter is published among the evidence. As for the Right Hon.
Sir J. Drummond-Hay, all the world has known of him and
his family in connection with Morocco for three-quarters of a
century. His father was Minister there before him, and he
himself ably represented our country there for over forty years,
and almost a half century ago wrote the only work we have
which throws any light on the folk-lore and festivals of Western
Barbary.

" Purves nail, Grecnlaiv, iV. B.

" 'SOth September, 1891.
"Dear Mr. Haliburton,

" During my long residence in Morocco, upwards of half-a-
centuiy, I ought, as may be expected, to be well acquainted
with that country and its inhabitants. Though I have travelled
frequently in the interior where the Moors and Arabs reside, I
have never ventured to penetrate into the mountainous districts,
inhabited by wild Berber races, except on the Northern slopes

of the Atlas. The Berbers of the South differ from the Northern
people, as much as Gipsies do from tlie En«Tlisli peasantry.

" They are an intelligent race, skilled as smiths, tinkers,
well-sinkers, makers of leather, acrobats, jugglers, fortune-tellers,
and professional seekers for buried treasure, and are in
possession, as it has come to my knowledge sometimes, of
documents cand oral traditions about treasure hidden by their
forefathers. You were the first to make the Berbers dwelling on
the Southern slopes of the Atlas a special subject of study, when
you commenced researches ten years ago, and since then you
have, in a great measure, been alone in enquiries regarding their
legends and beliefs, and have devoted, to my knowledge, much
time in patient research, and have taken infinite pains, at some
considerable expen.^e, to obtain information as to this unknown
field. With regard to the present controversy raised regarding
the existence of a dwarf race, I remember in 1888 you wrote to
me, from Algeria, about your servant, a native of Soos, having
stated that there was in Akka, the country adjoining the Soos
district he came from, a race of dwarfs about four feet high,
having a reddish complexion, differing from that of the
Moors, Arabs, Berbers, or negroes. On enquiries made by me
regarding these dwarfs, I found a man from Dra, who described
a similar race of dwarfs dwelling at or near Akka, a district
adjoining Soos. It is also, as you are aware, a fact that there is
a district called Akka near the Albert Nyanza, with a precisely
similar race of dwarfs, a coincidence which we can hardly
suppose to be a chance one. I had also a late opportunity of
questioning a native of Dra on the subject of dwarfs, and he
gave without hesitation, and as I am led to believe truthfully,
the same account as my previous informant, whom he did not
know I had examined; but he said that the Dra dwarfs are
called the Little Harateen. He described them as being about
four feet high with a red complexion, and short woolly hair.
He said ' they are very active, and are more ancient than the
larger Harateen, who are sprung from them and resemble them
in colour and ways, but are taller from intermarrying with other
races. The small p'^ople are called " Ba/aka " or Oulad Mebrok,
the Blessed Tribe, or Sons of the Blessed, and are supposed
tc bring good luck, so we do not like to talk about them.'

fix

<l)

" It does not appear that the dwarfs are as numerous in
North as in Equatorial Africa, but of tlieir existence I have
little doiibt. I Imve met individuals occasionally of this race,
as described, before I knew of the interest which is at present
attached to these people, and so had not taken an opportunity
of conversing with them.

" I regret to have seen articles and letters addressed to
public journals calling in question the accuracy of the
interesting account you gave at the Oriental Congress of the
Dwarf Race in Morocco. I hope you will ere long publish for
the benefit of the literary world the result of your researches
regarding the history of the people dwelling on the Southern
slopes of the Atlas.

" I remain,

" Yours very truly,

"J. H. Drummond Hay."

I have received a letter from Mr. W. B. Harris, which shows
that pro or con, the subject of the dwarfs is likely to be cleared
up before a year elapses. In it he says, " I am intensely
interested in the dwarf question, and intend leaving for Morocco
in November, when I shall make every possible inquiry about
the subject, and I hope to meet with success. Of the existence of
dwarf tribes tJiere I have absolutely no doubt While in the interior,
I made the acquaintaiice of a leading Moor, who told me that sucli
dwarf tribes existed, and that he was yearly visited by three or
four dwarfs on business. I have often been asked by Moors
whether it was true that t^ere was a race of people to the South
known as Beni Kerbou, with dog's heads, and also a race with
one eye. Eeni Kerbou means, ' the sons of dogs ' " (see pp. 28,
29, and 30).

It turns out that not much more than a hundred miles from
the French frontier, in the country inhabited by the Beni
Znassen, and in the Ait Atta country, near the head waters of
the river Did, there are towns or villages of these dwarfs, which
could probably be reached by competent explorers, if reticent
as to the object of their travels.

Thirty-five natives, who are from every important district
from the Atlantic to Tafilelt, state that towns or hamlets of these
dwarfs are to be found at or near the following places, viz. : —

in Akka, at or near Akairi, Akka-Igan, (Juil, Itonayli, Tamzrat,
and Tadakoust, and also in the mountains of Kaleez ; at Tazzawalt
in Su3 ; and also a few in Haha, and Schedma ; in the Dra Valley,
at or near Taurirt, Ait Tinker, Ait Souk, Ait Sheltar, Taiuanart,
and Valley of Imini ; south-east of Dra, at or near Asa, Atoum-
ribet, Tasker-Yekn-ishct, Bani-Youssi, and River Dora of Didoo,
near Tinzone; East of Deinnat, at or near Ait Messad, Ait
Messal, and Ait Bensid, in the Ait Atta country ; in the country
of the Beni Znassen ; and at Iguilmim, in the Sahel.

" There is safety in numbers " in this matter, as to not only
my sixty-tive informants, but also my interpreters, ten of whom,
in all, were successively employed by me between November and
June last, and all of whom spoke Arabic either as their native
language, or as fluently as natives. No European can speak
Shilhach, the language of Southern Morocco, but most of the
natives of that country, that come to Northern cities, speak
Arabic, and two or three of my Shilhach informants were ab^j
to speak English.

The following is an extract from a letter recently addressed
to Mr. Meakin by myself : —

" The country South of Mount Atlas is a perfectly distinct
one from that north of that range. Mr. Hunot of Saffi, the best
authority on Morocco as to the Moors, though living so far
South, admitted to me that he knew little or nothing of Southern
Morocco. You do not profess to lecture on the Sus and Dra
country. You have never been there nor made it a special
subject of inquiry, and De Foucauld's few fragmentary bits of
information as to the people there, are all that can be gleaned
from books. You are aware that I am the only living man
that has made their beliefs and traditions a special study, and
that it is ten years since I began my investigations. I had
been at work some years before De Foucauld found his way
there, and before you reached the happy land of Morocco. I
have been surprised to find how thin is the Moslem veneer on
these people, and how deep- seated are their superstitions and
old beliefs."

It is very desirable that European residents at Fez, the city
of Morocco, Mogador, and Saffi, should enquire from new arrivals
from bouthern Morocco as to these dwarfs, for many of the

Ilk

fMoois in the towns cannot be depended on in such matters ;
and that attention should be specially drawn to the localities
I have named, as this will render both the questions and the
answers more definite.

The italics used in printing the statements of natives, &c.,
are in most cases intended to draw attention to the evidence as
to there being tribes of dwarfs, and not merely a few families.

Thirty-five native informants have testified on that point,
and the most important of their statements respecting it are
no published. The total number of natives, European resi-
dents, and travellers who have seen one or more of these dwarfs,
or have testified as to the existence of a dwarf race, amounts to
sixty-five.

As superstitious Moors may resent the truth being told to
Christians as to these dwarfs, I have omitted the names of my
native informants.

P.S. — After the MSS. was placed in the printer's hands, a Moor, who speaks
English fluently, made a statement in presence of H. W. Sates, Esq., Assistant
Secretary of the Boyal Geographical Society, which will be foiud at the end
of the evidence.

•^mammfimmm

THE DWARFS OF MOUNT ATLAS.

The paper read on this subject at the Oriental Congress on
Sept. 2ncl, has attracted so much attention, and created so much
discussion, that it is desirable to have the statements of natives
and others on the subject placed within the reach of those who
are interested in such questions, especially as one editorial has
summed up the proof of the existence of a dwarf race South of
Mount Atlas, as consisting of the statements of " two or three
stray Unglishmen," while another paper has asserted that
only " two or three natives cotdd be found " who would admit
that they had any knowledge of such a race. The best way to
comment on such reckless criticism is to publish the evidence.

But before going into the testimony in support of the exis-
tence of this race of dwarfs I may refer to an unwilling-
ness on the part of many natives to speak of them, arising
probably from the belief that it is not lucky to do so, which
prevents an Irish peasant from mentioning the name of the
" fairies," who are only called " the little people," " the good
people," "the gentry," &c., a vestige of the influence in the
earliest ages of a worship of a dwarf race.

In 1881, I commenced investigations into the beliefs, tradi-
tions, and ethnology of the races that inhabit the country South
of the Great Atlas, many of whom come to Northern towns in
caravans, or as acrobats, or wandering fortune-tellers, or cunning
workers in silver, brass, and leather. Up to that date, and for
several years afterwards, I was the only person who had made
these people a subject of study. The Moors, North of the Atlas,
seemed to know as little as Europeans do of that Southern land.
Wliile jotting down some of the legends which I was told by a
few of the people of Sus or Dra whom I examined in 1882 (for
many of them would tell me nothing, or were timid or stupid),

mention was made of the " little people " by a Susi that I m^t
at Tangier, and also by a Taleb that was examined at Mogadon
According to the first, " Ayusa or Idyl is the name of the small
'people that bring down Isiri and take him back." The second
said, " on that day the Adusal {a small people) will appear." I
never suspected that these expressions referred to a dwarf race
but assumed that they alluded to cherubs or fairies.

The next time that I heard of these " Little People " was
while in Algeria, early in 1888.

A remarkably intelligent Susi, who had lived as a valet or
cook in England for some years, was engaged as a servant. He
spoke English as fluently as an Englishman, and had become a
Christian, and nothing delighted him more than to talk about
his country and its people. His native place was 100 miles
east of Massa, i.e., about two days from Akka.*

One day he volunteered an account of the feast of Ashura,
where the people that attend the fairs are personated with great
skill. Among the persons represented he named Akkas, and
Jews, and was proceeding to describe the peculiar dress and
look of the Sus Jews, when I asked him " who are these
Akkas ? " He then described them as a race of little people,
not higher than four feet, and of a peculiar reddish colour, " like
that of a Eed Indian of America," and differing from the com-
plexions of Moors, Arabs, negroes, &o. According to him they
were very brave and active, and dressed more like the French
than the Moors, as they wore a woollen shirt embroidered at the
neck in front and on the back. They had red leather boots or
leggings coming up nearly to the knee, and their knife or
dagger had a peculiar crescent-shaped handle. They made
spindles and other small articles, which they sold at the
markets. Their name was derived from their living in Akka,
the country adjoining his own.

The story seemed so utterly incredible that I did not believe
it, for I felt convinced that if there was a dwarf race so near the
Mediterranean, the world would long ago have heard of them.
He himself did not seem to think they would interest me, and
merely mentioned them casually ; and had I not brought him

* The Lesser Atlus divides Akka from Siis, but there are several roade
through passes, which connect them.

biick to the Akkas by my wish to know who they were, he
would have passed on to other subjects, and I would never have
suspected that he had alluded to a dwarf race. On one point I.
knew he was correct, viz., that there is a district, a very barren
one, between Dra and the Sahara called Akka.

The conversation was forgotten, and probably never would
have been recalled to my mind but for my seeing in the Times and
other English papers, about two months afterwards, that Emin
Pasha had sent to the Royal Society skeletons of two Akkas, a
dwarf race living at Akka, in the Monbutto country, who are the
smallest people in the world, as they are not much over four
feet in height. The complexion of these Akkas was described
as " like the colour of slightly roasted coffee."

Hamed was sent for, and was asked to repeat his descrip-
tion of the small people about whom he had spoken to me. His
account in no way varied from that which he had previously
given. He could not read, and therefore could not have heard
of the Albert Nyanza and its district of Akka with its dwarfs,
for up to that time but little had been said about these Akkas in
England, except through the works of one or two travellers. I
had, unfortunately, when I was reading " The Heart of
Africa," and had reached the amusing picture of a Bongo
native in the second volume, been interrupted by somebody,
and had never read the rest of the book. The subsequent
discussion about the dwarf skeletons, and the description of
Stanley's dwarfs, have made everyone familiar with the name
of the Akka dwarfs near the Albert Nyanza.

I immediately wrote what had occurred to several persons in
different towns in Morocco and Algeria, and asked them to hunt
up some natives of Akka or Dra, or a Jew from Ophran, and to
find out whether they had ever heard of a very small race of
dwarfs in that country.

The first to reply to the letter was the Right Hon. Sir J.
Drummond Hay, who was spending the winter there, and who
had for many years been connected with Morocco as our
Minister to that country. His first letter, dated May 10th, was
as follows : —

" The information you had received regarding the race of
men dwelling at Akka, a barren district adjoining the Dra

country, is quite correct. They are described to me as a race
about four feet high, broad and muscular. They are called
Nezeegan. The Moor who gave my informant this account of
these people, said they live on milk and camel's flesh. They
pound the flesh and salt it. The pounded meat is put in goat
skins, and a handful of this stuff will suflice as the sustenance
of a man for two days. They are renowned for strength and
courage.

"The Dra Moor said that a European, dressed as a
Mahonmiedan, and calling himself a Shereef, visited Akka, and
found there a slab with an inscription on it, and carried it off.
The Akka inhabitants did not discover, until after he left, that
he was not a Shereef, but a Christian disguised as a Mahom-
raedan. I have no notion who this traveller may have been."

The second letter is dated June 6th, 1888 : —

"With reference to the queries put in your letter of the
26th ultimo, the only further information I can obtain is that
the sviall race of men are of a mahogany colour, with hair like
that of negroes, that they use the Shilhach language, but there is
a slight difference in the dialect from that spoken by the popula-
tion of Sus. Berber and Shilhach are as alike as the Portuguese
and Spanish languages. My informant now tells me that the
tribe to which the Akka people belong is called Ait Wakka,
and that they live in a district adjoining the Dra country.

" My informant says that the Akkas have all a similar cast
of countenance, and that a stranger can hardly distinguish
one adult male from another."

Again, on the 23rd June, 1888, he wrote: "My informant
says that the divarf, or small race, were not negroes, but dark,
with features so alike that it is hard to know one from the
other. Hair crisp and curly."

Miss Lena Day, belonging to the Mission to the Berbers at
Tlem^en, in reply to my queries, wrote: "In reply to your
letter, I have done my best to obtain information to answer
your questions, but as the time you have given me is rather
short, I have only been able to find one man from Sus, but he
told me that the Akkas are not dwarfs, but on the average
5 feet high ; but the word you mention, Nezeegan, is the name
of a tribe of dwarfs living in a town called Nezeeg, thence their

name ; that the town Nezeeg is very near Sus, whereas the
tribe of Ait Atta (not Athi) is some distance from Sus, though
its people do frequent Sus for commerce. The Nezeegan
resemble the Arabs in every particular, but their height is less
tlian 4 feet. Their bournous is made of threa and a-half jards
of material. According to this man's account the Ait Atta
resemble the French nation in appearance and dress, and it is
said that they were once Christians, but are now Maliommedans,
governed by a Cadi, and under tlie power of the Sultan,"

Again on the 29th June, 1888, she wrote : " I have delayed
answering your letter, hoping to get more reliable information,
but I have only succeeded in seeing one man from Sus who has
been at Nezeeg. Both men are agreed that the dwarfs are not
Nigritoes."

This information obtained by separate enquiries at Tangier
and TlemQen strongly confirmed the story told me by my Susi
servant. It was clear that the dwarf natives of Akka, near
the Victoria Nyanza, must belong to tlie same race as tl:e little
natives of Akka in the Southern Atlas, as they were precisely
alike in every particular, except that the one race is savage
and the other is civilized. As they are both red-com-
plexioned, it is possible that their name may be derived
from akka (red).

It was evident that the subject ought not to be neglected,
but that somebody ought to look into it in Morocco. From the
state of my health I did not feel disposed to engage in an investi-
gation which would need many months of steady work. There-
fore, while passing through Paris, I called on a well-known
Egyptologist, and urged him to take up the archaeology and
ethnology of the Southern Atlas, and promised that I would meet
him at Mogador, and would bring the natives to him who
could tell him the legends and folk-lore of tliat region.

He was told that the God Didoo (called by Brugsch iiey
a " Nubi-Libyan divinity "), one of the oldest of Egyptian gods,
must have come from the country South of Mount Atlas, for rivers
and tribes bear his name, viz.: — the district of Did or Didan ; the
Ait Didi, or Didoo, Ait Hedidoo, and Ait Doodoon ; the river Bid
(which by its junction with the Idermi forms the Dra), and the
river Didoo or Dora, in the Black Mountains, near Tinzone, a

{

range of tlie Bani Mountains ; while the name of the god Diduo

Osiris is known South of the Atlas as Didoo Isiri. It has
since transpired that " an ancient city of idolaters " in the Dra
Valley, now in ruins, and called Ta-Punt by the natives, is
also called Anihim-Didoo (" the town of Didoo ").* It was
pointed out that the traditions and beliefs of the people of that
country had never been studied by anyone except by myself,
and that we must seek there for that Cradle Land of the
Egyptians, " the Holy Land of Punt," and not " somewhere on
the shores of the Indian Ocean." A point of less importance,
but of a good deal of interest, was also suggested to him, that
evidence as to the existence of a dwarf race in the district of
Akka, a country bounding to the South on the Sahara, had come
to light.

As far back as 1883, a copy of a paper on " Mount Atlas
and its Traditions," read at Montreal in 1882, was sent to
Professor Sayce, and he was urged to spend a winter in Morocco
and to look into the archaeology of that country.

For the first time, then, in November last I took part in
investigations as to the dwarfs. As previous to that the enquiries
were made by others and at a great distance from me, I may
state what others have learned and know as to these dwarfs
before giving an account of my enquiries and their results.

"We have seen what was gleaned by Sir J. Drummond Hay's
enquiries and also by those of Miss Day. The former has since
then examined a native of Dra, as appears from his letter,
which is given in the Preface.

The late Mr. Aissa Farar, a Colporteur, was visited at Beni
Miskeen by a dwarf not over four feet high, who wished to buy
an Arabic copy of the Gospels, and who, on being told the price,
went away and returned with poultry, &c., equal in value to the
price named, and on receiving the book kissed it reverently and
hid it away in a fold of his dress, He was much more cordial
and friendly than any of the Moors had been, a circumstance
that lends some colour to the statements often made as to
these dwarfs, that some of them are Christians. The dwarf said
he came from a very wild and inaccessible country to the east-
ward, where his tribe lived secluded from other people ; and he

* See note p. 30,

told a curious story as to the creation of a dwarf ram, and why
the Creator allowed them to be so small, and so many other
races so tall.

Mr. Farar was on a long excursion this summer in Northern
Morocco, and was determined to find this little man, and get
him to act as a guide to where his tribesmen live. I have but
little doubt that he obtained some further information before he
returned to Tangier. Arabic was his native language, so he had
special advantages for seeing much of the natives. It is to be
regretted very much that a fever (probably caught on his
journey) proved fatal to him a few months ago. It is likely,
however, that his family or friends may know what were the
results of his enquiries as to these dwarfs.

The fourth person who made enquiries as to whether there
was really a race of dwarfs as alleged, was Miss Herdman, at
that time residing in Fez in connection with the Mission to the
Berbers. Her abilities and knowledge of the Moors, and of
their language and customs, are spoken most highly of by all who
know her. Unfortunately, I had soon after writing to her, men-
tioned these dwarfs to a retired leader of a troop of acrobats, called
Sidi Hamed O Moussa, and suggested to him that it would pay
him to take a dwarf to England to be shown to scientific societies,
and exhibited to the public. He professed never to have heard
of such a race ; and on my laughing and saying that I would
find the dwarf, as there was one at Fez, he offered to write to
him, which I did not wish him to do, as he would, no doubt,
write forbidding the dwarf to be seen by Europeans. I wrote
again to Miss Herdman, and told her she would probably not
be able to get a sight of the dwarf. My anticipations were
realized. In a few days he was at the point of death !

Her letter dated at Fez, Feb. 4th, 1891, says : —

" There is a tnbe of dwarfs inhabiting a part of Sus, called
Oulad Sidi Hamed Ou Moussa, or Sedi Hamed ben Moussa.
Some of them are acrobats, and come occasionally to Fez.
They are expected in the spring. As the Court is at Morocco
I think they are more likely, however, to go there, as there is
more money going there. There is a man living at Fez of the
tribe. I know persons who know him. Unfortunately he is
too ill to leave his bed at present, I am told, and likely to die,

having been ailing some time. They are about four feet hign.

Various persons from Sus have described them to me, and say

that a woman is the size of an ordinary little girl, and a man

with a beard is like a little boy. They are never called Akkas

or any name but that which I have mentioned. Some are

larger than others. Write to Morocco city, as they will be

almost certain to be there for the festivities of the wedding of

the Emperor's son.

" Yon may rely on the inforination I have given you, as I

have it from various sources. There are no dwarfs between

Fez and Morocco, as far as I know. With kind regards, and

ready to investigate anything for you and the interest of truth

and science,

" I remain, &c.,

" Emma Herdman."

" Our man-servant, a well-read Moor, did his best to bring
correct news. The dwarfs are said to be rather expert thieves,
for they climb on tach other's shoulders, and so scale high
walls. Others say that they can climb like cats without any
foothold."

It will be seen that everybody that so far has described
them, agrees with Miss Herdman in her account of the height
of these dwarfs, who, with their distant kinsmen of Equatorial
Akka, are the smallest race in the world.

Mr. Walter B. Harris, the well-known traveller in Morocco,
and author of " The Land of an African Sultan," whom I met
for a few minutes at Tangier in November last, told me that he
had seen a dwarf at Fez about four feet high, and he promised
to make enquiries as to this race, and to get a photograph, if
possible, of one of them.

The following extracts from a letter in the Times of Sept.
14th, 1891, are in accord with the preceding accounts of
these dwarfs : —

"Mr. E. G. Haliburton, in an interesting paper read
before the Congress of Orientalists and reported in the Times of
Thursday, September 3, gives an q,ccount of the dwarf tribes of
Southern Morocco and Mount Atlas.

" I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Haliburton in Morocco
in November last, and of conversing with him on this subject.

!•

I left Tangier the day after this conversation, and, excepting for
a short visit, did not find myself again in that port until ten
months later, at the end of August, when I left for England,
arriving ten days ago. This fact alone preveiHed my communi-
cating my notes to Mr. Haliburton on the subject before his
paper was read, and, as I feel sure that the existence of these
hitherto almost unknown dwarfs will not fail to interest the
public, I take the liberty of writing to your paper as the best
means of adding a few additional facts to Mr. Haliburton's most
interesting account.

" The first time I chanced upon one of these dwarfs was in
the early months of 1887, in Fez, but except noticing him as a
peculiarly, nay remarkably, small man, it little struck me that
he might belong to a tribe uniform in stature. This man, by
name 'Eebber, I afterwards became tolerably well acquainted
with on several subsequent visits to Fez, but in spite of my
being on speaking terms with him I found it difficult to persuade
him to put aside his reserve and speak freely of his people, and
impossible to measure him. However, I estimated his height at
about 4 feet 2 inches. He is in, or past, middle life, the father
of a family, and the husband of a Moorish woman of normal
size. The fact that his children are the average height of the
Arabs and Moors of Fez might lead one to suppose, did I not
know positively to the contrary, that this dwarf is only a stray
case of undergrowth, and not coming of a dwarf people. He is
sharp in wit, lithe in limb, and most active, by no means
unskilled with the single-sticks, and a capital rider. In colour
he is a light dusky brown. He grows a short scrubby grey-
black beard. Until this year this much-petted and well-known
dwarf of Fez was the only specimen I had chanced upon, but
during this last spring fortune put another in my way, this time
a younger man. As I was travelling in native costume, he
seemed much less reserved and suspicious than his fellow-tribes-
men, and entered into conversation tolerably freely, though he
again refused to be measured or to allow me to take his photo-
graph or measurements of his skidl and limbs. His tnbe ha
stated to be Mahomedans, living in caves and tents in a range
of mountains situated to the southeast of Wad Ih^aa, hvt he
did not know the name ' Bani ' applied to these mountains by

Mr. Haliburton, nor did he describe the Akkari, or inlmbitanxs
of Akkar, as being dwarfs, though a tinbe of tfiem is resident
among them. However, the evidence of Mr. Haliburton, and the
strange coincidence of Schweinfurth's Akka of Central Africa
leads me to discredit this statement, or rather, perhaps, to
believe that he was unaware that the name of Akkari is used for
the dwarfs as well as for a larger people. He continued to say
that his people are keepers of goats and herds, and in their own
country do but little nicinual work, though one and all have
some knowledge of trade, such as tinkering and mending old
shoes, &c., which they practise should they migrate or travel
from their native lands. Arabic and Slileh are alike spoken by
them, but I cooild discover nothing of a distinctive language.
They are skilled, he said, in hunting ostriches, the feathers and
eggs of which they sell to the Arab traders of the Sahara.
Their country can be reached either by Tafilet, or Tafilelt, as it
is called by the Arabs and Berbers, or by Tarudant, in the Soos
Valley.

" Mr. Hunot also mentions that the natives of the Atlas
mountains are desirous of discovering the ancient treasure-
houses of the * Romi,* as they call their predecessors in that
part. At ImminteUeh, above Amsmiz, a small town situated
to the south-west of Morocco city and at the northern foot of
the Atlas, I was constantly questioned about a treasure-house
of the ' Christians,' said to exist at the bottom of a curious
deep pool, into which the water flowed by a subterranean
channel far beneath the surface. Of this spot I gave a short
description at one of the meetings of the Royal Geogi'aphical
Society (' Proceedings,' January, 1889). An Akkari, or in-
habitant of Akkar, I came across at Wazan, a man by name
Abdurrahman, who did not deny the existence of the dwarfs
as so many do, either from ignorance or superstition, but denied
that the name Akkari applied to them, stating, as did the
second dwarf I interviewed, that they were large people, as he
himself was, but that many of the dwarfs were living amongst
them, but that more still inhabited the mountains to the south-east
of Wad Draa. In questioning him as to ruins, &c., in the
neighbourhood, he mentioned to me the existence of a ruined
and uninhabited town, in good preservation, by name ' Osuru.'

.1=

I'J

k uaiue that will no doubt interest Mr. Haliburton as being
connected with the worsiiip of ' Didoo Oairi.' ' Osuru ' and
' Osiri * can bo easily explained to be one, owing to the
probable omission of the two latter vowels in the Arabic
spelling. This Abdurrahman El Akkari is a man of medium
height, light brown in colour, of pleasing features ; he is a
worker and mender of old shoes. He denied that the dwarfs
are ' worshipped by the Moors,' and could in no ways explain
the extraordinary reticence of Mahomedans in speaking of
them. That they are supposed to bring good luck he frankly
acknowledged, and in taking advantage of tliis idea many earn
a livelihood by writing charms and telling fortunes. The
reverence that is paid them I believe to be merely the remains
of a fur older superstition than would exist in Mahomedan
times."

Mr. Harris tpiestions the idea as to these Barakers not being
Moslems, but the evidence on this point is very strong. He
also does not agree with Miss Herd man and a good many wit-
nesses as to there being a tnhe of acrobats.

" The Daggata, or ' black Jews,' are not in reality Jews,
but are so classed by the Arab traders and slave dealers, just
as other black tribes are classed as ' Christians ' ; I have come
across many of these Daggata, who are easily recognizable by
the three deep scars on their cheeks — a tribal mark. They
are said by the other Soudan tribes to be cannibals, and are
generally despised on this account, and on account of the
general belief in their being Jews. As far as I could discover
in conversation with such of them as I have met in slavery,
and who had learned Arabic, they are pagans, but adopt
Mahomedanism very readily.

"Mr. Haliburton again calls attention to Hanno's troglo-
dytes. A large city of these strange cave dwellings I visited
at Ain Torsil, in the Atlas Mountains, in 1887, and a somewhat
full description written by myself was published in the Times
of September 22nd of that year. I quite agree with Mr.
Haliburton that these caves were the work of the dwarfs, the
low ceilings, seldom over 5 feet 2 inches in height, alone going
far to prove this theory.

" In another portion of his paper Mr. Haliburton mentions the

mmm

' haik ' bearing the ' eya' Does he not mean tlie Berber 's'lhani *
or ' bernous ' r)f black woven goat hair, witli the ' eye ' in red
and slightly decorated ? The writer had one which he bought
ofi" the back of a Berber in the Atlas Mountaiiis, for they are not
by any means confined to the dwarf tribes, but are worn all
through the Atlas Mountains. The theory that this ' eye ' is the
origin of the ' Cyclopes ' is by no means far-fetched.

" It is to be hoped that if any reader possesses any know-
ledge of these dwarf tribes he will take this opportunity of
putting it before the world, for with a collection of notes on the
subject it would be far easier to follow up the study of one of
the most interesting and least known races of the globe. With
apologies for taking up so much of your valuable space,

" Believe me, Sir, your humble and obedient servant,

"Walter B. Harris."

We find on looking over the preceding accounts of this race
of dwarfs, that they agree not only as to the main facts, but also as
to details. Mr. Carleton, of Tangier, a nephew of the late Sir Wm,
Kirby Green, tells me that he has seen three of these dwarfs,
and has often talked with them. There are two dwarfs at Fez,
one of them not much over 3 feet high. He was in Tangier for
some months, and used to play chess with Mr. Carleton, who was
then a boy. The dwarf is called Abdallah-ben-Saleh. He also
saw the larger dwarf at Fez, and one near Alcazar, the shepherd
of the K«id of Eamoosh, who told him that he came from the
district of Ouisda, in the country of the Beni Znassen, which
cannot be very far from the French frontier. .

The two following letters were received after I had handed
in my paper on "Dwarfs and Dwarf Worship." The first,
written at the Grosvenor Club, August 15th, is from Captain
RoUeston, a well-known writer on Morocco, a country in which
he has resided for many years : —

" Relative to your queries as to the dwarfs of Morocco, I
saw one of them about six years ago, when residing at Tangier,
He appeared to be about 35 to 40 years of age, between 3 feet
and 4 feet high, and well proportioned. In colour he was no
darker than an ordinary Spaniard, and, unlike the generality of
the Moors, was clean shaven,"

The next is from Mr. George Hunot, our Consul at Safli, wlio

has more than once, in recent works on Morocco, been pro-
nounced the highest living authority on the Moors. His clerk,
Mr. Harry Broome, a native of Mogador, had promised to get
me a Shilhach version of an ancient poem on Karoun and the
river Stoucha (Charon and the Styx). Stoucha is the name of
a tribe, an extensive district, and also a river that flows into the
ocean at Massa, and finds its way to Paradise.* Karoun, how-
ever, like Noah or Osiris (called Isiri),i8 also a divine instructor,
God at his request gave him a plough, and he' taught men agri-
culture, but wherever he went a woman followed him and
undid his good work. She may perhaps ..a the original Pandora.
Mr. Hunot also refers to some questions which I wished him to
put to Dra people who attend the Saffi market, as to '* an
ancient city of idolaters " called Punt, or Ta-Punt. Mr. Hunot
wrote to me from Saffi, August 8th, 1891 :• -

" With regard to the old song about Karoun and the Stoucha,
I. have been at Broome to get the man to have it translated into
Arabic. My man does not know the song, but his friend, a Soos
Taleb, does. It will yet reach you. Broome is trying to ^et it,
and I will urge him to forward it as soon as it is ready, and will
assist also with the translation. I recollect the dwarf you allude
to as living and dying at Mogador, and I think there is one also
here at Saffi. The Mogador man was about the size of a boy of
ten or eleven years of age. I do not think what you have
found out is imaginary. I saw some Arab gipsies the other
day — fortune-tellers; two or three of them were handsome-
looking young women of about eighteen or nineteen. They
were from the tribe of Oulad Bu Sebah (' Sons of the Father of
Lions'). I know from experience that there are hundreds of
names of places in the Atlas Mountains which we have never
heard of. There are local names quite unknown to the natives
living in the adjacent districts to those named. I hear from
some of the natives that you must have got hold of valuable
old chronicles belonging to the races of Europeans or ' Eomi,*
that they know once occupied their country. What they all

• Babbi Mardocliee, when he reached the extensive district of Stoucha
entered a vast forest " called after a man of the name of Simmou KarroAm,'*
(See Bulletin de GSog., x, 565.)

(

want to know is where are the treasures and springs of water

hidden by those races, who are believed to have had the power
of the genii of that epoch ? I am sorry you could not have the
song ready for your visit to Cardiff. I should like to have Sir
John's note to me, stating that important results had followed
your researches."

Mr. Broome speaks of having often seen an old dwarf at
Mogador, who lived there for many years, and was called Sidi
Baraker, and, as a saint, was kissed on the shoulder by the Moors
in passing him in the street. This superstitious reverence can
hardly be wondered at when we remember Ch6nier's account of
the Sultan's horse which had gone witli Hadjis to Mecca, and
was therefore sacred, the Sultan occasionally kissing the horse's
tail and mane in the fervour of his reverence I

Considering how few of these dwarfs are to be found in
Northern towns, it is surprising to note that so many Europeans
have seen them, and that they all confirm the statements of
natives as to the peculiar look, size, complexion, &c., of these
dwarfs. I may mention, among those who have testified to
the existence of these dwarfs, the evidence of Caille (one of tlip
few Europeans who ever travelled with a caravan from Tim-
buctoo to Dra, and reached that place alive), who endured an
amount of hardships and ill-treatment that broke his health,
and ultimately shortened his life.

He had never heard that a race of dwarfs south-east of Dra
are slave-traders and ostrich hunters, who are so much alike that
they cannot be distinguished from each other, and who go into
the Sahara to meet caravans on their way from Timbuctoo, and
to buy slaves and ostrich feathers, which they sell again in the
markets of Sus. He noticed, as the caravan was approaching
Akka, a dwarf who met them at a stopping place, and was long
engaged with the leader of the caravan in business negotiations.
The dwarf was left behind, but, to Caill^'s surprise, reappeared
at another stopping place, for Caille supposed that the second
dwarf was the same as tlie first. He very naturally remarked,
*' cc pdit Ihomme m'apparaisaii comme nil nain mysUrieux."

We have also the indirect testimony of Eohlfs, a renegade,
who spoke Arabic imperfectly, and was robbed and left for dead
by some of the lawless inhabitants of the lliver Dra. He did not

go down the Dra Valley, but crossed the river far down on his

way from Sus to Tafilelt, and must have been near a Baraker
town,* as he speaks of a place of some importance, being not far
distant, called Zaouia Sidi Baraker (which he spells Barca).
Although a renegade, he was looked on with suspicion as being
a Christian, and the natives, therefore, would not have made the
dwarfs a subject of conversation with him, for even among
themselves they say little about them.

Had I never made any inquiries myself, the testimony of so
many natives and Europeans, in so many different localities, all
agreeing in their descriptions of this race, would be very strong
evidence of there being tribes of such dwarfs in the southern
districts of Morocco ; the coincidence, too, that the Akkas of the
Albert Nyanza are precisely similar to the little natives of Akka,
south of Mount Atlas, is so remarkable, that, coupled with the
evidence which I have referred to, it precludes the possibility of
a mistake as to the existence of the Atlas dwarfs.

If, however, any doubt on the point exists, the confirmatory
results of my own recent investigations, begun in Tangier in
November, 1890, and concluded at SafH in June, 1891, will be
sufficient, I think, to settle it. Having unsuccessfully for two
years tried to induce others to take up this subject, it was my
duty to do my best to clear up the two points at issue, first, as to
the existence of these dwarfs, and secondly, as to why so many
Moors make such a mystery about them.

CONFIRMATOEY INVESTIGATIONS IN MOEOCCO,

1890-91.

The results of my inquiries at Tangier during the first few
days of my stay there are described by me in a letter which has
already been published.

" As a good deal of interest has been excited by the subject of
the existence of a dwarf race within a few hundred miles of the
Mediterranean, I may state for the information of winter
migrants to Tangier that they can see a dwarf at that place, as

: \ ' • See note, p. 31. .. . , ; i

lie is always to be found near the gate of the large Soko. He is
a donkey man, and is about 4 feet 6 inches in height ; as tall
as an Andaman Islander or Bushman, but six inches taller than
an ordinary Atlas dwarf, and nearly a foot-and-a-half taller than
Abdallah-ben-Saleh, the suialler of the two dwarfs that live at
Fez. His comparatively large size is the result of his father, an
Akka dwarf, having married a Moorish woman of ordinary size.
Most of the following extracts from the beginning of my
journal in Morocco, November, 1890, refer to him. Why the
names of my Moorish informants are omitted is explained in
the Preface.

" On arriving at Tangier, my first thought was to hunt up
two natives who were there in 1887. They proved to be still
there. One of them an Akkoui, a native of Akkairi, in Akka,
and the other a Susi. When asked if they had ever heard of a
race of small men, they at once replied that they had often seen
dwarfs who inhabit Akka. The Akkoui said that a toion of thevi
was near Akkairi, and that ' they are called Taata Tajakants.
They find money for people. They live at Akka-Igan, and are
called Akka-Guil. Guil is the name of a place. They are
about four feet high.* The Susi said that he had often seen them
when in the Dra Valley, and that he had ' seen one that was not
much over three feet in height.' They write on a wooden slate in
order to find money."

The following is an entry in my journal a week later : —
" Having heard that there was a dwarf always about the
Soko, I repeatedly asked the Akkoui and the Susi to bring him
to me, and offered to pay them well for doing so ; but they
evidently had some reason for not letting me see him, as they
never brought him to me. While walking to-day through the
Soko (the market-place) with S. we saw the little man, who
resembled an Akka. S. had previously offered him a job, but>
the dwarf did not turn up. We therefore hired his donkey,
aud he came with us to the International Hotel, and we in-
duced him to come with us into a room there, but he was
evidently in a great fright. He was very broad shouldered,
and had a peculiar reddish complexion, good features, and long-
shaped eyes, a little slanting up at the side like the Chinese
eye. His expression was honest, intelligent, and good-

humoured. I got him to let me mark his height on the wall,
but he was in a tremor, evidently fearing the 'evil-eye.'
He would not remove his fez ; the edge of it was therefore
included in taking his height. I made it four feet eight inches,
but S. said that the dwarf raised his heels at least two inches.
Therefore, allowing for the fez, we can make his height about
four feet six inches. His name is Jachin-ben-Maliommed. He
is thirty years of age, and a native of Wadnoon. His father
is a native of Akka, and one of the small race there, and is, he
says, much smaller than he himself is. Jachin is larger than
any of his brothers sisters. His mother is an ordinary
sized Moorish woma The dwarfs, he says, are very brave
and active, and great hunters of ostriches, having small, swift
horses that are called by a name meaning ' those that drink the
wind,' and that are fed on dates and camels' milk, and are
very lean, and, if judged by their looks, would be set down as
worthless. The dwarfs, he says, are so active that one of them
can jump over three camels standing side by side. They wear
a blue shirt embroidered on the breast and back, and have
leggings that come up nearly to the knee, and wear a haik with
a large yellow eye on its back. Their knife is different from
those used by the Moors. They put ground camels' flesh into a
bag when they travel. They weave cloth and make spinning
wheels and spindles, which they sell. They go into the Sahara
to a fair, and buy slaves and ostrich feathers, and bring them to
the fair at Tazzawalt (a town near the sea, about three days
north of Wadnoon, where the tomb of Sidi Hamed Moussa
is, and where the chief of the acrobats reigns as a king). They
are called Sahara people, and live about eight days to the east
of Wadnoon. They are about four feet high, and attend the
fairs in Sus, and are different from the Moors, negroes, and
mulattoes, as they have a peculiar reddish complexion. They
use firearms and sometimes bows and poisoned arrows.

He said there is a man like himself in Tangier, and he pro-
mised to bring him to me. I doubt his doing so, as the Moors
evidently have a dislike to having anything known about these
dwarfs. I subsequently told him 1 would give him a new fez,
but he never came for it. It will be seen that he repeats
almost verhatim the account given me of the dwarfs by my

Susi servant in 1888. (S.'s native language, as well as that of
the manager of the hotel, who was present, is Arabic.) I used
often to try to get Jachin to come to see me. He shaves his
face, which is always taken as a sign that a man is not a true
Moslem. The Ait Atta, who extend from Akka to Tafilelt,
and are found to the east of Demnat, are said to have been
once Christians. They shave their faces."

It is hard to imagine stronger evidence than that of a kins-
man of the dwarfs, whose native place was on the borders of the
Sahara, and who described a tribe of dwarf ostrich hunters. The
criticism on it is very significant, — a quibble ! I had remarked
that the description of the ostrich hunters was precisely like
that that had been previously given of them by my servant in
Algeria in 1888. When I left that country he remained there.
The critic quite gratuitously assumes a series of facts — that the
Susi remained in my service ; that I brought him with me to
Tangier ; that he was present at the examination ; that he sat
at the elbow of the dwarf; and that he suggested, and was
allowed by us to suggest, unfounded statements to him ; and
that, therefore, the evidence of the dwarf was entitled to no
weight ! The animus of such criticism is so plain, that
further comment on it is needless.

It will be noted that the ostrich hunters wear the khanif vf'iih
" the all-seeing eye " on the back, a peculiar kind of houmous
that is worn from Glaoua, near Morocco, to the Sahara, and from
the Atlantic nearly to Tafilelt, by a majority of the population.

A Moor whose father vtas connected with the Emperor's
army during its raid into Sus, says, " an Akka at Morocco lives
on the funds of the Mosque of Sidi Abbas. There are others
living there. I know two dwarfs at Fez. One is called Suldan
El Baraka (' The Lord of Blessing '). I know two or three at
Mequinez."

A native of Warzazat, in the Dra Valley, says that Taurirt
in that district is a place where the small people live. A tribe
of small people live at Garnata, and are called from its name
Egarnan. A Moor, a native of Tafilelt (several days to East-
ward of last-named place, says, " the little people live near the
river Dora, near Tinzone in the Black Mountains, and trade
with Tinzone. There are more than a thousand there. They

shave their faces and the front of their head ; colour reddish ;
lips something like those of a negro; but they are different
from other people. They are about four feet."

It has come to light in the course of these investigations
that the people of the Dra are known as Haratins, the Little
and the Larger. The latter are the descendants of dwarfs, who
have intermarried witli black, or with white tribes. The first
have a reddish -black complexion, and the latter a yellowish
tint. It may be well to mention that Leo Africanus spells
Dra " Dara." In Smith's " Dictionary of Ancient Geography "
we are told of the Daree or Gaetuli-Darae, on the Steppes of tlie
Great Atlas, and of " the Melano-Gaetuli, a race from a mixture
of the Gaituli and the Nigritians. The pure Gretulians were
not an Ethiopic (negro), but a Libyan race, and were probably
of Asiatic origin. They are supposed to have been the ancestors
of the Berbers," The Haratin, according to De Foucauld, are
looked down upon and are anxious to marry among the whites.
When a man wishes to marry, the first question as to the lady is,
with the Arabs, "is she of an old family ?" with the Shilhach,
" ha^ she money ?" and with a Haratin, " is she white ?"

The first Haratin whom I saw was evidently not an ordinary
Moor, and looked much more like an Englishman, and I asked
him if he was not descended from an European. He brought
to me the son of the governor of a district of Akka near Sus, of
which Tazounin-Akka is the principal town, who said that
" the Haratin are the tall and the short, the latter are living in
three towns, Tamzrat, Atouayli, and Tadakoust ; their faces are
generally broad with a dark and yellowish complexion, their old
language is forgotten, and is called Tagnaioot or Mizgitin. They
are constantly fighting with each other, and the governor has to
make peace between them." He subsequently said, that " the
little men are the oldest people. The Haratin who come from
them are larger from intermarriages with other tribes. They
speak the same language and are alike in looks and ways. They
and the Zenegar also speak Hedah, Haidah or Tinker."
He also said that Ait Wabili was one of the towns of the
dwarfs. " About 400 always there They are called Tajakant;
another name is Aglimen. They make good dresses, and are
fortune tellers, and know the stars well." » , ry. .

The Haratin was subsequently examined and said " the Ait
Tinker, the Ait Souk, and Ait Sheltar, are near me, and there
are tow7is also of those names where there arc little people. We
are called Haratin, Hartani, and Haidah or Heden. The whole
country above Punt used to be called Heden. The Bani
Mountains are called the mountains of the Christians, and are
considered to belong to them. I do not think a Christian would
be molested if he could get there. The Haiden, Haratin, or
Tinker are different from the Zenegar, and know more than
they do, but resemble them. "We have a habit of mixing up
words, and putting the ends of words first so that no one else
can understand us."

A large Haratin (about five feet six inches in height), a native
of Tamanart, one of the headquarters of the dwarfs, was next
examined. He said there were the remains of ancient buildings
there, and that the following were the names of their towns in
the Bani Mountains, a range bordering on the Sahara : — z\sa,
Atoumribet, Tashker-Yekn-ishet, and Bani-Youssi.

He refused to say anything when closely questioned as to
the dwarfs. Asked who the Tinker were, he said " they are
people who do not say all that they know."

When he first came into the room, he became very much
excited when he was shown the frontispiece to Vol. I of Brugsch
]iey's " Egypt under the Pharaohs," copied from the monuments,
and representing the Rutennu offering tribute, and exclaimed "this
is what we see at Tamanart " ; but he afterwards denied that he
had said this, and would say nothing more about the dwarfs and
Tamanart. It has since transpired that the most interesting
lemains that survive in the Dra Valley, are at Tamanart, but
what they consist of is not known to outsiders.

The next man that was examined was from the Sahara, a
trader in dates, who spoke only Arabic and Fellatah. He was
a stranger in Tangier, and could not find his way about the
town. My servant, who spoke English and Arabic fluently,
brought him to me. He said he had been at Ta Punt (called by
the Arabs Tabount). There are a small modern town, and, two or
three miles distant, the ruins of the old town, where there are
" little figures, some with horse's heads, some with those of
bulls. The people call them Ait Beni (!), Mahkerbu, and Ait

Beni Hazor. Have heard them called PatiJci. That is the name
of the small people." After describing a remarkable feast called
" the Night of Confusion," he said " the people from ^\^
Sahara have nothing to do with the feast. They go there to sell
dates. The large Haratin are called Ait Brahim; the small,
Ait Bar Hamed. The Haratin are the big and the small."

At Saffi, aman who had just arrived in the market-place with
dates was examined. He described the old ruins near the town of
Ta Punt. " There are many small figures there about eighteen
inches or two feet high, but not of men. I'hei/ are mived, part
men and part animals, some with the body of a man, and the
head of a monkey or a dog. They are called Ait Mahkcrhu.
There are small and large Haratin. The small are about four
feet high."

A Rabbi from Ternata, below Mezgita, on the Dra, was
examined, and said " the Ait Atta are half Christians. The
little people are not Moslems. Their feast is by themselves.
It is supposed they worship Didoo-Isiri, but they keep to them-
selves. Tliere are maiiy of them near tlie Soudan. The Arabs
fear them, and pay to be allowed to pass through their country.
Their horses can do without water for four days, and are
called Dwiminagh (they that drink the wind). They and the
little people are the same. The Aral)s call them Baraker.
They are also called Ruhar."

Another Jew from Agadir was examined, and said " they
call a dwarf Taleb el Elsir (' the little Taleb '). The Moors do not
like to talk about them to strangers. When they are in a town
it is lucky. Some of the small people do not like the Prophet
Mahomed. Tltere are small people at Ait Tinker, called by that
name."

Hearing that there were Hadjis in town at Tangier, I sent
the mother of my servant (a Jewess from Mogador), to see if
there was a dwarf among the Hadjis. She met a Moor among
them whom she had known at Mogador, who told her that
there were no dwarfs among them, for " most of the Barakers
do not believe in the prophet, for their ancestors were
Christians, so they seldom go to Mecca. They shave their faces
like Christians."

Three men from the towns of Tazagora, Tatta, and Warzazat,

said that at Ta Punt " there are some small figures with the
heads of wolves and dogs, &c. They call them Beni Kerbu.
Okillam is the name of the language of the Haratin," Another
Draoui examined the day previously described these figures as
" some were mixed, part animals and part men, about eighteen
inches to two feet in height."

A native of Ait I'sech, in Akka, says " there is a language
called Tinker, which is a mixture of Shilhach topsy turvey.
The Haratin speak it, also the Zeneghar." He said that at Ta
Punt there are, in a ruined temple called Abniat Didoo (" the
Temple of Didoo"*), "small figures inside the buihling, some
eighteen inches, some three feet, very odd looking, no one can
understand them. They are called Patiki ; and so the little
people are. The little men are very ugly, and have no eye-
brows, and have smooth faces. People are afraid of them."

I also tried to examine a native of Sakiat Hamra (" The Eed
Eiver"), a large black Saint, probably a Haratin, who, as a
diviner and fortune-teller, was all day long kept busy in the
Soko, telling people how to find stolen goods, &c., which he
professed to do by writing columns of figures on a wooden slate.
When first asked to come to my hotel, he said he did not care
to have anything to do with either Christians or Jews ; but he
subsequently thought better of it, or rather of the possible
shilling, and came to see me. At first he gave me information
as to his country very freely, until he was questioned about " the
Little People," when he admitted reluctantly that there were
some hundreds of them living near the Sakiat Hamra, at four
towns, named Toubold, Oulad Kador, Oulad Haboub, and Moul
Okaz ; but when pressed to give further information as to them,
he became very angry, and said that to do so would be against
his religion!

A Haratin Saint of Zaouia Baraka, near Tamanart (the place

* This ha8 been since singularly confirmed by my meeting with the description
by Scylax of a similar temple, South of Mount Atlas, with representations of
animals and men on its altar, which was built hj Dcedalus (Didoo P). There
must, however, be many such ruins in that country, for Babbi Mardochee met
near Wadnoon with wonderful ancient remains, a high wall connecting two
mouiita'ns and guarded by towers, old temples, and stones inscribed with figures
of men and animals. It is a pity his journal has not been published. (See
BuUelin de Qeog.^ Deer. 1875).

n/entioned by Rohlfs) was examined. He had refused some
months previously, as he still did, to speak about the dwarfs.
He seemed surprised at my knowing that there were dwarfs
where he lived, and said, " how do you come to know anything
about them?" but he did not deny that they lived near Zaouia
Sidi Baraker, and Tamanart.

A Beni Bacchar from near Massa, said, " louzia or Idyl is the
name of the small ])eople (four feet high), who live in the
mountains of Kaleez, in the country of Akka. The small people
worship IJidoo Isiri, and they are the people who let Didoo Isiri
down and take him back with a rope.

Ali Ben Mohammed from Warzazat, said, " My tribe, the
Haratin, is the oldest people in the world, and all the gods
came from there. There is a saying for riches, 'you have all the
gold of Punt.' The story is, that in the olden time, there was a
lot of gold and treasures, and it is all buried in J*unt. The
Mountain of the Christians ( Jebel el Nasara), is in the country of
Akka ; near the bottom of the mountain is a town called Tas-
kadeer, and near it there is another mountain called Ben Touhad.
It is said that Christians were living there once. To the South
of the town of Imini the short people live, and were Christians
in the olden times ; they live in the Valley of Imini, and are
known by the name Imini." (He refused to speak furtlier
about the dwarfs, or to answer any questions. He said he did
not know where the River Dra was !)

A man belonging to the tribe of Sidi Hamed Moussa,
which he had disowned in consequence of some quarrel, was
examined by Mr. Harry Broome, a native of Morocco, and said,
" the name of the dwarf that died at Mogador nine or ten years
ago, was Hadj Brahim Adousal, from the town of Tlata Waliaz,
in the district of Ait Baha ou Dra. The name of the other dwarf
was Aderdour, from Tifshrar. Have seen many small men at
Wadnoon. Adoiisal is their name. Hazora also is the name of
the small people. You cannot tell one from the other. Some
of the little people perform with the Sidi Hamed Moussa.
One of them was sent to Saffi to reconcile me to my tribe,
but did not succeed."

A native of Ait Seribu, Beni Amral, an Ait Atta, said, " at
Idautanan, not far from Dra, there are people who put up a

cross before them wlien they worship. They iir(> whiter than
the otlier people around them. The Ait Atta generally shave
the face, as the small people do too. Those who shave their
faces are called by the others Cliristians. There are dwarfs at
Ahdeed, in the Ait Messad, ahuut 1,500, cmd ahout 1,000 at Ait
Messal, also at Ait Bcnsid, hut fewer, about 500. We, the Ait
Atta, do not reverence the small people very much, though
when we meet one, and do not know his name, we call him
Sidi Baraker. Haratin is the name of men, and Hartaniat of
a woman."

Mohammed el Akoui, who belongs to that part of the Ait
Atta who live in Akka, says his home is one day from Akairi,
and that " there are villages of the small people near my
country." (See also evidence of other Akouis, pp. 17, 18, and 24.)

A native belonging to the Oulad Willal of Tafilelt said that
" the Madid Sabaeen are neither Christians nor Mahommedans.
The little men live near the River Dora, near the town of
Tinzoni, which they trade with. They have hair like that of a
negro. Their colour is reddish, and they are called Touwata.
Iguilmim is another tribe of small men, near the sea, who are
looked upon as saints. They are neither Cliristians nor
Mahommedans."

A native of Warzazat said "many of tlie tribes of the Sahara
have no religion, unless it be a worship of Didoo Isiri. The
Zeneghar are not Moslems, but are people who sacrifice
sheep."

In the steamer in which I came to England from Morocco,
among my fellow passengers were two Jews who were natives
of Mogador. There were also two Moors on board, one a
merchant now living in Manchester. One of the Jews, a young
man who has been living in Manchester for several years and
speaks English fluently, said freely, without being questioned, that
he had often seen the old Baraker that died at Mogador eight or
ten years ago. " Have often heard of these dwarfs, and that they
come from near Ophiran (spelled by Mardochee, Ofaran), but
the Moors would not talk about them. ' God has sent them to
us. We must not talk about them ' they have said to me, when
I wished to find out something about this race. The Moors
worship the dwarfs, and are very superstitious about them."

The other Jew, a wealtliy oil merchant, said that he
remembered the dwarf at Mogador. " He was a great saint
among the Moors." A Moor from Fez, a merchant, who was on
his way to Manchester to reside there, said he knew two
dwarfs at Fez very well, and that one of them was but little
over three feet in height. He would not admit that the dwarfs
are looked on as saints by the Moors.

A few days ago I called on a gentleman in the city, who is
well known in connection with Morocco trade, and who said
that he was a busy man, and had not had time to read what had
appeared in the papers as to the Atlas dwarfs, but he said he
had a Moorish servant, whom he would send to me. He how-
ever did not do so, but subsequently explained his neglect by
the fact, that the Moor, when questioned, had proved very un-
satisfactory, for the man, who is a native of Northern Morocco,
when asked by him if he had ever heard of a small sized people
in Morocco, said that there were tribes of them in the i^_.tlas ;
but he added, " there is a saying among us about them, that
they have only one eye."* It therefore seemed useless to him to
have any more conversation with the Moor on the subject.

The gentleman, in question, remembered that there was a
clerk, a native of Mogador, in the office, and called him in, and
asked him if he had ever heard of a race of dwarfs in Morocco.
The clerk replied that he had often seen, several years ago, an
old dwarf saint at Mogador, and had heard that there were
tribes of such people somewhere in the Atlas.

The following is the statement of a Moor made October 1st,
1891, in presence of H. W. Bates, Esq., Assistant Secretary of
the Eoyal Geographical Society : —

" I am thirty-two years of age ; about seventeen years, as
a seaman, I frequently visited England. I married in England;
have been at Tazzawalt; I went there when I was nine years of
age for a short visit. Have been at Mogador about four years.
There are some small people in Haha, about four feet high ;
reddish people, different from others. They (the Dwarfs) are
Ahka people, but it is not lucky to call them by tliat name.
TJiere are thousands of them to the South. They call them Sidi

* See Mr. W. B. Harris' letter in Preface. The Nubians apply the sume
m^th to the Akkas of £(juatorial Africa, see " fleart of Africa," II, 123.

Baraker. The people like to have them in towna, as they are
lucky and bring good luck. Have seen them at Schedma,
Terudant, and Tazzawalt ; have been forward and backward, to
and from Morocco. I often saw and spoke to an old Sidi Baraker
wlio died at Mogador ten years ago. People passing hini often
kissed his hand or his shoulder. The Moors think it unlucky
to talk about these Barakers. They tell you how to find money,
and know more about tlie stars than other men. The Dra
dwarfs are called Hartani or Haratin ; also Jed-jedi (' The
Fathers of our Fathers ') ; in Shilhach, Jed-ihwa."

When again examined by me he said, that "the outside
people who perform with the Sidi Hamed Moussa, do not
belong to that tribe, who are acrobats from father to son.'
There are dwarfs on the Dra. There must be many thousands
of these dwarfs altogether. One of the ostrich hunters used
often to come to Mogador to sell ostrich feathers. He lived
East of the Dra. Some of the dwarfs are shoemakers and good
smiths. They know more about the stars and hidden treasures
than other men."

-.-i ', <. ■'.:.

>r-

liV-

DWARF RACES AND DWARF WORSHIP.

[Tlie following consists of portions of my paper reocl before the Oriental
Congress, which iippeared in the Times of September 3rd, 181)1. The parts
wliicli referred to early dwarf races in America and tlio West Indies were
not reported, nor that portion which traced tlie wide Hpread belief in the Old
World, and in the New, that the first Creation produced only monstrous or
malformed mortals, to tlio existence of early dwarf races. Tlie evidence which
was relied on as to the existence of dwarfs in the Atlas, und wliich was
submitted in MS8. to the Congress, it now printed for the use of those who may
bo interested in the subject.]

The singular, and at first sight incredible, fact, that the
existence of a race of dwarfs, under four feet high, in the Atlas
Mountains, only a few hundred miles from the Mediterranean,
has for 3,000 years at least been kept a profound secret by the
natives, was first brought to the notice of the scientific world by
a paper of mine, read in my absence, at the Bath meeting of the
British Association in 1888. The information whicli had been
collected by me was confirmed by that subsequently obtaiii'id at
Tlemcjen, Algeria, by Miss Day, and at Tangier by the Eight
Hon. Sir John Drummond Hay ; but it seemed prudent to defer
publishing the pap, v until the point could be cleared up — why
do so many of the Moors dread strangers knowing about this
pygmy race ?

After a lapse of two years I was able to visit that country
early in November last, and remained until June 10, seven
months in all, and during that period managed to collect very
conclusive evidence both from natives and from Europeans who
resided in that country.

In Equatorial Africa it has been observed with interest that
the larger races near the dwarfs resemble them in colour.
In the Dra Valley, South of Mount Atlas, the dwarfs are
called " the Little Haratin." " The Large Haratin " (or, more
properly, " the Larger "), who were known to the ancients as
the Melano-G£etuli, or the Gsetuli-Darse, i.e., Dra-Gsetulians,
have a reddish-black complexion from intermarriages between
the dwarfs and a Nigritian race, or a yellowish colour from a
cross between the dwarfs and light coloured tribes.

The larger Haratin are generally about five feet high, though

many tall men among them are to be found. In Sus, which
lies between the ocean and Dra and Akka, the dwarfs are
called Aglimen, and their offshoots are rather a small race
with a light red complexion, a tribe ol acrobats called Ait Sidi
Hamed Moussa (" the tribe of our Lord Hamed, the son of
Moses "), with whom the dwarfs perform in Southern Morocco,
avoiding the coast towns where Europeans are. These acrobats
from Morocco, who are smiths and tinkers, are, according to
Brugsch Bey (" Egypt under the Pharoahs," vol. I, p. 5), repre-
sented on the monuments of the Fourth Dynasty as performing
in Egypt ! How long previously they had been known to the
Egyptians cannot be conjectured. No doubt centuries, perhaps
thousands of years, nor ie it likely that they limited their
wanderings to Egypt. They probably found their way to the
Southern and Northern shores of the Mediterranean. Troy then
did not exist. The Greeks were savages.

The Sidi Hamed Moussa, who is referred to by Mr. Hunot,
told me an amusing story of an unprofitable performance of his
troupe near a village of Daggata (Black Jews), not far from
Timbuctoo. The acrobats were surprised at nobody coming to
see their performance. But they were still more surprised when
they discovered that the whole population of the place had run
away, believing that the acrobats were jins and imps who were
amusing themselves. This will show what a profound impressioji
must have been made by these acrobats, if they found their way
to Greece at the remote period when they were depicted on the
monuments of Egypt.

The dwarfs of Mount Atlas are called Patiki ("ancestors"),,
Pati or Pata meaning a " father," and may be the dwarfs wh^.^ :
grotesque images were called by the same name — Pataeki,
and the Cabeiric worship of which may have been an importa-
tion from the Phoenician colonies south of Mount Atlas.

It is worthy of note that the scenes of nearly all the earliest
myths of Greece are laid in Mount Atlas (called by the natives
Ida-na-Daurau or Ida-Dran — i.e., Mount Taurus), or in the
Island of Crete, the first landing place for immigrants from
Libya. Many are the traces of that migration in Crete and its
myths. For instance, Ida is a not a Greek but a Shilhach word,
the equivalent of the Latin Mons. There are scores of Idas in

Souc lern Morocco, though few, if any, north of the Great

Atlas. The Greeks may have mistaken the Shilhach word for a
" mountain " for a name, and thus have made their mythology
centre in Mount Ida — i.e., Mount Mons. The caves at its base
became the workshops of mysterious cave dwellers, who
established there their magic forges, and were called Idaei
Dactyli ;* and were so revered that they were included among
the great gods, the Cabeiri, sometimes called in Greek Apatseki.
It is somewhat startling, in this late age, to meet south of
Mount Atlas with original versions of familiar Greek myths.
We may from many others select one which was a very notable
one among mythologists. Mohammed-ben-Ibrahim, a Beni
Bacchar, of Massa in Sus, says, " Theba is to the east of
Paradise Mountain " (a hill near the source of the river Did).
" It was built originally by Kadmon ; Kadmon is the man who
bought the ground by the size of a cow's skin, and who brought
people in boxes to Ta-Punt, and took others back. He was in
the habit of hiding the cows under the ground."

Probably on both sides of the Atlantic tlie ancient dwellings
cut in cliffs were made by dwarfs. Tiie little race to the west
of " the sandy ridge " south of the Atlas, who captured the
Nasimoniau explorers, are called by Herodotus Troglodytes.
The cliffs of the Atlas Mountains are frequently dotted with cave
dwellings which must have been used by a small race, as they
are not more than five feet high. They are now no longer used,
though I am told some of these dwarfs on the river Dora, or
Didoo, in the Bani Mountains, near Tinzone, are still Troglo-
dytes. They were probably the tribe of dwarfs which ancient
writers say owned a remarkably small breed of horses. The
ponies of the dwarfs near the Sahara are famed for their
endurance and speed, and are therefore used by them in hunting
ostriches. Eabbi Juda, a Shilhach Jew, of Ternata, in the
Dra Valley, says, "the little people are not Moslems. It ia
supposed that they worship Didoo Isiri. They keep their feast
by themselves. There are many of them near the Soudan ; the
Arabs fear them and pay to be allowed to pass through their

• The name Dactyl (literally "a finger "), maj have meant a "dwarf," and
have been a synonym of Pi/gmy (literally " a fist ") . Our phrase is " a Hop o'
my Thumb." •■

country." " Their horses can do without water for four days,
and are called dwiminagh Cthey that drink the wind)." {See

also p. 25.)

The dwarfs are very holy men, though they shave their faces,
and do not love the Prophet as much as they should. Some say
that they are Christians ; others assert that they are idolaters and
" worship Didoo Isiri." Sometimes I had little difficulty in getting
the Moors to speak of them, though they have exclaimed with
surprise, "How do you come to know anything about them?"
But superstitious natives, and especially the Haratin living near
Tamanart in the Dra Valley, have often cut short the conversa-
tion on my pressing them to tell me as to the numbers and place
of residence of the dwarfs, &c. One said, "It is a sin to speak
about them to you. I shall say nothing." Others say, *' God
has sent them to us. We must not talk about them." A young
Jew now living in Manchester, but a native of Mogador, said
that the Moors worshipped these Barakers, and would not talk
freely about them to the Jews. He had tried to find out about
them, but without success. He had constantly, when a boy,
seen an old Baraker who died at Mogador about eight or ten
years ago, and who was looked on as a great Saint, and as such
was kissed on the shoulders by the Moors as they passed him in
the street. These dwarfs are supposed to bring good luck to the
towns where they reside, and are guardians and protectors,
resembling in this respect the Palladium of the Trojans. If
strangers were to succeed in carrying them out of the country,
good luck would depart with them. It is probable that some such
superstitious belief was at the bottom of the difficulty which
puzzled and baffled Schweinfurth in his attempt to get a sight
of the dwarf Akkas of the Monbutto country, the king of which
sent away by night his regiment of dwarfs, so as to keep them
out of the way of his visitor.

In Europe and Britain the dwarfs of early ages are re-
membered as smiths, artificers, and magicians, but no one has
conjectured where they can have come from. If the Dra was,
as it is believed by some to have been, a great prehistoric work-
shop, the Birmingham of the Bronze Age, the problem could be
easily settled. The little and the larger Haratin are still great
workers in metal, magicians and potent doctors, whose staple

remedy seems to be safe if not sure. They make little books
which are carried about as charms or are placed in water, which
has marvellous virtues that can cure all the ills that flesh is
heir to. Wherever the Haratin went they must have " astonished
the natives," as they wear a peculiar haik, which has a large
eye on its back, about a yard in length. It is probable that
the earliest traditions of Greece described wandering bands of
masons and smiths as " the men with the eye," which in time
may have become " the men with only one eye " — the Cyclopes.
A khanif such as they wear is now in my possession. The skill
of the modern Cyclops is devoted to sinking deep well,\ The
well-sinkers of Morocco come from the Dra to the cities North
of the Atlas, and are still to be seen wearing their Cyclopean
haik.* In Northern Morocco there is a belief that there is
under the ground a race of little men who can be heard at
work. Two centuries ago it was said that this belief existed
also in Wales. " Eobert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle," in his
work published in 1691 on " The Secret Commonwealth,"
which treats exhaustively of " the subterranean people," their
appearance, habits, dwellings, &c., says (p. 14), "Even English
authors relate of Barry Island, in Glamorganshire, that laying
your ear unto a clift of the rocks, blowing of bellows, striking
of hammers, clashing of armour, filing of iron, will be heard
distinctly ever since Merlin enchanted those subteiTanean
wights to a solid forging of arms for Aurelius Ambrosius and
his Britons, till he returned. Which Merlin being killed in
battell, and not coming to loose the knot, those active Vulcans
are ty'd to a perpetual labour." The mention of these little
Vulcans reminds us that the father of the gods, the oldest of
all, Vulcan or Patah, the eighth of the earliest system of
Egyptian deities, was a Pata^cus, and was represented as a
dwarf. Classical mythology has made Vulcan lame and
deformed, while his workmen "the seven Cyclopes," were
supposed to represent the earliest race of men, those pro-
genitors of mankind whom the Hindoos worship as the Pitris.
If he, the greatest, was a dwarf, the other seven must also have
been dwarfs. What a beginning for the Gods of antiquity — seven
dwarf masons with their Pygmy master-mason ! Well may the

* Dr. Oliver says that the " all-seeing eye " is a Masoniv symbol !

\0^

Haratin boast, as their ancestors, the old Atlantes, did, that
they are the oldest people in the world, and that all other
nations got their gods from them.

The following additional notes may be of interest : —

Professor Sayce in his excellent note on Herodotus, B. Ill,
Ch. 37, says, that Ptah is represented as a dwarf (see also
Eawlinson's and Kenrick's notes) ; and Egyptologists admit,
that the oldest type of the Divinity in Egypt was that of Ftah,
" the Creator " (identified by the Greeks with their Hephaistos,
" the Architect of the Universe ").

He also points out, what I think is a new idea, that from
the name Ptah, or Patah, is derived that of Patceki ; and that
those little known groups of divinities called Patseki or Cabeiri
were sometimes classed togetlier. But th(ire is a confirmation of
his view of the connection of names between Patah and Pata^-ki
in the remarkable fact, that Patah and the Patwki vjerc dwarfs.
Nor was this earliest form of the Godhead, the deification of
Pygmies, confined to Egypt, for Selden says that all the greatest
gods of Palestine and Syria were Patmki, and he shows that
little images of them were supposed to bring safety and good
luck, and were placed on prows of ships by the PhcEuicians,
while the presiding Genius and protector of the banquet table
of the Greeks was an image of a Pygmy Hercules.

Probably in Eome they were the venerated Penates, who
were classed among the Cabeiri, and were household gods
which, under different names, were worshipped among so many
nations of antiquity. It was, perhaps, a feeling that it was
unlucky to speak of these Pygmy Deities, that has thrown a
cloud of mystery over the Cabiric Divinities of antiquity.
Movers, in the first chapter of his Phonizier, says that that
group of deities called Dactyls, Cabiri, Corybantes, and
Cyclopes, were similar to those old Germanic divinities now
known as Kobolds. I had not read this passage when I sug-
gested that they were like our Fairies and Brownies. The
Monbuttoo regard the Akkas " as a sort of benevolent spirits or
mandrakes who are in no way detrimental." {See " Heart of
Africa," ii, 145.) A reference to Mr. MacRitchie's interesting
little work, " The Testimony of Tradition " (Paul, Trench, and
Co., 1890), pp. l'^l-137, shows that the memory of a dwarf

race of smiths was once reverenced by the Irish, whose old "God
of the Bru of the Boyne," seems to have been a Vulcan.

The seven companions of Vulcan, his masons or workmen,
the Seven Cyclopes, who, as we have seen, are included among
the dwarf Pataeki, derived their name from their having had
only one eye each. The same myth is related about the
Arimaspi, and they too, strange to say, were workers in metals
or a mining race ; and is still told, as we have seen {see Preface
and p. 33), of the dwarfs both of Equatorial Akka and of Akka
in the Southern Atlas. Writers on the the Isle of Man and the
Highlands seem to agree that the Fairies represent an extinct
dwarf race. Mr. MacEitchie seeks for existing representatives
of it among the Eskimo, Laplanders, and even the distant Ainos.
It is possible that we may find some survivals of this race of
dwarfs without going as far North as tlie Arctic regions, or as
far South as the Albert Nyanza or the Congo.

We need not regard with incredulity, or " with a disdainful
smile," the veneration of the Moors and of the Monbuttoo for
these dwarfs, for the very same superstition still exists among
some of our peasantry, though it is now between one and two
thousand years, at least, since the dwarf race in Britain died out,
and was represented by " the Little People," that haunt the
fairy "brows," or mounds of Wales and Ireland. "I am a
"Welshman," writes Professor Sayce, September 27th, " and was
brought up in a Walsh village, so I know that the Kelts do not
like to mention the fairies. My own nurse's brother had been
carried off to fairy-land for a year. Do not forget that the
Basques have a Cyclops myth of the one-eyed Tartaroa. You
will find the picture of a dwarf from the 12th Dynasty Tombs
of Beni-Hassen, given in Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians "
(Birch's Edition), ii, 70."

If any practical joker were to visit (after due notice of
his coming and its professed object), all the " fairy mounds "
in secluded districts in Wales and Ireland, and were to pretend
to go through a form of exorcising and banishing " the Good
People " from their ancient homes, he would create a storm
among the peasantry that would rather astonish him.

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IiONDON :

HAHBISOir AND SONS, PBINTBRS IN OBDINABY TO HBB KAJKSTT,

ST. MABTIN's LANE.

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