Kathy Rogers, age 8, of Des Moines, Iowa, for her question:

Are pygmies real?

Some people claim that pixies and pookahs are not real. They also say that elves and other small people of fairyland are not real either. But everybody admits that the little pygmy people are real. Even the stern minded folk who have never seen a pygmy. Perhaps this is because they have seen pictures of the pygmies in their leafy jungle homes. Or perhaps they believe in pygmies because some genuine expert went there and saw them, came back and reported the facts.

Andy says that it's too bad more people refuse to believe that elves are not real. After all, he happens to be a pookah type pixie and related to all the other small folk of fairyland. But, says he, you can't have everything. Many children know the truth  ¬and send him lots of letters and questions every week. The birds and the bunnies also know the truth. So do all the other creatures that live in the wilds. And most likely, so do the real live pygmy people who live in the real live world.

Not many ordinary folk ever get a chance to meet the real live pygmies. This is because these little people live quiet lives in the hot, steamy jungles of Africa. There the bushes are so thick that ordinary  sized grown ups have a hard time getting through. But even the tallest pygmies are only about 4 1/2 feet high and most of them are no bigger than you are. They are rather shy and when large visitors scare them they scoot away and hide    where big people cannot follow them.

It was a long time before friendly explorers coaxed them out of hiding. Then the big people and little people got to know and like each other. Their skins are golden tan and their curly hair is reddish brown. They have big bright eyes, huge smiles and their heads seen rather large for such small persons. Most of them wear short skirts or breeches. After all, they don't need any clothes in their warm, shady jungles.

Visitors who knew them say that the little people are happy and much too polite to lie, or steal or pick a fight. They are quick to understand    but they don't pay attention very long. Perhaps they are not very interested in things that happen in the outside world. They would rather wander together through their jungle, hunting and fishing and picking f ruin, from the trees. Several f rien~ families wander together, guided by a pygmy papa whom everyone trusts. When food is plentiful, they stay in a place for a while. Then they build pygmy sized hodses of bent boughs, covered over with leaves. While they camp, they have time to make new bows and arrows and bake a few earthenware pots to replace those that have been broken. They also gather grasses and vines to weave some new baskets, bags and maybe a few new mini skirts.

Experts figure that about 180,000 pygmies live in the Congo jungles of Af rica.

But they are not the only pygmies in the world. Others live in the jungles of New Guinea, Malaysia and on a few islands near India. Others live in certain forests of the Philippines. These separated pygmies never meet. But all of them are very much alike. All of them worship a Great God who created the earth and the sky. All of them love the world of nature    and believe that there are all sorts of magical mysteries around, wondrous things that may or may not be real.