Dwarf

Dwarf, a human being considerably below the normal height. Supernatural dwarfs playa great part in mythology and folk-lore. [Elves, Gnomes, Pigmies, Fairies.] Thus in Norse and German legends they are cunning miners and metal-workers, living among the rocks, and often entering into various relations with mortals. It is very probable that such stories may embody reminiscences of some prehistoric race of small stature, whom the entrance of later races into Europe drove to the woods and mountains (cf. the wood Veddahs of Ceylon). Reports of dwarf-races are common [Pigmies], and the existence of the Bushmen and Akkas (the dwarfs who hampered Stanley so seriously in his latest expedition) indicates that they have a basis on fact. Dwarfs as cases of arrested growth are not unfrequent among races of normal height. There are records of a very doubtful character of adults below 2 feet in height; but there are many certainly ascertained cases below 3 ft. 4 in. The dwarf Richebourg (see below) was only 24 in. in height. About 90 years ago two women, "the Corsican Fairy "and "the Irish Fairy," were exhibited in London; the latter, 34 in., died in childbirth. A Dutch dwarf, 28 in. in height, was exhibited in London about 1815. At birth, of course, many dwarfs have been much smaller - e.g. the Pole Borulawski was 8 in. long at birth, and was taken lo his christening on a plate. In court and social life dwarfs have sometimes been conspicuous figures - e.y. in the households of the Roman Emperors Augustine, Tiberius, and Domitian, and of many distinguished Romans under the Empire, as also in various European courts during the 16th and to the end of the 18th century. Thus Jeffery Hudson, originally one of the Duke of Buckingham's suite, became court dwarf to Charles I. Important foreign missions were sometimes entrusted to him, but he is best known from the fact that he killed a courtier in a duel. He is said to have been only 18 in. high at 30, but he grew afterwards. Richebourg, who had been in the service of the Orleans family, died in 1858 at the age of 90. Dressed as a baby he had once served as the vehicle of important despatches. The Polish dwarf, Count Joseph Borulawski, who led a life of considerable variety in the suite of Polish noblemen, was well known in Paris about 1775. Probably General Tom Thumb (Charles S. Stratton) is the best-known of modern dwarfs. Born at Bridgeport, U.S., in 1832, he was exhibited by P."'f. Barnum in 1842, and visited Europe in 1844. He married another dwarf (Lavinia Warren, of Midcllesbro", Mass.) in 1863 under the auspices of his showman, in New York. The wedding and the presents were fit for a princess. The pair, with the bride's sister, Minnie Warren, Commodore Nntt, and their baby, visited Europe in 1865. "The General" made a large fortune, but having (it was said) been unfortunate, revisited England some years ago: All these were perfectly formed. The baby died at two years old. A "miniature wedding" of the same kind took place at Charles I.'s court (the pair had several children. those who grew up reaching a normal stature), and another at the court of Catherine of Russia. While giants are usually good-tempered, slow, and somewhat feeble-minded, dwarfs are said to be ordineirily quick, irritable, and spiteful.