{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12850/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12850","id":"gutenberg_12850","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12850","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Dwarfs (Persons)","Fairies","Pygmies"],"text":"A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY CONCERNING THE PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS\n\nBy\n\nEDWARD TYSON\n\nNow Edited, with an Introduction by Bertram C. A. Windle\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTO MY DEAR MOTHER\n\n\n\nPREFATORY NOTE\n\n\nIt is only necessary for me to state here, what I have mentioned in the\nIntroduction, that my account of the habits of the Pigmy races of legend\nand myth makes no pretence of being in any sense a complete or exhaustive\naccount of the literature of this subject. I have contented myself with\nbringing forward such tales as seemed of value for the purpose of\nestablishing the points upon which I desire to lay emphasis.\n\nI have elsewhere expressed my obligations to M. De Quatrefage's book on\nPigmies, obligations which will be at once recognised by those familiar\nwith that monograph. To his observations I have endeavoured to add such\nother published facts as I have been able to gather in relation to these\npeoples.\n\nI have to thank Professors Sir William Turner, Haddon, Schlegel, Brinton,\nand Topinard for their kindness in supplying me with information in\nresponse to my inquiries on several points.\n\nFinally, I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Alexander\nMacalister, President of the Anthropological Institute, and to Mr. E.\nSidney Hartland, for their kindness in reading through, the former the\nfirst two sections, and the latter the last two sections of the\nIntroduction, and for the valuable suggestions which both have made. These\ngentlemen have laid me under obligations which I can acknowledge, but\ncannot repay.\n\nBERTRAM C. A. WINDLE.\n\nMASON COLLEGE,\n\nBIRMINGHAM, 1894.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\n\nI.\n\n\nEdward Tyson, the author of the Essay with which this book is concerned,\nwas, on the authority of Monk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians,\nborn, according to some accounts, at Bristol, according to others, at\nClevedon, co. Somerset, but was descended from a family which had long\nsettled in Cumberland. He was educated at Magdalene Hall, Oxford, as a\nmember of which he proceeded Bachelor of Arts on the 8th of February 1670,\nand Master of Arts on the 4th of November 1673. His degree of Doctor of\nMedicine he took at Cambridge in 1678 as a member of Corpus Christi\nCollege. Dr. Tyson was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians\non the 30th of September 1680, and a Fellow in April 1683. He was Censor\nof the College in 1694, and held the appointments of Physician to the\nHospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, and of Anatomical Reader at Surgeons'\nHall. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed several papers\nto the \"Philosophical Transactions.\" Besides a number of anatomical works,\nhe published in 1699 \"A Philosophical Essay concerning the Rhymes of the\nAncients,\" and in the same year the work by which his name is still known,\nin which the Philological Essay which is here reprinted finds a place.\nTyson died on the 1st of August 1708, in the fifty-eighth year of his age,\nand is buried at St. Dionis Backchurch. He was the original of the Carus\nnot very flatteringly described in Garth's \"Dispensary.\"\n\nThe title-page of the work above alluded to runs as follows:--\n\n_Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris_:\n\nOR, THE ANATOMY OF A PYGMIE\n\nCompared with that of a _Monkey_, an _Ape_, and a _Man_.\n\nTo which is added, A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY Concerning the _Pygmies_, the\n_Cynocephali_, the _Satyrs_, and _Sphinges_ of the ANCIENTS.\n\nWherein it will appear that they are all either _APES_ or _MONKEYS_, and\nnot _MEN_, as formerly pretended.\n\nBy _EDWARD TYSON_ M.D.\n\nFellow of the Colledge of Physicians, and the Royal Society: Physician to\nthe Hospital of _Bethlem_, and Reader of Anatomy at _Chirurgeons-Hall_.\n\n_LONDON_:\n\nPrinted for _Thomas Bennet_ at the _Half-Moon in St. Paul's_ Church-yard;\nand _Daniel Brown_ at the _Black Swan_ and _Bible_ without _Temple-Bar_\nand are to be had of Mr. _Hunt_ at the _Repository_ in _Gresham-Colledge_.\nM DC XCIX.\n\nIt bears the authority of the Royal Society:--\n\n17\u00b0 _Die Maij_, 1699.\n\nImprimatur Liber cui Titulus, _Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris,_ &c.\nAuthore _Edvardo Tyson_, M.D. R.S.S.\n\nJOHN HOSKINS, _V.P.R.S_.\n\nThe Pygmy described in this work was, as a matter of fact, a chimpanzee,\nand its skeleton is at this present moment in the Natural History Museum\nat South Kensington. Tyson's granddaughter married a Dr. Allardyce, who\nwas a physician of good standing in Cheltenham. The \"Pygmie\" formed a\nsomewhat remarkable item of her dowry. Her husband presented it to the\nCheltenham Museum, where it was fortunately carefully preserved until,\nquite recently, it was transferred to its present position.\n\nAt the conclusion of the purely scientific part of the work the author\nadded four Philological Essays, as will have appeared from his title-page.\nThe first of these is both the longest and the most interesting, and has\nalone been selected for republication in this volume.\n\nThis is not the place to deal with the scientific merit of the main body\nof Tyson's work, but it may at least be said that it was the first attempt\nwhich had been made to deal with the anatomy of any of the anthropoid\napes, and that its execution shows very conspicuous ability on the part of\nits author.\n\nTyson, however, was not satisfied with the honour of being the author of\nan important morphological work; he desired to round off his subject by\nconsidering its bearing upon the, to him, wild and fabulous tales\nconcerning pigmy races. The various allusions to these races met with in\nthe pages of the older writers, and discussed in his, were to him what\nfairy tales are to us. Like modern folk-lorists, he wished to explain,\neven to euhemerise them, and bring them into line with the science of his\nday. Hence the \"Philological Essay\" with which this book is concerned.\nThere are no pigmy races, he says; \"the most diligent enquiries of late\ninto all the parts of the inhabited world could never discover any such\npuny diminutive race of mankind.\" But there are tales about them, \"fables\nand wonderful and merry relations, that are transmitted down to us\nconcerning them,\" which surely require explanation. That explanation he\nfound in his theory that all the accounts of pigmy tribes were based upon\nthe mistakes of travellers who had taken apes for men. Nor was he without\nfollowers in his opinion; amongst whom here need only be mentioned Buffon,\nwho in his _Histoire des Oiseaux_ explains the Homeric tale much as Tyson\nhad done. The discoveries, however, of this century have, as all know,\nre-established in their essential details the accounts of the older\nwriters, and in doing so have demolished the theories of Tyson and Buffon.\nWe now know, not merely that there are pigmy races in existence, but that\nthe area which they occupy is an extensive one, and in the remote past has\nwithout doubt been more extensive still. Moreover, certain of these races\nhave been, at least tentatively, identified with the pigmy tribes of\nPliny, Herodotus, Aristotle, and other writers. It will be well, before\nconsidering this question, and before entering into any consideration of\nthe legends and myths which may possibly be associated with dwarf races,\nto sketch briefly their distribution throughout the continents of the\nglobe. It is necessary to keep clearly in view the upper limit which can\njustly be assigned to dwarfishness, and with this object it may be\nadvisable to commence with a statement as to the average heights reached\nby various representative peoples. According to Topinard, the races of the\nworld may be classified, in respect to their stature, in the following\nmanner:--\n\nTall                  5 ft. 8 in. and upwards.\nAbove the average     5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 8 in.\nBelow the average     5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in.\nShort                 Below 5 ft. 4 in.\n\nThus amongst ordinary peoples there is no very striking difference of\nheight, so far as the average is concerned. It would, however, be a great\nmistake to suppose that all races reaching a lower average height than\nfive feet four inches are, in any accurate sense of the word, to be looked\nupon as pigmies. We have to descend to a considerably lower figure before\nthat appellation can be correctly employed. The stature must fall\nconsiderably below five feet before we can speak of the race as one of\ndwarfs or pigmies. Anthropometrical authorities have not as yet agreed\nupon any upward limit for such a class, but for our present purposes it\nmay be convenient to say that any race in which the average male stature\ndoes not exceed four feet nine inches--that is, the average height of a\nboy of about twelve years of age--may fairly be described as pigmy. It is\nmost important to bear this matter of inches in mind in connection with\npoints which will have to be considered in a later section.\n\nPigmy races still exist in considerable numbers in Asia and the adjacent\nislands, and as it was in that continent that, so far as our present\nknowledge goes, they had in former days their greatest extension, and, if\nDe Quatrefages be correct, their place of origin, it will be well to deal\nfirst with the tribes of that quarter of the globe. \"The Negrito\" (_i.e._,\npigmy black) \"type,\" says the authority whom I have just quoted, and to\nwhom I shall have to be still further indebted,[A] \"was first placed in\nSouth Asia, which it without doubt occupied alone during an indeterminate\nperiod. It is thence that its diverse representatives have radiated, and,\nsome going east, some west, have given rise to the black populations of\nMelanesia and Africa. In particular, India and Indo-China first belonged\nto the blacks. Invasions and infiltrations of different yellow or white\nraces have split up these Negrito populations, which formerly occupied a\ncontinuous area, and mixing with them, have profoundly altered them. The\npresent condition of things is the final result of strifes and mixtures,\nthe most ancient of which may be referred back to prehistoric times.\" The\ninvasions above mentioned having in the past driven many of the races from\nthe mainland to the islands, and those which remained on the continent\nhaving undergone greater modification by crossing with taller and alien\nraces, we may expect to find the purest Negritos amongst the tribes\ninhabiting the various archipelagoes situated south and east of the\nmainland. Amongst these, the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands offer a\nconvenient starting-point. The knowledge which we possess of these little\nblacks is extensive, thanks to the labours in particular of Mr. Man[B] and\nDr. Dobson,[C] which may be found in the Journal of the Anthropological\nInstitute, and summarised in De Quatrefages' work. The average stature of\nthe males of this race is four feet six inches, the height of a boy of ten\nyears of age. Like children, the head is relatively large in comparison\nwith the stature, since it is contained seven times therein, instead of\nseven and a half times, as is the rule amongst most average-sized peoples.\nWhilst speaking of the head, it may be well to mention that these\nNegritos, and in greater or less measure other Negritos and Negrillos\n(_i.e._, pigmy blacks, Asiatic or African), differ in this part of the\nbody in a most important respect from the ordinary African negro. Like\nhim, they are black, often intensely so: like him, too, they have woolly\nhair arranged in tufts, but, unlike him, they have round (brachycephalic)\nheads instead of long (dolichocephalic); and the purer the race, the more\nmarked is this distinction. The Mincopie has a singularly short life; for\nthough he attains puberty at much the same age as ourselves, the\ntwenty-second year brings him to middle life, and the fiftieth, if\nreached, is a period of extreme senility. Pure in race, ancient in\nhistory, and carefully studied, this race deserves some further attention\nhere than can be extended to others with which I have to deal. The moral\nside of the Mincopies seems to be highly developed; the modesty of the\nyoung girls is most strict; monogamy is the rule, and--\n\n  \"Their list of forbidden degrees\n   An extensive morality shows,\"\n\nsince even the marriage of cousins-german is considered highly immoral.\n\"Men and women,\" says Man, \"are models of constancy.\" They believe in a\nSupreme Deity, respecting whom they say, that \"although He resembles fire,\nHe is invisible; that He was never born, and is immortal; that He created\nthe world and all animate and inanimate objects, save only the powers of\nevil. During the day He knows everything, even the thoughts of the mind;\nHe is angry when certain sins are committed, and full of pity for the\nunfortunate and miserable, whom He sometimes condescends to assist. He\njudges souls after death, and pronounces on each a sentence which sends\nthem to paradise or condemns them to a kind of purgatory. The hope of\nescaping the torments of this latter place influences their conduct.\nPuluga, this Deity, inhabits a house of stone; when it rains, He descends\nupon the earth in search of food; during the dry weather He is asleep.\"\nBesides this Deity, they believe in numerous evil spirits, the chief of\nwhom is the Demon of the Woods. These spirits have created themselves, and\nhave existed _ab immemorabili_. The sun, which is a female, and the moon,\nher husband, are secondary deities.\n\n[Footnote A: The quotations from this author are taken from his work _Les\nPygm\u00e9es_. Paris, J.B. Bailli\u00e8re et Fils, 1887.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., vii.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Ibid_., iv.]\n\nSouth of the Andaman Islands are the Nicobars, the aborigines of which,\nthe Shom Pen,[A] now inhabit the mountains, where, like so many of their\nbrethren, they have been driven by the Malays. They are of small, but not\npigmy stature (five feet two inches), a fact which may be due to crossing.\n\n[Footnote A: Man, _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, xviii. p. 354.]\n\nFollowing the Negritos east amongst the islands, we find in Luzon the\nAetas or Inagtas, a group of which is known in Mindanao as Manamouas. The\nAetas live side by side with the Tagals, who are of Malay origin. They\nwere called Negritos del Monte by the Spaniards who first colonised these\nislands. Their average stature, according to Wallace, ranges from four\nfeet six inches to four feet eight inches. In New Guinea, the Karons, a\nsimilar race, occupy a chain of mountains parallel to the north coast of\nthe great north-western peninsula. At Port Moresby, in the same island,\nthe Koiari appear to represent the most south-easterly group; but my\nfriend Professor Haddon, who has investigated this district, tells me that\nhe finds traces of a former existence of Negritos at Torres Straits and in\nNorth Queensland, as shown by the shape of the skulls of the inhabitants\nof these regions.\n\nThe Malay Peninsula contains in Perak hill tribes called \"savages\" by the\nSakays. These tribes have not been seen by Europeans, but are stated to be\npigmy in stature, troglodytic, and still in the Stone Age. Farther south\nare the Semangs of Kedah, with an average stature of four feet ten inches,\nand the Jakuns of Singapore, rising to five feet. The Annamites admit that\nthey are not autochthonous, a distinction which they confer upon the Mo\u00efs,\nof whom little is known, but whose existence and pigmy Negrito\ncharacteristics are considered by De Quatrefages as established.\n\nChina no longer, so far as we know, contains any representatives of this\ntype, but Professor Lacouperie[A] has recently shown that they formerly\nexisted in that part of Asia. According to the annals of the Bamboo Books,\n\"In the twenty-ninth year of the Emperor Yao, in spring, the chief of the\nTsiao-Yao, or dark pigmies, came to court and offered as tribute feathers\nfrom the Mot.\" The Professor continues, \"As shown by this entry, we begin\nwith the semi-historic times as recorded in the 'Annals of the Bamboo\nBooks,' and the date about 2048 B.C. The so-called feathers were simply\nsome sort of marine plant or seaweed with which the immigrant Chinese,\nstill an inland people, were yet unacquainted. The Mot water or river,\nsays the Shan-hai-king, or canonical book of hills and seas, was situated\nin the south-east of the Tai-shan in Shan-tung. This gives a clue to the\nlocalisation of the pigmies, and this localisation agrees with the\npositive knowledge we possess of the small area which the Chinese dominion\ncovered at this time. Thus the Negritos were part of the native population\nof China when, in the twenty-third century B.C., the civilised Bak tribes\ncame into the land.\" In Japan we have also evidence of their existence.\nThis country, now inhabited by the Niphonians, or Japanese, as we have\ncome to call them, was previously the home of the Ainu, a white, hairy\nunder-sized race, possibly, even probably, emigrants from Europe, and now\ngradually dying out in Yezo and the Kurile Islands. Prior to the Ainu was\na Negrito race, whose connection with the former is a matter of much\ndispute, whose remains in the shape of pit-dwellings, stone arrow-heads,\npottery, and other implements still exist, and will be found fully\ndescribed by Mr. Savage Landor in a recent most interesting work.[B] In\nthe Shan-hai-king, as Professor Schlegel[C] points out, their country is\nspoken of as the Siao-jin-Kouo, or land of little men, in distinction, be\nit noted, to the Peh-min-Kouo, or land of white people, identified by him\nwith the Ainu. These little men are spoken of by the Ainu as\nKoro-puk-guru, _i.e._, according to Milne, men occupying excavations, or\npit-dwellers. According to Chamberlain, the name means dwellers under\nburdocks, and is associated with the following legend. Before the time of\nthe Ainu, Yezo was inhabited by a race of dwarfs, said by some to be two\nto three feet, by others only one inch in height. When an enemy\napproached, they hid themselves under the great leaves of the burdock\n(_koro_), for which reason they are called Koro-puk-guru, i.e., the men\nunder the burdocks. When they were exterminated by the wooden clubs of the\nAinu, they raised their eyes to heaven, and, weeping, cried aloud to the\ngods, \"Why were we made so small?\" It should be said that Professor\nSchlegel and Mr. Savage Landor both seem to prefer the former etymology.\n\n[Footnote A: Babylonian and Oriental Record, vol. v.]\n\n[Footnote B: Alone with the Hairy Ainu.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Probl\u00e8mes G\u00e9ographiques. Les Peuples Etrangers chez les\nHistoriens Chinois_. Extrait du T'oung-pao, vol. _iv_. No. 4. Leide, E.J.\nBrill.]\n\nPassing to the north-west of the Andamans, we find in India a problem of\nconsiderable difficulty. That there were at one period numerous Negrito\ntribes inhabiting that part of Asia is indubitable; that some of them\npersist to this day in a state of approximate purity is no less true, but\nthe influence of crossing has here been most potent. Races of lighter hue\nand taller stature have invaded the territory of the Negritos, to a\ncertain extent intermarried with them, and thus have originated the\nvarious Dravidian tribes. These tribes, therefore, afford us a valuable\nclue as to the position occupied in former days by their ancestors, the\nNegritos.\n\nIn some of the early Indian legends, De Quatrefages thinks that he finds\ntraces of these prehistoric connections between the indigenous Negrito\ntribes and their invaders. The account of the services rendered to Rama by\nH\u00e2numan and his monkey-people may, he thinks, easily be explained by\nsupposing the latter to be a Negrito tribe. Another tale points to unions\nof a closer nature between the alien races. Bhimasena, after having\nconquered and slain Hidimba, at first resisted the solicitations of the\nsister of this monster, who, having become enamoured of him, presented\nherself under the guise of a lovely woman. But at the wish of his elder\nbrother, Youdhichshira, the king of justice, and with the consent of his\nmother, he yielded, and passed some time in the dwelling of this Negrito\nor Dravidian Armida.\n\nIt will now be necessary to consider some of these races more or less\ncrossed with alien blood.\n\nIn the centre of India, amongst the Vindyah Mountains, live the Djangals\nor Bandra-Lokhs, the latter name signifying man-monkey, and thus\nassociating itself with the tale of Rama, above alluded to. Like most of\nthe Dravidian tribes, they live in great misery, and show every sign of\ntheir condition in their attenuated figures. One of this tribe measured by\nRousselet was five feet in height. It may here be remarked that the\nstature of the Dravidian races exceeds that of the purer Negritos, a fact\ndue, no doubt, to the influence of crossing. Farther south, in the\nNilgherry Hills, and in the neighbourhood of the Todas and Badagas, dwell\nthe Kurumbas. and Irulas (children of darkness). Both are weak and\ndwarfish, the latter especially so. They inhabit, says Walhouse,[A] the\nmost secluded, densely wooded fastnesses of the mountain slopes. They are\nby popular tradition connected with the aboriginal builders of the rude\nstone monuments of the district, though, according to the above-mentioned\nauthority, without any claim to such distinction. They, however, worship\nat these cromlechs from time to time, and are associated with them in\nanother interesting manner. \"The Kurumbas of Nulli,\" says Walhouse, \"one\nof the wildest Nilgherry declivities, come up annually to worship at one\nof the dolmens on the table-land above, in which they say one of their old\ngods resides. Though they are regarded with fear and hatred as sorcerers\nby the agricultural B[)a]d[)a]gas of the table-land, one of them must,\nnevertheless, at sowing-time be called to guide the first plough for two\nor three yards, and go through a mystic pantomime of propitiation to the\nearth deity, without which the crop would certainly fail. When so\nsummoned, the Kurumba must pass the night by the dolmens alone, and I have\nseen one who had been called from his present dwelling for the morning\nceremony, sitting after dark on the capstone of a dolmen, with heels and\nhams drawn together and chin on knees, looking like some huge ghostly fowl\nperched on the mysterious stone.\" Mr. Gomme has drawn attention to this\nand other similar customs in the interesting remarks which he makes upon\nthe influence of conquered non-Aryan races upon their Aryan subduers.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vii. 21.]\n\n[Footnote B: Ethnology and Folk-Lore, p. 46; The Village Community, p.\n105.]\n\nFarther south, in Ceylon, the Veddahs live, whom Bailey[A] considers to be\nidentical with the hill-tribes of the mainland, though, if this be true,\nsome at least must have undergone a large amount of crossing, judging from\nthe wavy nature of their hair. The author just quoted says, \"The tallest\nVeddah I ever saw, a man so towering above his fellows that, till I\nmeasured him, I believed him to be not merely comparatively a tall man,\nwas only five feet three inches in height. The shortest man I have\nmeasured was four feet one inch. I should say that of males the ordinary\nheight is from four feet six inches to five feet one inch, and of females\nfrom four feet four inches to four feet eight inches.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Trans. Ethn. Soc._, ii. 278.]\n\nIn the east the Santals inhabit the basin of the Ganges, and in the west\nthe Jats belong to the Punjab, and especially to the district of the\nIndus. The Kols inhabit the delta of the Indus and the neighbourhood of\nGujerat, and stretch almost across Central India into Behar and the\neastern extremities of the Vindhya Mountains. Other Dravidian tribes are\nthe Oraons, Jouangs, Buihers, and Gounds. All these races have a stature\nof about five feet, and, though much crossed, present more or less marked\nNegrito characteristics. Passing farther west, the Brahouis of\nBeluchistan, a Dravidian race, who regard themselves as the aboriginal\ninhabitants, live side by side with the Belutchis. Finally, in this\ndirection, there seem to have been near Lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito\ntribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the historic black\nguard of the ancient kings of Susiana.\n\nAn examination of the present localisation of these remnants of the\nNegrito inhabitants shows how they have been split up, amalgamated with,\nor driven to the islands by the conquering invaders. An example of what\nhas taken place may be found in the case of Borneo, where Negritos still\nexist in the centre of the island. The Dyaks chase them like wild beasts,\nand shoot down the children, who take refuge in the trees. This will not\nseem in the least surprising to those who have studied the history of the\nrelation between autochthonous races and their invaders. It is the same\nstory that has been told of the Anglo-Saxon race in its dealings with\naborigines in America, and notably, in our case, in Tasmania.\n\nTurning from Asia to a continent more closely associated, at least in\npopular estimation, with pigmy races, we find in Africa several races of\ndwarf men, of great antiquity and surpassing interest. The discoveries of\nStanley, Schweinfurth, Miani, and others have now placed at our disposal\nvery complete information respecting the pigmies of the central part of\nthe continent, with whom it will, therefore, be convenient to make a\ncommencement. These pigmies appear to be divided into two tribes, which,\nthough similar in stature, and alike distinguished by the characteristic\nof attaching themselves to some larger race of natives, yet present\nconsiderable points of difference, so much so as to cause Mr. Stanley to\nsay that they are as unlike as a Scandinavian is to a Turk. \"Scattered,\"\nsays the same authority,[A] \"among the Baless\u00e9, between Ipoto and Mount\nPisgah, and inhabiting the land between the Ngaiyu and Ituri rivers, a\nregion equal in area to about two-thirds of Scotland, are the Wambutti,\nvariously called Batwa, Akka, and Bazungu. These people are under-sized\nnomads, dwarfs or pigmies, who live in the uncleared virgin forest, and\nsupport themselves on game, which they are very expert in catching. They\nvary in height from three feet to four feet six inches. A full-grown adult\nmay weigh ninety pounds. They plant their village camps three miles around\na tribe of agricultural aborigines, the majority of whom are fine stalwart\npeople. They use poisoned arrows, with which they kill elephants, and they\ncapture other kinds of game by the use of traps.\"\n\n[Footnote A: In Darkest Africa, vol. ii. p. 92.]\n\nThe two groups are respectively called Batwa and Wambutti. The former\ninhabit the northern parts of the above-mentioned district, the latter the\nsouthern. The former have longish heads, long narrow faces, and small\nreddish eyes set close together, whilst the latter have round faces and\nopen foreheads, gazelle-like eyes, set far apart, and rich yellow ivory\ncomplexion. Their bodies are covered with stiffish grey short hair. Two\nfurther quotations from the same source may be given to convey an idea to\nthose ignorant of the original work, if such there be, of the appearances\nof these dwarfs. Speaking of the queen of a tribe of pigmies, Stanley\nsays,[A] \"She was brought in to see me, with three rings of polished iron\naround her neck, the ends of which were coiled like a watch-spring. Three\niron rings were suspended to each ear. She is of a light-brown complexion\nwith broad round face, large eyes, and small but full lips. She had a\nquiet modest demeanour, though her dress was but a narrow fork clout of\nbark cloth. Her height is about four feet four inches, and her age may be\nnineteen or twenty. I notice when her arms are held against the light a\nwhity-brown fell on them. Her skin has not that silky smoothness of touch\ncommon to the Zanzibaris, but altogether she is a very pleasing little\ncreature.\" To this female portrait may be subjoined one of a male aged\nprobably twenty-one years and four feet in height.[B] \"His colour was\ncoppery, the fell over the body was almost furry, being nearly half an\ninch long, and his hands were very delicate. On his head he wore a bonnet\nof a priestly form, decorated with a bunch of parrot feathers, and a broad\nstrip of bark covered his nakedness.\"\n\n[Footnote A: In Darkest Africa, vol. i. p. 345.]\n\n[Footnote B: Ibid., ii. 40.]\n\nJephson states[A] that he found continual traces of them from 270 30' E.\nlong., a few miles above the Equator, up to the edge of the great forest,\nfive days' march from Lake Albert. He also says that they are a hardy\ndaring race, always ready for war, and are much feared by their\nneighbours. As soon as a party of dwarfs makes its appearance near a\nvillage, the chief hastens to propitiate them by presents of corn and such\nvegetables as he possesses. They never exceed four feet one inch in\nheight, he informs us, and adds a characteristic which has not been\nmentioned by Stanley, one, too, which is very remarkable when it is\nremembered how scanty is the facial hair of the Negros and Negritos--the\nmen have often very long beards. The southern parts of the continent are\noccupied by the Bushmen, who are vigorous and agile, of a stature ranging\nfrom four feet six inches to four feet nine inches, and sufficiently well\nknown to permit me to pass over them without further description. The\nsmallest woman of this race who has been measured was only three feet\nthree inches in height, and Barrow examined one, who was the mother of\nseveral children, with a stature of three feet eight inches. The Akoas of\nthe Gaboon district were a race of pigmies who, now apparently extinct,\nformerly dwelt on the north of the Nazareth River. A male of this tribe\nwas photographed and measured by the French Admiral Fleuriot de l'Angle.\nHis age was about forty and his stature four feet six inches.\n\n[Footnote A: Emm Pasha, p. 367, et seq.]\n\nFlower[A] says that \"another tribe, the M'Boulous, inhabiting the coast\nnorth of the Gaboon River, have been described by M. Marche as probably\nthe primitive race of the country. They live in little villages, keeping\nentirely to themselves, though surrounded by the larger Negro tribes,\nM'Pongos and Bakalais, who are encroaching upon them so closely that their\nnumbers are rapidly diminishing. In 1860 they were not more than 3000; in\n1879 they were much less numerous. They are of an earthy-brown colour, and\nrarely exceed five feet three inches in height. Another group living\nbetween the Gaboon and the Congo, in Ashangoland, a male of which measured\nfour feet six inches, has been described by Du Chaillu.\"\n\nIn Loango there is a tribe called Babonko, which was described by Battell\nin 1625, in the work entitled \"Purchas his Pilgrimes,\" in the following\nterms:--\"To the north-east of Mani-Kesock are a kind of little people\ncalled Matimbas; which are no bigger than boyes of twelve yeares old, but\nvery thicke, and live only upon flesh, which they kill in the woods with\ntheir bows and darts. They pay tribute to Mani-Kesock, and bring all their\nelephants' teeth and tayles to him. They will not enter into any of the\nMaramba's houses, nor will suffer any one to come where they dwell. And if\nby chance any Maramba or people of Longo pass where they dwell, they will\nforsake that place and go to another. The women carry bows and arrows as\nwell as the men. And one of these will walk in the woods alone and kill\nthe Pongos with their poysoned arrows.\" It is somewhat surprising that\nTyson, who gives in his essay (p. 80) the account of the same people\npublished at a later date (1686) by Dapper, should have missed his\nfellow-countryman's narrative. The existence of this tribe has been\nestablished by a German expedition, one of the members of which, Dr.\nFalkenstein, photographed and measured an adult male whose stature was\nfour feet six inches.\n\nKrapf[A] states that in the south of Schoa, in a part of Abyssinia as yet\nunworked, the Dokos live, who are not taller than four feet. According to\nhis account, they are of a dark olive colour, with thick prominent lips,\nflat noses, small eyes, and long flowing hair. They have no dwellings,\ntemples, holy trees, chiefs, or weapons, live on roots and fruit, and are\nignorant of fire. Another group was described by Mollieu in 1818 as\ninhabiting Tenda-Mai\u00e9, near the Rio Grande, but very little is known about\nthem. In a work entitled \"The Dwarfs of Mount Atlas,\" Halliburton[B] has\nbrought forward a number of statements to prove that a tribe of dwarfs,\nnamed like those of Central Africa, Akkas, of a reddish complexion and\nwith short woolly hair, live in the district adjoining Soos. These dwarfs\nhave been alluded to by Harris and D\u00f6nnenburg,[C] but Mr. Harold Crichton\nBrowne,[D] who has explored neighbouring districts, is of opinion that\nthere is no such tribe, and that the accounts of them have been based upon\nthe examination of sporadic examples of dwarfishness met with in that as\nin other parts of the world.\n\n[Footnote A: _Morgenblatt_, 1853 (quoted by Schaafhausen, _Arch. f.\nAnth._, 1866, p. 166).]\n\n[Footnote B: London, Nutt, 1891.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Nature_, 1892, ii. 616.]\n\n[Footnote A: _Nature_, 1892, i. 269.]\n\nFinally, in Madagascar it is possible that there may be a dwarf race.\nOliver[A] states that \"the Vazimbas are supposed to have been the first\noccupants of Ankova. They are described by Rochon, under the name of\nKunios, as a nation of dwarfs averaging three feet six inches in stature,\nof a lighter colour than the Negroes, with very long arms and woolly hair.\nAs they were only described by natives of the coast, and have never been\nseen, it is natural to suppose that these peculiarities have been\nexaggerated; but it is stated that people of diminutive size still exist\non the banks of a certain river to the south-west.\" There are many tumuli\nof rude work and made of rough stones throughout the country, which are\nsupposed to be their tombs. In idolatrous days, says Mullens,[B] the\nMalagasy deified the Vazimba, and their so-called tombs were the most\nsacred objects in the country. In this account may be found further\nevidence in favour of Mr. Gomme's theory, to which attention has already\nbeen called.\n\n[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Memoirs_, iii. 1.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, v. 181.]\n\nIn the great continent of America there does not appear to have ever been,\nso far as our present knowledge teaches, any pigmy race. Dr. Brinton, the\ndistinguished American ethnologist, to whom I applied for information on\nthis point, has been good enough to write to me that, in his opinion,\nthere is no evidence of any pigmy race in America. The \"little people\" of\nthe \"stone graves\" in Tennessee, often supposed to be such, were children,\nas the bones testify. The German explorer Hassler has alleged the\nexistence of a pigmy race in Brazil, but testimony is wanting to support\nsuch allegation. There are two tribes of very short but not pigmy stature\nin America, the Yahgans of Tierra del Fu\u00e9go and the Utes of Colorado, but\nboth of these average over five feet.\n\nLeaving aside for the moment the Lapps, to whom I shall return, there does\nnot appear to have been at any time a really pigmy race in Europe, so far\nas any discoveries which have been made up to the present time show.\nProfessor Topinard, whose authority upon this point cannot be gainsaid,\ninforms me that the smallest race known to him in Central Europe is that\nof the pre-historic people of the Loz\u00e8re, who were Neolithic troglodytes,\nand are represented probably at the present day by some of the peoples of\nSouth Italy and Sardinia. Their average stature was about five feet two\ninches. This closely corresponds with what is known of the stature of the\nPlatycnemic race of Denbighshire, the Perthi-Chwareu. Busk[A] says of them\nthat they were of low stature, the mean height, deduced from the lengths\nof the long bones, being little more than five feet. As both sexes are\nconsidered together in this description, it is fair to give the male a\nstature of about five feet two inches,[B] It also corresponds with the\nstature assigned by Pitt-Rivers to a tribe occupying the borders of\nWiltshire and Dorsetshire during the Roman occupation, the average height\nof whose males and females was five feet two and a half inches and four\nfeet ten and three-quarter inches respectively.\n\n[Footnote A: _Jour. Ethn. Soc._, 1869-70, p. 455.]\n\n[Footnote B: Since these pages were printed, Prof. Kollmann, of Basle, has\ndescribed a group of Neolithic pigmies as having existed at Schaffhausen.\nThe adult interments consisted of the remains of full-grown European types\nand of small-sized people. These two races were found interred side by\nside under precisely similar conditions, from which he concludes that they\nlived peaceably together, notwithstanding racial difference. Their stature\n(about three feet six inches) may be compared with that of the Veddahs in\nCeylon. Prof. Kollmann believes that they were a distinct species of\nmankind.]\n\nDr. Rahon,[A] who has recently made a careful study of the bones of\npre-historic and proto-historic races, with special reference to their\nstature, states that the skeletons attributed to the most ancient and to\nthe Neolithic races are of a stature below the middle height, the average\nbeing a little over five feet three inches. The peoples who constructed\nthe Megalithic remains of Roknia and of the Caucasus, were of a stature\nsimilar to our own. The diverse proto-historic populations, Gauls, Franks,\nBurgundians, and Merovingians, considered together, present a stature\nslightly superior to that of the French of the present day, but not so\nmuch so as the accounts of the historians would have led us to believe.\n\n[Footnote A: _Recherches sur les Ossements Humaines, Anciens et\nPr\u00e9histonques. M\u00e9m. de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris_, S\u00e9r, ii. tom. iv.\n403.]\n\nIt remains now to deal with two races whose physical characters are of\nconsiderable importance in connection with certain points which will be\ndealt with in subsequent pages, I mean the Lapps and the Innuit or Eskimo.\n\nThe Lapps, according to Karonzine,[A] one of their most recent describers,\nare divisible into two groups, Scandinavian and Russian, the former being\npurer than the latter race. The average male stature is five feet, a\nfigure which corresponds closely with that obtained by Mantegazza and\nquoted by Topinard. The extremes obtained by this observer amongst men\nwere, on the one hand, five feet eight inches, and on the other four feet\nfour inches. As, however, in a matter of this kind we have to deal with\naverages and not with extremes, we must conclude that the Lapps, though a\nstunted race, are not pigmies, in the sense in which the word is\nscientifically employed.\n\n[Footnote A: _L'Anthropologie_, ii. 80.]\n\nThe Innuit or Eskimo were called by the original Norse explorers\n\"Skraelingjar,\" or dwarfs, a name now converted by the Innuit into\n\"karalit,\" which is the nearest approach that they are able to make\nphonetically to the former term. They are certainly, on the average, a\npeople of less than middle stature, yet they can in no sense be described\nas Pigmies. Their mean height is five feet three inches. Nansen[A] says of\nthem, \"It is a common error amongst us in Europe to think of the Eskimo as\na diminutive race. Though no doubt smaller than the Scandinavian peoples,\nthey must be reckoned amongst the middle-sized races, and I even found\namongst those of purest breeding men of nearly six feet in height.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Eskimo Life_, p. 20.]\n\n\n\nII.\n\n\nThe _raison d'\u00eatre_ of Tyson's essay was to explain away the accounts of\nthe older writers relating to Pigmy races, on the ground that, as no such\nraces existed, an explanation of some kind was necessary in order to\naccount for so many and such detailed descriptions as were to be found in\ntheir works. Having now seen not merely that there are such things as\nPigmy races, but that they have a wide distribution throughout the world,\nit may be well to consider to which of the existing or extinct races, the\nabove-mentioned accounts may be supposed to have referred. In this task I\nam much aided in several instances by the labours of De Quatrefages, and\nas his book is easily accessible, it will be unnecessary for me to repeat\nthe arguments in favour of his decisions which he has there given.\n\nStarting with Asia, we have in the first place the statement of Pliny,\nthat \"immediately after the nation of the Prusians, in the mountains where\nit is said are pigmies, is found the Indus.\" These Pigmies may be\nidentified with the Brahouis, now Dravidian, but still possessing the\nhabit, attributed to them by Pliny, of changing their dwellings twice a\nyear, in summer and winter, migrations rendered necessary by the search\nfor food for their flocks. The same author's allusion to the \"Spitham\u00e6i\nPygm\u00e6i\" of the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Ganges may apply to\nthe Santals or some allied tribe, though Pliny's stature for them of two\nfeet four inches is exaggeratedly diminutive, and he has confused them\nwith Homer's Pigmies, who were, as will be seen, a totally different\npeople.\n\nCtesias[A] tells us that \"Middle India has black men, who are called\nPygmies, using the same language as the other Indians; they are, however,\nvery little; that the greatest do not exceed the height of two cubits, and\nthe most part only of one cubit and a half. But they nourish the longest\nhair, hanging down unto the knees, and even below; moreover, they carry a\nbeard more at length than any other men; but, what is more, after this\npromised beard is risen to them, they never after use any clothing, but\nsend down, truly, the hairs from the back much below the knees, but draw\nthe beard before down to the feet; afterward, when they have covered the\nwhole body with hairs, they bind themselves, using those in the place of a\nvestment. They are, moreover, apes and deformed. Of these Pygmies, the\nking of the Indians has three thousand in his train; for they are very\nskilful archers.\" No doubt the actual stature has been much diminished in\nthis account, and, as De Quatrefages suggests, the garment of long\nfloating grasses which they may well have worn, may have been mistaken for\nhair; yet, in the description, he believes that he is able to recognise\nthe ancestors of the Bandra-Lokh of the Vindhya Mountains. Ctesias' other\nstatement, that \"the king of India sends every fifth year fifty thousand\nswords, besides abundance of other weapons, to the nation of the\nCynocephali,\" may refer to the same or some other tribe.\n\n[Footnote A: The quotation is taken from Ritson, _Fairy Tales_, P. 4.]\n\nDe Quatrefages also thinks that an allusion to the ancestors of the Jats,\nwho would then have been less altered by crossing than now, may be found\nin Herodotus' account of the army of Xerxes when he says, \"The Eastern\nEthiopians serve with the Indians. They resemble the other Ethiopians,\nfrom whom they only differ in language and hair. The Eastern Ethiopians\nhave straight hair, while those of Lybia are more woolly than all other\nmen.\"\n\nWriting of isles in the neighbourhood of Java, Maundeville says,[A] \"In\nanother yle, ther ben litylle folk, as dwerghes; and thei ben to so meche\nas the Pygmeyes, and thei han no mouthe, but in stede of hire mouthe, thei\nhan a lytylle round hole; and whan thei schulle eten or drynken, thei\ntaken thorghe a pipe or a penne or suche a thing, and sowken it in, for\nthei han no tongue, and therefore thei speke not, but thei maken a maner\nof hissynge, as a Neddre dothe, and thei maken signes on to another, as\nmonkes don, be the whiche every of hem undirstondethe the other.\"\n\n[Footnote A: Ed. Halliwell, p. 205.]\n\nStrip this statement of the characteristic Maundevillian touches with\nregard to the mouth and tongue, and it may refer to some of the insular\nraces which exist or existed in the district of which he is treating.\n\nA much fuller account[A] by the same author relates to Pigmies in the\nneighbourhood of a river, stated by a commentator[B] to be the\nYangtze-Kiang, \"a gret ryvere, that men clepen Dalay, and that is the\ngrettest ryvere of fressche water that is in the world. For there, as it\nis most narow, it is more than 4 myle of brede. And thanne entren men azen\nin to the lond of the great Chane. That ryvere gothe thorge the lond of\nPigmaus, where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but 3 span\nlong, and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe\nthe men and the women. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half zere of age\nand getten children. And thei lyven not, but 6 zeer or 7 at the moste. And\nhe that lyveth 8 zeer, men holden him there righte passynge old. Theise\nmen ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle\nsuch thinges, of ony other, that be in the world. And thei han often tymes\nwerre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. This\nlitylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. But thei han grete\nmen amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren\namonges the vynes for hem. And of the men of oure stature, han thei als\ngrete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of Geauntes, zif thei\nweren amonges us. There is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is\nduellynge gret plentee of the lytylle folk, and is a gret cytee and a\nfair, and the men ben grete that duellen amonges hem; but whan thei getten\nony children, thei ben als litylle as the Pygmeyes, and therefore thei ben\nalle, for the moste part, alle Pygmeyes, for the nature of the land is\nsuche. The great Cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel, for it is his. And\nalle be it, that the Pygmeyes ben litylle, zit thei ben fulle resonable,\naftre here age and connen bothen wytt and gode and malice now.\" This\npassage, as will be noted, incorporates the Homeric tale of the battles\nbetween the Pigmies and the Cranes, and is adorned with a representation\nof such an encounter. Whether Maundeville's dwarfs were the same as the\nSiao-Jin of the Shan-hai-King is a question difficult to decide; but, in\nany case, both these pigmy races of legend inhabited a part of what is now\nthe Chinese Empire. The same Pigmies seem to be alluded to in the rubric\nof the Catalan map of the world in the National Library of Paris, the date\nof which is A.D. 1375. \"Here (N.W. of Catayo-Cathay) grow little men who\nare but five palms in height, and though they be little, and not fit for\nweighty matters, yet they be brave and clever at weaving and keeping\ncattle.\" If such an explanation may be hazarded, we may perhaps go further\nand suppose that Paulus Jovius may have been alluding to the\nKoro-puk-guru, when, as Pomponius Mela tells us, he taught that there were\nPigmies beyond Japan. In both these cases, however, it is well to remember\nthat there is a river in Macedon as well as in Monmouth, and that it is\nhazardous to come to too definite a belief as to the exact location of the\nPigmies of ancient writers.\n\n[Footnote A: _Maundeville_, p. 211.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Quart. Rev._, 172, p. 431.]\n\nThe continent of Africa yielded its share of Pigmies to the same writers.\nThe most celebrated of all are those alluded to by Aristotle in his\nclassical passage, \"They (the Cranes) come out of Scythia to the Lakes\nabove Egypt whence the Nile flows. This is the place whereabouts the\nPigmies dwell. For this is no fable but a truth. Both they and the horses,\nas 'tis said, are of a small kind. They are Troglodytes and live in\ncaves.\"\n\nLeaving aside the crane part of the tale, which it has been suggested may\nreally have referred to ostriches, Aristotle's Pigmy race may, from their\nsituation, be fairly identified with the Akkas described by Stanley and\nothers. That this race is an exceedingly ancient one is proved by the fact\nthat Marriette Bey has discovered on a tomb of the ancient Empire of Egypt\na figure of a dwarf with the name Akka inscribed by it. This race is also\nsupposed to have been that which, alluded to by Homer, has become confused\nwith other dwarf tribes in different parts of the world.\n\n  \"So when inclement winters vex the plain\n  With piercing frosts or thick-descending rain,\n  To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly,\n  With noise and order, through the midway sky;\n  To Pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,\n  And all the war descends upon the wing.\"\n\nAttention may here be drawn to Tyson's quotation (p. 78) from Vossius as\nto the trade driven by the Pigmies in elephants' tusks, since, as we have\nseen, this corresponds with what we now know as to the habits of the\nAkkas.\n\nThe account which Herodotus gives of the expedition of the Nasamonians is\nwell known. Five men, chosen by lot from amongst their fellows, crossed\nthe desert of Lybia, and, having marched several days in deep sand,\nperceived trees growing in the midst of the plain. They approached and\ncommenced to eat the fruit which they bore. Scarcely had they begun to\ntaste it, when they were surprised by a great number of men of a stature\nmuch inferior to the middle height, who seized them and carried them off.\nThey were eventually taken to a city, the inhabitants of which were black.\nNear this city ran a considerable river whose course was from west to\neast, and in which crocodiles were found. In his account of the Akkas, Mr.\nStanley believed that he had discovered the representatives of the Pigmies\nmentioned in this history. Speaking of one of these, he says,[A]\n\"Twenty-six centuries ago his ancestors captured the five young Nasamonian\nexplorers, and made merry with them at their villages on the banks of the\nNiger.\" It may be correct to say that, at the period alluded to, the dwarf\nraces of Africa were in more continuous occupancy of the land than is now\nthe case, but such an identification as that just mentioned gives a false\nidea of the position of the Pigmies of Herodotus. De Quatrefages, after a\nmost careful examination of the question in all its aspects, finds himself\nobliged to conclude, either that the Pigmy race seen by the Nasamonians\nstill exists on the north of the Niger, which has been identified with the\nriver alluded to by Herodotus, but has not, up to the present, been\ndiscovered; or that it has disappeared from those regions.\n\n[Footnote A: _Op. supra cit._, ii. 40.]\n\nPomponius Mela has also his account of African Pigmies. Beyond the Arabian\nGulf, and at the bottom of an indentation of the Red Sea, he places the\nPanch\u00e6ans, also called Ophiophagi, on account of the fact that they fed\nupon serpents. More within the Arabian bay than the Panch\u00e6ans are the\nPigmies, a minute race, which became exterminated in the wars which it was\ncompelled to wage with the Cranes for the preservation of its fruits. The\nregion indicated somewhat corresponds with that which is assigned to the\nDokos by their describer. In this district, too, other dwarf races have\nbeen reported. The French writer whom I have so often cited says, \"The\ntradition of Eastern African Pigmies has never been lost by the Arabs. At\nevery period the geographers of this nation have placed their River of\nPigmies much more to the south. It is in this region, a little to the\nnorth of the Equator, and towards the 32\u00b0 of east longitude, that the Rev.\nFr. L\u00e9on des Avanchers has found the Wa-Berrikimos or Cincall\u00e8s, whose\nstature is about four feet four inches. The information gathered by M.\nD'Abbadie places towards the 6\u00b0 of north latitude the Mallas or\nMaz\u00e9-Mall\u00e9as, with a stature of five feet. Everything indicates that there\nexist, at the south of the Galla country, different negro tribes of small\nstature. It seems difficult to me not to associate them with the Pigmies\nof Pomponius Mela. Only they have retreated farther south. Probably this\nchange had already taken place at the time when the Roman geographer wrote;\nit is, therefore, comprehensible that he may have regarded them as having\ndisappeared.\"\n\nTyson (p. 29) quotes the following passage from Photius:--\"That Nonnosus\nsailing from Pharsa, when he came to the farthermost of the islands, a\nthing very strange to be heard of happened to him; for he lighted on some\n(animals) in shape and appearance like men, but little of stature, and of\na black colour, and thick covered with hair all over their bodies. The\nwomen, who were of the same stature, followed the men. They were all\nnaked, only the elder of them, both men and women, covered their privy\nparts with a small skin. They seemed not at all fierce or wild; they had a\nhuman voice, but their dialect was altogether unknown to everybody that\nlived about them, much more to those that were with Nonnosus. They lived\nupon sea-oysters and fish that were cast out of the sea upon the island.\nThey had no courage for seeing our men; they were frighted, as we are at\nthe sight of the greatest wild beast.\" It is not easy to identify this\nrace with any existing tribe of Pigmies, but the hairiness of their\nbodies, and above all their method of clothing themselves, leave no doubt\nthat in this account we have a genuine story of some group of\nsmall-statured blacks.\n\nFrom the foregoing account it will be seen that it is possible with more\nor less accuracy and certainty to identify most of those races which,\ndescribed by the older writers, had been rejected by their successors.\nTime has brought their revenge to Aristotle and Pliny by showing that they\nwere right, where Tyson, and even Buffon, were wrong.\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n\nThe little people of story and legend have a much wider area of\ndistribution than those of real life, and it is the object of this section\nto give some idea of their localities and dwellings. Imperfect as such an\naccount must necessarily be, it will yet suffice I trust in some measure\nto show that, like the England of Arthurian times, all the world is\n\"fulfilled of fa\u00ebry.\"\n\nIn dealing with this part of the subject, it would be possible, following\nthe example of Keightley, to treat the little folk of each country\nseparately. But a better idea of their nature, and certainly one which for\nmy purpose will be more satisfactory, can, I think, be obtained by\nclassifying them according to the nature of their habitations, and\nmentioning incidentally such other points concerning them as it may seem\nadvisable to bring out.\n\n1. In the first place, then, fairies are found dwelling in mounds of\ndifferent kinds, or in the interior of hills. This form of habitation is\nso frequently met with in Scotch and Irish accounts of the fairies, that\nit will not be necessary for me to burden these pages with instances,\nespecially since I shall have to allude to them in a further section in\ngreater detail. Suffice it to say, that many instances of such an\nassociation in the former country will be found in the pages of Mr.\nMacRitchie's works, whilst as to the latter, I shall content myself by\nquoting Sir William Wilde's statement, that every green \"rath\" in that\ncountry is consecrated to the \"good people.\" In England there are numerous\ninstances of a similar kind. Gervase of Tilbury in the thirteenth century\nmentions such a spot in Gloucestershire: \"There is in the county of\nGloucester a forest abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game\nthat England produces. In a grovy lawn of this forest there is a little\nmount, rising in a point to the height of a man.\" With this mount he\nassociates the familiar story of the offering of refreshment to travellers\nby its unseen inhabitants. In Warwickshire, the mound upon which\nKenilworth Castle is built was formerly a fairy habitation.[A] Ritson[B]\nmentions that the \"fairies frequented many parts of the Bishopric of\nDurham.\" There is a hillock or tumulus near Bishopton, and a large hill\nnear Billingham, both of which used in former time to be \"haunted by\nfairies.\" Even Ferry-hill, a well-known stage between Darlington and\nDurham, is evidently a corruption of \"Fairy-hill.\" In Yorkshire a similar\nstory attaches to the sepulchral barrow of Willey How,[C] and in Sussex to\na green mound called the Mount in the parish of Pulborough.[D] The fairies\nformerly frequented Bussers Hill in St. Mary's Isle, one of the Scilly\ngroup.[E] The Bryn-yr-Ellyllon,[F] or Fairy-hill, near Mold, may be cited\nas a similar instance in Wales, which must again be referred to.\n\n[Footnote A: _Testimony of Tradition_, p. 142.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Op. cit._, p. 56.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Folk Lore_, ii. 115.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Record_, i. 16 and 28.]\n\n[Footnote E: _Ritson_, p. 62.]\n\n[Footnote F: Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, p. 433.]\n\nThe pages of Keightley's work contain instances of hill-inhabiting fairies\nin Scandinavia, Denmark, the Isle of Rugen, Iceland, Germany, and\nSwitzerland. It is not only in Europe, however, that this form of\nhabitation is to be met with; we find it also in America. The Sioux have a\ncurious superstition respecting a mound near the mouth of the Whitestone\nRiver, which they call the Mountain of Little People or Little Spirits;\nthey believe that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of\nabout eighteen inches high and with remarkably large heads; they are armed\nwith sharp arrows, in the use of which they are very skilful. These little\nspirits are always on the watch to kill those who should have the\nhardihood to approach their residence. The tradition is that many have\nsuffered from their malice, and that, among others, three Maha Indians\nfell a sacrifice to them a few years since. This has inspired all the\nneighbouring nations, Sioux, Mahas, and Ottoes, with such terror, that no\nconsideration could tempt them to visit the hill.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Lewis and Clarke, _Travels to the Source of the Missouri\nRiver._ Quoted in _Flint Chips_, p. 346. The tale is also given in _Folk\nLore, Oriental and American_ (Gibbings & Co.), p. 45.]\n\nThe mounds or hills inhabited by the fairies are, however, of very diverse\nkinds, as we discover when we attempt to analyse their actual nature. In\nsome cases they are undoubtedly natural elevations. Speaking of the\nexploration of the Isle of Unst, Hunt[A] says that the term \"Fairy Knowe\"\nis applied alike to artificial and to natural mounds. \"We visited,\" he\nstates, \"two 'Fairy Knowes' in the side of the hill near the turning of\nthe road from Reay Wick to Safester, and found that these wonderful relics\nwere merely natural formations. The workmen were soon convinced of this,\nand our digging had the effect of proving to them that the fairies had\nnothing to do with at least two of these hillocks.\" The same may surely be\nsaid of that favourite and important fairy haunt Tomnahurich, near\nInverness, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to think that an investigation,\nwere such possible, of its interior, might lead to a different\nexplanation.\n\n[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294.]\n\nIn other cases, and these are of great importance in coming to a\nconclusion as to the origin of fairy tales, the mounds inhabited by the\nlittle people are of a sepulchral nature. This is the case in the instance\nof Willey How, which, when explored by Canon Greenwell, was found, in\nspite of its size and the enormous care evidently bestowed upon its\nconstruction, to be merely a cenotaph. A grave there was, sunk more than\ntwelve feet deep in the chalk rock; but no corporeal tenant had ever\noccupied it.\n\nThis fact is still more clearly shown in the remarkable case mentioned by\nProfessor Boyd Dawkins. A barrow called Bryn-yr-Ellyllon (Fairy-hill),\nnear Mold, was said to be haunted by a ghost clad in golden armour which\nhad been seen to enter it. The barrow was opened in the year 1832, and was\nfound to contain the skeleton of a man wearing a golden corselet of\nEtruscan workmanship.\n\nThe same may be said respecting that famous fairy-hill in Ireland, the\nBrugh of the Boyne, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to regard it as having\nbeen a dwelling-place. Mr. Coffey in a most careful study appears to me to\nhave finally settled the question.[A] He speaks of the remains as those of\nprobably the most remarkable of the pre-Christian cemeteries of Ireland.\nOf the stone basins, whose nature Mr. MacRitchie regards as doubtful, he\nsays, \"There can be hardly any doubt but that they served the purpose of\nsome rude form of sarcophagus, or of a receptacle for urns.\" Mr. Coffey\nquotes the account from the Leadhar na huidri respecting cemeteries, in\nwhich Brugh is mentioned as amongst the chief of those existing before the\nfaith (i.e. before the introduction of Christianity). \"The nobles of the\nTuatha de Danann were used to bury at Brugh (i.e. the Dagda with his three\nsons; also Lugaidh, and Oe, and Ollam, and Ogma, and Etan the Poetess, and\nCorpre, the son of Etan), and Cremthain followed them, because his wife\nNar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she solicited him that he should\nadopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself and his descendants, and this\nwas the cause that they did not bury at Cruachan.\" Mr. Coffey also quotes\nO'Hartagain's poem, which seems to bear in Mr. MacRitchie's favour:--\n\n  \"Behold the sidhe before your eyes:\n  It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion,\n  Which was built by the firm Dagda;\n  It was a wonder, a court, a wonderful hill.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Tumuli at New Grange. Trans. Roy. Irish Academy_, XXX. 1.]\n\nBut certain of the expressions in this are evidently to be taken\nfiguratively, since Mr. Coffey states, in connection with this and other\nquotations, that their importance consists in that they establish the\nexistence at a very early date of a tradition associating Brugh na Boinne,\nthe burial-place of the kings of Tara, with the tumuli on the Boyne. The\nassociation of particular monuments with the Dagda and other divinities\nand heroes of Irish mythology implies that the actual persons for whom\nthey were erected had been forgotten, the pagan traditions being probably\nbroken by the introduction of Christianity. The mythological ancestors of\nthe heroes and kings interred at Brugh, who probably were even\ncontemporarily associated with the cemetery, no doubt subsequently\novershadowed in tradition the actual persons interred there.\n\nFinally, it seems that the fairy hills may have been actual\ndwelling-places, fortified or not, of prehistoric peoples. Such were no\ndoubt some of the Picts' houses so fully dealt with by Mr. MacRitchie,\nthough Petrie[A] seems to have considered that many of these were\nsepulchral in their nature. Such were also the Raths of Ireland and\nfortified hills, like the White Cater Thun of Forfarshire.\n\n[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 216.]\n\nThe interior of the mound-dwellings, as described in the stories, is a\npoint to which allusion should be made. Sometimes the mound contains a\nsplendid palace, adorned with gold and silver and precious stones, like\nthe palace of the King of Elfland in the tale of \"Childe Rowland.\" In the\nScandinavian mound-stories we find a curious incident, for they are\ndescribed as being capable of being raised upon red pillars, and as being\nso raised when the occupants gave a feast to their neighbours. \"There are\nthree hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in Funen, which are to this day\ncalled the Dance-hills, from the following occurrence. A lad named Hans\nwas at service in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the\nhills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great dancing and\nmuch merriment underneath.\"[A] This feature is met with in several of the\nstories collected by Keightley, and is made use of in Cruikshank's\npicture, which forms the frontispiece to that volume. Lastly, in a number\nof cases there is not merely a habitation, but a vast country underneath\nthe mound. An instance of this occurs in the tale of John Dietrich from\nthe Isle of R\u00fcgen. Under the Nine-hills he found \"that there were in that\nplace the most beautiful walks, in which he might ramble along for miles\nin all directions, without ever finding an end of them, so immensely large\nwas the hill that the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed\nbut a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it.\"[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley (p. 9), from Thiele, i. 118.]\n\n[Footnote B: Keightley, 178.]\n\n2. The haunts of the fairies may be in caves, and examples of this form of\ndwelling-place are to be met with in different parts of the world. The\nScandinavian hill people live in caves or small hills, and the Elves or\ndwarfs of La Romagna \"dwell in lonely places, far away in the mountains,\ndeep in them, in caves or among old ruins and rocks,\" as Mr. Leland,[A]\nwho gives a tale respecting these little people, tells us. A Lithuanian\ntale[B] tells \"how the hero, Martin, went into a forest to hunt,\naccompanied by a smith and a tailor. Finding an empty hut, they took\npossession of it; the tailor remained in it to cook the dinner, and the\nothers went forth to the chase. When the dinner was almost ready, there\ncame to the hut a very little old man with a very long beard, who\npiteously begged for food. After receiving it, he sprang on the tailor's\nneck and beat him almost to death. When the hunters returned, they found\ntheir comrade groaning on his couch, complaining of illness, but saying\nnothing about the bearded dwarf. Next day the smith suffered in a similar\nway; but when it came to Martin's turn, he proved too many and too strong\nfor the dwarf, whom he overcame, and whom he fastened by the beard to the\nstump of a tree. But the dwarf tore himself loose before the hunters came\nback from the forest and escaped into a cavern. Tracing him by the drops\nof blood which had fallen from him, the three companions came to the mouth\nof the cavern, and Martin was lowered into it by the two others. Within it\nhe found three princesses, who had been stolen by three dragons. These\ndragons he slew, and the princesses and their property he took to the spot\nabove which his comrades kept watch, who hoisted them out of the cavern,\nbut left Martin in it to die. As he wandered about disconsolately, he\nfound the bearded dwarf, whom he slew. And soon afterwards he was conveyed\nout of the cavern by a flying serpent, and was able to punish his\ntreacherous friends, and to recover the princesses, all three of whom he\nsimultaneously married.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Etrusco Roman Remains_, p. 222.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Folk Lore Record_, i. 85. Mr. Hartland points out to me that\nthis tale, being a Marchen, does not afford quite such good evidence of\nbelief as actually or recently existing as a saga.]\n\nAmongst the Magyars,[A] also, in some localities caves are pointed out as\nthe haunts of fairies, such as the caves in the side of the rock named\nBudv\u00e1r, the cave Borza-v\u00e1ra, near the castle of Dame Rapson; another haunt\nof the fairies is the cave near Alm\u00e1s, and the cold wind known as the\n\"Nemere\" is said to blow when the fairy in Alm\u00e1s cave feels cold. On one\noccasion the plague was raging in this neighbourhood; the people ascribed\nit to the cold blast emanating from the cave; so they hung shirts before\nthe mouth of the cave and the plague ceased.\n\n[Footnote A: Jones and Kropf, _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, pp. xxxvi. _et\nseq_.]\n\nIn a widely distant part of the world, the Battaks-Karo,[A] of the high\nground north of Lake Toba in Sumatra, believe in three classes of\nmysterious beings, one of which closely corresponds with the fairies of\nEurope. The first group are called Hantous; they are giants and dead\nBegous (i.e. definitely dead souls), who inhabit Mount Sampouran together\nwith the second group. These are called Omangs; they are dwarfs who marry\nand reproduce their species, live generally in mountains, and have their\nfeet placed transversely. They must be propitiated, and those making the\nascent of Mount S\u00e9bayak sacrifice a white hen to them, or otherwise the\nOmangs would throw stones at them. They carry off men and women, and often\nkeep them for years. They love to dwell amongst stones, and the Roumah\nOmang, which is one of their favourite habitations, is a cavern. The third\ngroup, or Orangs Boumans, resemble ordinary beings, but have the power of\nmaking themselves invisible. They come down from the mountains to buy\nsupplies, but have not been seen for some time. Westenberg, from whom this\ninformation is quoted, regards the last class as being proscribed Battaks,\nwho have fled for refuge to the mountains. Passing to another continent,\nthe Iroquois[B] have several stories about Pigmies, one of whom, by name\nGo-ga-ah, lives in a little cave.\n\n[Footnote A: _L'Anthropologie_, iv. 83.]\n\n[Footnote B: Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_. _American Bureau of\nEthnology_, ii. 65.]\n\n3. The little people may occupy a castle or house, or the hill upon which\nsuch a building is erected, or a cave under it. Without dwelling upon the\nBrownies and other similar distinctly household spirits, there are certain\nclasses which must be mentioned in this connection. The Magyar fairies\nlive in castles on lofty mountain peaks. They build them themselves, or\ninherit them from giants. Kozma enumerates the names of about twenty-three\ncastles which belonged to fairies, and which still exist. Although they\nhave disappeared from earth, they continue to live, even in our days, in\ncaves under their castles, in which caves their treasures lie hidden. The\niron gates of Zeta Castle, which have subsided into the ground and\ndisappeared from the surface, open once in every seven years. On one\noccasion a man went in there, and met two beautiful fairies whom he\naddressed thus, \"How long will you still linger here, my little sisters?\"\nand they replied, \"As long as the cows will give warm milk.\"\n\nLike the interior of some of the mound-dwellings already mentioned, these\nfairy caves are splendid habitations. \"Their subterranean habitations are\nnot less splendid and glittering than were their castles of yore on the\nmountain peaks. The one at Firtos is a palace resting on solid gold\ncolumns. The palace at Tartod and the gorgeous one of Dame Rapson are\nlighted by three diamond balls, as big as human heads, which hang from\ngolden chains. The treasure which is heaped up in the latter place\nconsists of immense gold bars, golden lions with carbuncle eyes, a golden\nhen with her brood, and golden casks, filled with gold coin. The treasures\nof Fairy Helen are kept in a cellar under Kov\u00e1szna Castle, the gates of\nthe cellar being guarded by a magic cock. This bird only goes to sleep\nonce in seven years, and anybody who could guess the right moment would be\nable to scrape no end of diamond crystals from the walls and bring them\nout with him. The fairies who guard the treasures of the Pog\u00e1nyv\u00e1r (Pagan\nCastle) in Marossz\u00e9k even nowadays come on moonlight nights to bathe in\nthe lake below.\"[A] In Brittany, \"a number of little men, not more than a\nfoot high, dwell under the castle of Morlaix. They live in holes in the\nground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating on basins. They\npossess great treasures, which they sometimes bring out; and if any one\npass by at the time, allow him to take one handful, but no more. Should\nany one attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is\ninstantly assailed by a shower of boxes on the ear from invisible\nhands.\"[B] In the Netherlands, the \"Gypnissen,\" \"queer little women,\"\nlived in a castle which had been reared in a single night.[C] The Ainu\nhave tales of the Poiyaumbe, a name which means literally \"little beings\nresiding on the soil\" (Mr. Batchelor says that \"little\" is probably meant\nto express endearment or admiration, but one may be allowed to doubt\nthis). The Ainu, who is the hero of the story, \"comes to a tall mountain\nwith a beautiful house built on its summit. Descending, for his path had\nalways been through the air, by the side of the house, and looking through\nthe chinks of the door, he saw a little man and a little woman sitting\nbeside the fireplace.\"[D]\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, p. xxxviii.]\n\n[Footnote B: Grimm, apud Keightley, 441.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Testimony of Tradition_, p. 86.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Journal_, vi. 195.]\n\n4. The little people or fairies occupy rude stone monuments or are\nconnected with their building. In Brittany they are associated with\nseveral of the megalithic remains.[A] \"At Carnac, near Quiberon,\" says M.\nDe Cambry, \"in the department of Morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the Temple\nof Carnac, called in Breton 'Ti Goriquet' (House of the Gories), one of\nthe most remarkable Celtic monuments extant. It is composed of more than\nfour thousand large stones, standing erect in an arid plain, where neither\ntree nor shrub is to be seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the\nsoil on which they stand. If the inhabitants are asked concerning this\nwonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of C\u00e6sar's, an army turned\ninto stone, or that it is the work of the Crions or Gories. These they\ndescribe as little men between two and three feet high, who carried these\nenormous masses on their hands; for, though little, they are stronger than\ngiants. Every night they dance around the stones, and woe betide the\ntraveller who approaches within their reach! he is forced to join in the\ndance, where he is whirled about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls\ndown, amidst the peals of laughter of the Crions. All vanish with the\nbreak of day. In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils. They are of a\nmalignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. At night they sport\naround the Druidical monuments. The unfortunate shepherd that approaches\nthem must dance their rounds with them till cockcrow; and the instances\nare not few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next morning dead\nwith exhaustion and fatigue. Woe also to the ill-fated maiden who draws\nnear the Couril dance! nine months after, the family counts one member\nmore. Yet so great is the cunning and power of these dwarfs, that the\nyoung stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they impart to it the\nfeatures of some lad of the village.\"\n\n[Footnote A: Keightley, 440.]\n\nIn India megalithic remains are also associated with little people.\n\"Dwarfs hold a distinct place in Hindu mythology; they appear sculptured\non all temples. Siva is accompanied by a body-guard of dwarfs, one of\nwhom, the three-legged Bhringi, dances nimbly. But coming nearer to\nNorthern legend, the cromlechs and kistvaens which abound over Southern\nIndia are believed to have been built by a dwarf race, a cubit high, who\ncould, nevertheless, move and handle the huge stones easily. The villagers\ncall them Pandayar.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk Lore_, iv. 401.]\n\nMr. Meadows Taylor, speaking of cromlechs in India, says, \"Wherever I\nfound them, the same tradition was attached to them, that they were Morie\nhumu, or Mories' houses; these Mories having been dwarfs who inhabited the\ncountry before the present race of men.\" Again, speaking of the cromlechs\nof Koodilghee, he states, \"Tradition says that former Governments caused\ndwellings of the description alluded to to be erected for a species of\nhuman beings called 'Mohories,' whose dwarfish stature is said not to have\nexceeded a span when standing, and a fist high when in a sitting posture,\nwho were endowed with strength sufficient to roll off large stones with a\ntouch of their thumb.\" There are, he also tells us, similar traditions\nattaching to other places, where the dwarfs are sometimes spoken of as\nGujaries.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Jour. Ethnol. Soc_., 1868-69, p. 157.]\n\nOf stone structures built by fairies or little people for the use of\nothers, may be mentioned the churches built by dwarfs in Scotland and\nBrittany, and described by Mr. MacRitchie, as also the two following\ninstances, taken from widely distant parts of the globe. In Brittany, the\ndolmen of Mann\u00e9-er Hrock (Montaigne de la Fee), at Locmariaquer, is said\nto have been built by a fairy, in order that a mother might stand upon it\nand look out for her son's ship.[A] In Fiji the following tale is told\nabout the Nanga or sacred stone enclosure:--\"This is the word of our\nfathers concerning the Nanga. Long ago their fathers were ignorant of it;\nbut one day two strangers were found sitting in the Rara (public square),\nand they said they had come up from the sea to give them the Nanga. They\nwere little men, and very dark-skinned, and one of them had his face and\nbust painted red, while the other was painted black. Whether these were\ngods or men our fathers did not tell us, but it was they who taught our\npeople the Nanga. This was in the old times, when our fathers were living\nin another land--not in this place, for we are strangers here.\"[B] It is\nworthy of note that the term \"Nanga\" applies not merely to the enclosure,\nbut also to the secret society which held its meetings therein.[C]\n\n[Footnote A: _Flint Chips_, p. 104.]\n\n[Footnote B: Fison, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, xiv, 14.]\n\n[Footnote C: Joske, _Internat. Arch. f. Ethnographie_, viii. 254.]\n\n5. The little people make their dwellings either in the interior of a\nstone or amongst stones. I am not here alluding to the stones on the sides\nof mountains which are the doorways to fairy dwellings, but to a closer\nconnection, which will be better understood from some of the following\ninstances than from any lengthy explanation. The Duergas of the\nScandinavian Eddas had their dwelling-places in stones, as we are told in\nthe story of Thorston, who \"came one day to an open part of the wood,\nwhere he saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a dwarf, who was\nhorridly ugly.\"[A] In Ireland, in Innisbofin, co. Galway, Professor Haddon\nrelates that the men who were quarrying a rock in the neighbourhood of the\nharbour refused to work at it any longer, as it was so full of \"good\npeople\" as to be hot.[B] In England the Pixy-house of Devon is in a stone,\nand a large stone is also connected with the story of the Frensham\ncaldron, though it is not clear that the fairies lived in the rock\nitself.[C] Oseberrow or Osebury (_vulgo_ Rosebury) Rock, in Lulsey,\nWorcestershire, was, according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the\nfairies.[D] In another part of Worcestershire, on the side of the\nCotswolds, there is, in a little spinney, a large flat stone, much worn on\nits under surface, which is called the White Lady's Table. This personage\nis supposed to take her meals with the fairies at this rock, but what the\nexact relation of the little people to it as a dwelling-place may be, I\nhave not been able to learn.\n\n[Footnote A: Keightley, 70.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Folklore_, iv. 49.]\n\n[Footnote C: Ritson, 106, quoting Aubrey's _Natural History of Surrey_,\niii. 366.]\n\n[Footnote D: Allies, _Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire_,\np.443.]\n\nThere is an Iroquois tale of dwarfs, in which the summons to the Pigmies\nwas given by knocking upon a large stone.[A] The little people of\nMelanesia seem also to be associated in some measure with stones. Speaking\nof these beings, Mr. Codrington says,[B] \"There are certain Vuis having\nrather the nature of fairies. The accounts of them are vague, but it is\nargued that they had never left the islands before the introduction of\nChristianity, and indeed have been seen since. Not long ago there was a\nwoman living at Mota who was the child of one, and a very few years ago a\nfemale Vui with a child was seen in Saddle Island. Some of these were\ncalled Nopitu, which come invisibly, or possess those with whom they\nassociate themselves. The possessed are called Nopitu. Such persons would\nlift a cocoa-nut to drink, and native shell money would run out instead of\nthe juice and rattle against their teeth; they would vomit up money, or\nscratch and shake themselves on a mat, when money would pour from their\nfingers. This was often seen, and believed to be the doing of a Nopitu. In\nanother manner of manifestation, a Nopitu would make himself known as a\nparty were sitting round an evening fire. A man would hear a voice in his\nthigh, 'Here am I, give me food.' He would roast a little red yam, and\nfold it in the corner of his mat. He would soon find it gone, and the\nNopitu would begin a song. Its voice was so small and clear and sweet,\nthat once heard it never could be forgotten; but it sang the ordinary Mota\nsongs. Such spirits as these, if seen or found, would disappear beside a\nstone; they were smaller than the native people, darker, and with long\nstraight hair. But they were mostly unseen, or seen only by those to whom\nthey took a fancy. They were the friendly Trolls or Robin Goodfellows of\nthe islands; a man would find a fine red yam put for him on the seat\nbeside the door, or the money which he paid away returned within his\npurse. A woman working in her garden heard a voice from the fruit of a\ngourd asking for some food, and when she pulled up an arum or dug out a\nyam, another still remained; but when she listened to another spirit's\npanpipes, the first in his jealousy conveyed away garden and all.\" Amongst\nthe Australians also supernatural beings dwell amongst the rocks, and the\nAnnamites and Arabians know of fairies living amongst the rocks and\nhills.[C]\n\n[Footnote A: Smith, _Myths of Iroquois, ut supra._]\n\n[Footnote B: _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, x. 261.]\n\n[Footnote C: Hartland, _Science of Fairy Tales_, p. 351.]\n\n\n6. The little people may have their habitation in forests or trees. Such\nwere the Skovtrolde, or Wood-Trolls of Thorlacius,[A] who made their home\non the earth in great thick woods, and the beings in South Germany who\nresemble the dwarfs, and are called Wild, Wood, Timber and Moss People.[B]\n\"These generally live together in society, but they sometimes appear\nsingly. They are small in stature, yet somewhat larger than the Elf, being\nthe size of children of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad\nin moss. Their lives are attached, like those of the Hamadryads, to the\ntrees, and if any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen, a\nWood-woman dies.\" In Scandinavia there is also a similarity between\ncertain of the Elves and Hamadryads. The Elves \"not only frequent trees,\nbut they make an interchange of form with them. In the churchyard of Store\nHeddinge, in Zeeland, there are the remains of an oak-wood. These, say the\ncommon people, are the Elle King's soldiers; by day they are trees, by\nnight valiant soldiers. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same island, is a\ntree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people, and goes about all alive.\nIt has no leaves upon it, yet it would be very unsafe to go to break or\nfell it, for the underground people frequently hold their meetings under\nits branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing in a\nfarmyard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight about the yard,\nand peeps in through the window at the children when they are alone. The\nlinden or lime-tree is the favourite haunt of the Elves and cognate\nbeings, and it is not safe to be near it after sunset.\"[C] In England, the\nfairies also in some cases frequent the woods, as is their custom in the\nIsle of Man, and in Wales, where there was formerly, in the park of Sir\nRobert Vaughan, a celebrated old oak-tree, named Crwben-yr-Ellyl, or the\nElf's Hollow Tree. In Formosa[D] there is also a tale of little people\ninhabiting a wood. \"A young Botan became too ardent in his devotion to a\nyoung lady of the tribe, and was slain by her relatives, while, as a\nwarning as to the necessity for love's fervour being kept within bounds,\nhis seven brothers were banished by the chief. The exiles went forth into\nthe depths of the forest, and in their wanderings after a new land they\ncrossed a small clearing, in which a little girl, about a span in height,\nwas seated peeling potatoes. 'Little sister,' they queried, 'how come you\nhere? where is your home?' 'I am not of homes nor parents,' she replied.\nLeaving her, they went still farther into the forest, and had not gone far\nwhen they saw a little man cutting canes, and farther on to the right a\ncurious-looking house, in front of which sat two diminutive women combing\ntheir hair. Things looked so queer that the travellers hesitated about\napproaching nearer, but, eager to find a way out of the forest, they\ndetermined in their extremity to question the strange people. The two\nwomen, when interrogated, turned sharply round, showing eyes of a flashing\nred; then looking upward, their eyes became dull and white, and they\nimmediately ran into the house, the doors and windows of which at once\nvanished, the whole taking the form and appearance of an isolated\nboulder.\" Amongst the Maories also we have \"te tini ote hakuturi,\" or \"the\nmultitude of the wood-elves,\" the little people who put the chips all back\ninto the tree Rata had felled and stood it up again, because he had not\npaid tribute to Tane.[E]\n\n[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley, p. 62.]\n\n[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 230.]\n\n[Footnote C: Keightley, p. 92, quoting from Thiele.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Journal_, v. 143.]\n\n[Footnote E: Tregear, _Journ. Anth. Inst._, xix. 121.]\n\n7. The association of little people with water as a home is a widespread\nnotion. The Sea-Trows of the Shetlanders inhabit a region of their own at\nthe bottom of the sea. They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and live\nin habitations constructed of the choicest submarine productions. They\nare, however, not always small, but may be of diverse statures, like the\nScandinavian Necks. In Germany the Water-Dwarfs are also known. At\nSeewenheiher, in the Black Forest, a little water-man (_Seem\u00e4nnlein_) used\nto come and join the people, work the whole day along with them, and in\nthe evening go back into the lakes.[A] The size of the Breton Korrigs or\nKorrigan, if we may believe Villemarqu\u00e9 in his account of this folk, does\nnot exceed two feet, but their proportions are most exact, and they have\nlong flowing hair, which they comb out with great care. Their only dress\nis a long white veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night or\nin the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight\ntheir eyes appear red, their hair is white, and their faces wrinkled;\nhence they rarely let themselves be seen by day. They are fond of music,\nand have fine voices, but are not much given to dancing. Their favourite\nhaunts are the springs, by which they sit and comb their hair.[B] The\nMaories also have their Water-Pigmies, the Ponaturi, who are, according to\nMr. Tregear, elves, little tiny people, mostly dwellers in water, coming\nashore to sleep.[C] \"The spirits most commonly met with in African\nmythology,\" says Mr. Macdonald, \"are water or river spirits, inhabiting\ndeep pools where there are strong eddies and under-currents. Whether they\nare all even seen now-a-days it is difficult to determine, but they must\nat one time have either shown themselves willingly, or been dragged from\ntheir hiding-places by some powerful magician, for they are one and all\ndescribed. They are dwarfs, and correspond to the Scottish conception of\nkelpies or fairies. They are wicked and malevolent beings, and are never\ncredited with a good or generous action. Whatever they possess they keep,\nand greedily seize upon any one who comes within their reach. 'One of\nthem, the Incanti, corresponds to the Greek Python, and another, called\nHiti, appears in the form of a small and very ugly man, and is exceedingly\nmalevolent' (Brownlee). It is certain death to see an Incanti, and no one\nbut the magicians sees them except in dreams, and in that case the\nmagicians are consulted, and advise and direct what is to be done.\"[D]\n\n[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 261.]\n\n[Footnote B: Villemarqu\u00e9, ibid., 431.]\n\n[Footnote C: Tregear, _ut supra._]\n\n[Footnote D: _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, xx. 124.]\n\nDr. Nansen, speaking of the Ignerssuit (plural of Ignersuak, which means\n\"great fire\"), says that they are for the most part good spirits, inclined\nto help men. The entrance to their dwellings is on the sea-shore.\nAccording to the Eskimo legend, \"The first earth which came into existence\nhad neither seas nor mountains, but was quite smooth. When the One above\nwas displeased with the people upon it, He destroyed the world. It burst\nopen, and the people fell down into the rifts and became Ignerssuit and\nthe water poured over everything.\"[A] The spirits here alluded to appear\nto be the same as those described by Mr. Boas as Uissuit in his monograph\non the Central Eskimo. He describes them as \"a strange people that live in\nthe sea. They are dwarfs, and are frequently seen between Iglulik and\nNetchillik, where the Anganidjen live, an Innuit tribe whose women are in\nthe habit of tracing rings around their eyes. There are men and women\namong the Uissuit, and they live in deep water, never coming to the\nsurface. When the Innuit wish to see them, they go in their boats to a\nplace where they cannot see the bottom, and try to catch them with hooks\nwhich they slowly move up and down. As soon as they get a bite they draw\nin the line. The Uissuit are thus drawn up; but no sooner do they approach\nthe surface than they dive down headlong again, only their legs having\nemerged from the water. The Innuit have never succeeded in getting one out\nof the water.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Nansen, _ut supra_, p. 259.]\n\n[Footnote A: _American Bureau of Ethnology_, vi. 612.]\n\n8. Amongst habitations not coming under any of the above categories may be\nmentioned the moors and open places affected by the Cornish fairies, and\nlastly the curious residences of the Kirkonwaki or Church-folk of the\nFinns. \"It is an article of faith with the Finns that there dwell under\nthe altar in every church little misshapen beings which they call\nKirkonwaki, i.e., Church-folk. When the wives of these little people have\na difficult labour, they are relieved if a Christian woman visits them and\nlays her hand upon them. Such service is always rewarded by a gift of gold\nand silver.\"[A] These folk evidently correspond to the Kirkgrims of\nScandinavian countries, and the traditions respecting both are probably\nreferable to the practice of foundation sacrifices.\n\n[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 488.]\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n\nThe subject of Pigmy races and fairy tales cannot be considered to have\nbeen in any sense fully treated without some consideration of a theory\nwhich, put forward by various writers and in connection with the legends\nof diverse countries, has recently been formulated by Mr. MacRitchie in a\nnumber of most interesting and suggestive books and papers. An early\nstatement of this theory is to be found in a paper by Mr. J.F. Campbell,\nin which he stated, \"It is somewhat remarkable that traditions still\nsurvive in the Highlands of Scotland which seem to be derived from the\nhabits of Scotch tribes like the Lapps in our day. Stories are told in\nSutherlandshire about a 'witch' who milked deer; a 'ghost' once became\nacquainted with a forester, and at his suggestion packed all her\nplenishing on a herd of deer, when forced to flit by another and a bigger\n'ghost;' the green mounds in which 'fairies' are supposed to dwell closely\nresemble the outside of Lapp huts. The fairies themselves are not\nrepresented as airy creatures in gauze wings and spangles, but they appear\nin tradition as small cunning people, eating and drinking, living close at\nhand in their green mound, stealing children and cattle, milk and food,\nfrom their bigger neighbours. They are uncanny, but so are the Lapps. My\nown opinion is that these Scotch traditions relate to the tribes who made\nkitchen-middens and lake-dwellings in Scotland, and that they were allied\nto Lapps.\"[A] Such in essence is Mr. MacRitchie's theory, which has been\nso admirably summarised by Mr. Jacobs in the first of that series of\nfairy-tale books which has added a new joy to life, that I shall do myself\nthe pleasure of quoting his statement in this place. He says: \"Briefly\nput, Mr. MacRitchie's view is that the elves, trolls, and fairies\nrepresented in popular tradition are really the mound-dwellers, whose\nremains have been discovered in some abundance in the form of green\nhillocks, which have been artificially raised over a long and low passage\nleading to a central chamber open to the sky. Mr. MacRitchie shows that in\nseveral instances traditions about trolls or 'good people' have attached\nthemselves to mounds which long afterwards, on investigation, turned out\nto be evidently the former residence of men of smaller build than the\nmortals of to-day. He goes on further to identify these with the Picts--\nfairies are called 'Pechs' in Scotland--and other early races, but with\nthese ethnological equations we need not much concern ourselves. It is\notherwise with the mound traditions and their relation, if not to fairy\ntales in general, to tales about fairies, trolls, elves, &c. These are\nvery few in number, and generally bear the character of anecdotes. The\nfairies, &c., steal a child; they help a wanderer to a drink and then\ndisappear into a green hill; they help cottagers with their work at night,\nbut disappear if their presence is noticed; human midwives are asked to\nhelp fairy mothers; fairy maidens marry ordinary men, or girls marry and\nlive with fairy husbands. All such things may have happened and bear no\nsuch _a priori_ marks of impossibility as speaking animals, flying through\nthe air, and similar incidents of the folk-tale pure and simple. If, as\narchaeologists tell us, there was once a race of men in Northern Europe\nvery short and hairy, that dwelt in underground chambers artificially\nconcealed by green hillocks, it does not seem unlikely that odd survivors\nof the race should have lived on after they had been conquered and nearly\nexterminated by Aryan invaders, and should occasionally have performed\nsomething like the pranks told of fairies and trolls.\"[B] In the same\nplace, and also in another article,[C] the writer just quoted has applied\nthis theory to the explanation of the story of \"Childe Rowland.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Journ. Ethnol. Soc._, 1869-70, p. 325.]\n\n[Footnote B: _English Fairy Tales_, p. 241.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Folk Lore_, ii. 126.]\n\nMr. MacRitchie has, in another paper,[A] collected a number of instances\nof the use of the word _Sith_ in connection with hillocks and tumuli,\nwhich are the resort of the fairies. Here also he discusses the possible\nconnection of that word with that of _Tshud_, the title of the vanished\nsupernatural inhabitants of the land amongst the Finns and other \"Altaic\"\nTuranian tribes of Russia, as in other places he has endeavoured to trace\na connection between the Finns and the Feinne. Into these etymological\nquestions I have no intention to enter, since I am not qualified to do so,\nnor is it necessary, as they have been fully dealt with by Mr. Nutt, whose\nopinion on this point is worthy of all attention.[B] But it may be\npermitted to me to inquire how far Mr. MacRitchie's views tally with the\nfacts mentioned in the foregoing section. I shall therefore allude to a\nfew points which appear to me to show that the origin of the belief in\nfairies cannot be settled in so simple a manner as has been suggested, but\nis a question of much greater complexity--one in which, as Mr. Tylor\nsays, more than one mythic element combines to make up the whole.\n\n[Footnote A: _Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland_, iii. 367.]\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk and Hero Tales from Argyleshire_, p. 420.]\n\n(1.) In the first place, then, it seems clear, so far as our present\nknowledge teaches us, that there never was a really Pigmy race inhabiting\nthe northern parts of Scotland.\n\nThe scanty evidence which we have on this point, so far as it goes, proves\nthe truth of this assertion. Mr. Carter Blake found in the Muckle Heog of\nthe Island of Unst, one of the Shetlands, together with stone vessels,\nhuman interments of persons of considerable stature and of great muscular\nstrength. Speaking of the Keiss skeletons, Professor Huxley says that the\nmales are, the one somewhat above, and the other probably about the\naverage stature; while the females are short, none exceeding five feet two\ninches or three inches in height.[A] And Dr. Garson, treating of the\nosteology of the ancient inhabitants of the Orkneys, says that the female\nskeleton which he examined was about five feet two inches in height, i.e.,\nabout the mean height of the existing races of England.[B] There is no\nevidence that Lapps and Eskimo ever visited these parts of the world; and\nif they did, as we have seen, their stature, though stunted, cannot fairly\nbe described as pigmy. Even if we grant that the stature of the early\nraces did not average more than five feet two inches, which, by the way,\nwas the height of the great Napoleon, it is more than doubtful whether it\nfell so far short of that of succeeding races as to cause us to imagine\nthat it gave rise to tales about a race of dwarfs.\n\n[Footnote A: Laing, _Prehistoric Remains of Caithness_, p. 101.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, xiii. 60.]\n\n(2.) The mounds with which the tales of little people are associated have\nnot, in many cases, been habitations, but were natural or sepulchral in\ntheir nature. It may, of course, be argued that the story having once\narisen in connection with one kind of mound, may, by a process easy to\nunderstand, have been transferred to other hillocks similar in appearance,\nthough diverse in nature. It is difficult to see, however, how this could\nhave occurred in Yorkshire and other parts of England, where it is not\nargued that the stunted inhabitants of the North ever penetrated. It is\nstill more difficult to explain how similar legends can have originated in\nAmerica in connection with mounds, since there never were Pigmy races in\nthat continent.\n\n(3.) The rude and simple arrangements of the interior of these mound\ndwellings might have, in the process of time, become altered into the\ngorgeous halls, decked with gold and silver and precious stones, as we\nfind them in the stories; they might even, though this is much more\ndifficult to understand, have become possessed of the capacity for being\nraised upon red pillars. But there is one pitch to which, I think, they\ncould never have attained, and that is the importance which they assume\nwhen they become the external covering of a large and extensive tract of\nunderground country. Here we are brought face to face with a totally\ndifferent explanation, to which I shall recur in due course.\n\n(4.) The little people are not by any means associated entirely with\nmounds, as the foregoing section is largely intended to show. Their\nhabitations may be in or amongst stones, in caves, under the water, in\ntrees, or amongst the glades of a forest; they may dwell on mountains, on\nmoors, or even under the altars of churches. We may freely grant that some\nof these habitations fall into line with Mr. MacRitchie's theory, but they\nare not all susceptible of such an explanation.\n\n(5.) The association of giants and dwarfs in certain places, even the\nconfusion of the two races, seems somewhat difficult of explanation by\nthis theory. In Ireland the distinction between the two classes is sharper\nthan in other places, since, as Sir William Wilde pointed out, whilst\nevery green rath in that island is consecrated to the fairies or \"good\npeople,\" the remains attributed to the giants are of a different character\nand probably of a later date. In some places, however, a mound similar to\nthose often connected with fairies is associated with a giant, as is the\ncase at Sessay parish, near Thirsk,[A] and at Fyfield in Wiltshire. The\nchambered tumulus at Luckington is spoken of as the Giant's Caves, and\nthat at Nempnet in Somersetshire as the Fairy's Toot. In Denmark, tumuli\nseem to be described indifferently as Zettestuer (Giants' Chambers) or\nTroldestuer (Fairies' Chambers).[B] In \"Beowulf\" a chambered tumulus is\ndescribed, in the recesses of which were treasures watched over for three\nhundred years by a dragon. This barrow was of stone, and the work of\ngiants.\n\nSeah on enta geweorc,        Looked on the giant's work,\nh\u00fb \u00f0a st\u00e2n-bogan,            how the stone arches,\nstapulinn-faeste,            on pillars fast,\n\u00eace eor\u00f0-reced               the eternal earth-house\ninnan healde.                held within.\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk Lore_, i. 130.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Flint Chips_, p. 412.]\n\nThe mounds have sometimes been made by giants and afterwards inhabited by\ndwarfs, as in the case of the Nine-hills, already alluded to. In others,\nthey are at the same time inhabited by giants, dwarfs, and others, as in\nthe story of the Dwarf's Banquet,[A] and still more markedly in the\nWunderberg. \"The celebrated Wunderberg, or Underberg, on the great moor\nnear Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wild-women. The Wunderberg is\nsaid to be quite hollow, and supplied with stately palaces, churches,\nmonasteries, gardens, and springs of gold and silver. Its inhabitants,\nbeside the Wild-women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it\ncontains, and who at midnight repair to Salzburg to perform their\ndevotions in the cathedral; giants, who used to come to the church of\nGr\u00f6dich and exhort the people to lead a godly and pious life; and the\ngreat Emperor Charles V., with golden crown and sceptre, attended by\nknights and lords. His grey beard has twice encompassed the table at which\nhe sits, and when it has the third time grown round it, the end of the\nworld and the appearance of the Antichrist will take place.\"[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, 130.]\n\n[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, 234.]\n\nIn the folk-tales of the Magyars we meet with a still more remarkable\nconfusion between these two classes of beings. Some of the castles\ndescribed in these stories are inhabited by giants, others by fairies.\nAgain, the giants marry; their wives are fairies, so are their daughters.\nThey had no male issue, as their race was doomed to extermination. They\nfall in love, and are fond of courting. Near Bikkfalva, in H\u00e1romsz\u00e9k, the\npeople still point out the \"Lover's Bench\" on a rock where the amorous\ngiant of Csigav\u00e1r used to meet his sweetheart, the \"fairy of\nVeczeltet\u00f6.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, p. xxix.]\n\n(6.) Tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never\nwere any Pigmy races. Not to deal with other, and perhaps more debatable\ndistricts, we find an excellent example of this in North America. Besides\nthe instances mentioned in the foregoing section, the following may be\nmentioned. Mr. Leland, speaking of the Un-a-games-suk, or Indian spirits\nof the rocks and streams, says that these beings enter far more largely,\ndeeply, and socially into the life and faith of the Indians than elves or\nfairies ever did into those of the Aryan race.[A] In his Algonquin Legends\nthe same author also alludes to small people.\n\n[Footnote A: _Memoirs_, i. 34.]\n\nDr. Brinton tells me that the Micmacs have tales of similar Pigmies, whom\nthey call Wig[)u]l[)a]d[)u]mooch, who tie people with cords during their\nsleep, &c. Mr. L.L. Frost, of Susanville, Lassen County, California, tells\nus how, when he requested an Indian to gather and bring in all the\narrow-points he could find, the Indian declared them to be \"no good,\" that\nthey had been made by the lizards. Whereupon Mr. Frost drew from him the\nfollowing lizard-story. \"There was a time when the lizards were little\nmen, and the arrow-points which are now found were shot by them at the\ngrizzly bear. The bears could talk then, and would eat the little men\nwhenever they could catch them. The arrows of the little men were so small\nthat they would not kill the bears when shot into them, and only served to\nenrage them.\" The Indian could not tell how the little men became\ntransformed into lizards.[A] Again, the Shoshones of California dread\ntheir infants being changed by Ninumbees or dwarfs.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: _Folk Lore Journal_, vii. 24.]\n\n[Footnote B: Hartland, _ut supra_, p. 351.]\n\nFinally, every one has read about the Pukwudjies, \"the envious little\npeople, the fairies, the pigmies,\" in the pages of Longfellow's\n\"Hiawatha.\"[A] It ought to be mentioned that Mr. Leland states that the\nred-capped, scanty-shirted elf of the Algonquins was obtained from the\nNorsemen; but if, as he says, the idea of little people has sunk so deeply\ninto the Indian mind, it cannot in any large measure have been derived\nfrom this source.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: xviii.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Etrusco Roman Remains_, p. 162.]\n\n(7.) The stunted races whom Mr. MacRitchie considers to have formed the\nsubjects of the fairy legend have themselves tales of little people. This\nis true especially of the Eskimo, as will have been already noticed, a\nfact to which my attention was called by Mr. Hartland.\n\nFor the reasons just enumerated, I am unable to accept Mr. MacRitchie's\ntheory as a complete explanation of the fairy question, but I am far from\ndesirous of under-estimating the value and significance of his work. Mr.\nTylor, as I have already mentioned, states, in a sentence which may yet\nserve as a motto for a work on the whole question of the origin of the\nfairy myth, that \"various different facts have given rise to stories of\ngiants and dwarfs, more than one mythic element perhaps combining to form\na single legend--a result perplexing in the extreme to the mythological\ninterpreter.\"[A] And I think it may be granted that Mr. MacRitchie has\ngone far to show that one of these mythic elements, one strand in the\ntwisted cord of fairy mythology, is the half-forgotten memory of skulking\naborigines, or, as Mr. Nutt well puts it, the \"distorted recollections of\nalien and inimical races.\" But it is not the only one. It is far from\nbeing my intention to endeavour to deal exhaustively with the difficult\nquestion of the origin of fairy tales. Knowledge and the space permissible\nin an introduction such as this would alike fail me in such a task. It\nmay, however, be permissible to mention a few points which seem to impress\nthemselves upon one in making a study of the stories with which I have\nbeen dealing. In the first place, one can scarcely fail to notice how much\nin common there is between the tales of the little people and the accounts\nof that underground world, which, with so many races, is the habitation of\nthe souls of the departed. Dr. Callaway has already drawn attention to\nthis point in connection with the ancestor-worship of the Amazulu.[B] He\nsays, \"It may be worth while to note the curious coincidence of thought\namong the Amazulu regarding the Amatongo or Abapansi, and that of the\nScotch and Irish regarding the fairies or 'good people.' For instance, the\n'good people' of the Irish have assigned to them, in many respects the\nsame motives and actions as the Amatongo. They call the living to join\nthem, that is, by death; they cause disease which common doctors cannot\nunderstand nor cure; they have their feelings, interests, partialities,\nand antipathies, and contend with each other about the living. The common\npeople call them their friends or people, which is equivalent to the term\n_abakubo_ given to the Amatongo. They reveal themselves in the form of the\ndead, and it appears to be supposed that the dead become 'good people,' as\nthe dead among the Amazulu become Amatongo; and in funeral processions of\nthe 'good people' which some have professed to see, are recognised the\nforms of those who have just died, as Umkatshana saw his relatives amongst\nthe Abapansi. The power of holding communion with the 'good people' is\nconsequent on an illness, just as the power to divine amongst the natives\nof this country. So also in the Highland tales, a boy who had been carried\naway by the fairies, on his return to his own home speaks of them as 'our\nfolks,' which is equivalent to _abakwetu_, applied to the Amatongo, and\namong the Highlands they are called the 'good people' and 'the folk.' They\nare also said to 'live underground,' and are therefore Abapansi or\nsubterranean. They are also, like the Abapansi, called ancestors. Thus the\nRed Book of Clanranald is said not to have been dug up, but to have been\nfound on the moss; it seemed as if the ancestors sent it.\" There are other\npoints which make in the same direction. The soul is supposed by various\nraces to be a little man, an idea which at once links the manes of the\ndeparted with Pigmy people. Thus Dr. Nansen tells us that amongst the\nEskimo a man has many souls. The largest dwell in the larynx and in the\nleft side, and are tiny men about the size of a sparrow. The other souls\ndwell in other parts of the body, and are the size of a finger-joint.[C]\nAnd the Macusi Indians[D] believe that although the body will decay, \"the\nman in our eyes\" will not die, but wander about; an idea which is met with\neven in Europe, and which perhaps gives us a clue to the conception of\nsmallness in size of the shades of the dead. Again, the belief that the\nsoul lives near the resting-place of its body is widespread, and at least\ncomparable with, if not equivalent to, the idea that the little people of\nScotland, Ireland, Brittany, and India live in the sepulchral mounds or\ncromlechs of those countries. Closely connected with this is the idea of\nthe underground world, peopled by the souls of the departed like the\nAbapansi, the widespread nature of which idea is shown by Dr. Tylor. \"To\ntake one example, in which the more limited idea seems to have preceded\nthe more extensive, the Finns,[E] who feared the ghost of the departed as\nunkind, harmful beings, fancied them dwelling with their bodies in the\ngrave, or else, with what Castr\u00e9n thinks a later philosophy, assigned them\ntheir dwelling in the subterranean Tuonela. Tuonela was like this upper\nearth; the sun shone there, there was no lack of land and water, wood and\nfield, tilth and meadow; there were bears and wolves, snakes and pike, but\nall things were of a hurtful, dismal kind; the woods dark and swarming\nwith wild beasts, the water black, the cornfields bearing seed of snake's\nteeth; and there stern, pitiless old Tuoni, and his grim wife and son,\nwith the hooked fingers with iron points, kept watch and ward over the\ndead lest they should escape.\"\n\n[Footnote A: _Primitive Culture_, i. 388.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 226.]\n\n[Footnote C: Nansen, _ut supra_, p. 227.]\n\n[Footnote D: Tylor, _ut supra_, i. 431.]\n\n[Footnote E: Tylor, _ut supra_, ii. 80.]\n\nIt is impossible not to see a connection between such conceptions as these\nand the underground habitations of the little people entered by the green\nmound which covered the bones of the dead. But the underground world was\nnot only associated with the shades of the departed; it was in many parts\nof the world the place whence races had their origin, and here also we\nmeet in at least one instance known to me with the conception of a little\nfolk. A very widespread legend in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia,\naccording to Dr. Nansen, tells how the underground or invisible people\ncame into existence. \"The Lord one day paid a visit to Eve as she was busy\nwashing her children. All those who were not yet washed she hurriedly hid\nin cellars and corners and under big vessels, and presented the others to\nthe Visitor. The Lord asked if these were all, and she answered 'Yes;'\nwhereupon He replied, 'Then those which are _dulde_ (hidden) shall remain\n_hulde_ (concealed, invisible). And from them the huldre-folk are\nsprung.\"[A] There is also the widespread story of an origin underground,\nas amongst the Wasabe, a sub-gens of the Omahas, who believe that their\nancestors were made under the earth and subsequently came to the\nsurface.[B] There is a similar story amongst the Z[=u]nis of Western New\nMexico. In journeying to their present place of habitation, they passed\nthrough four worlds, all in the interior of this, the passage way from\ndarkness to light being through a large reed. From the inner world they\nwere led by the two little war-gods, Ah-ai-[=u]-ta and M[=a]-[=a]-s[=e]-we,\ntwin brothers, sons of the Sun, who were sent by the Sun to bring this\npeople to his presence.[C] From these stories it would appear that the\nunderground world, whether looked upon as the habitation of the dead or\nthe place of origination of nations, is connected with the conception of\nlittle races and people. That it is thus responsible for some portion of\nthe conception of fairies seems to me to be more than probable.\n\n[Footnote A: Nansen, _ut supra_, p. 262.]\n\n[Footnote B: Dorset, _Omaha Sociology. American Bureau of Ethnology_, iii.\n211.]\n\n[Footnote C: Stevenson, _Religious Life of Zuni Child. American Bureau of\nEthnology_, v. 539.]\n\nIt is hardly necessary to allude to those spirits which animistic ideas\nhave attached amongst other objects and places, to trees and wells. They\nare fully dealt with in Dr. Tylor's pages, and must not be forgotten in\nconnection with the present question.\n\nTo sum up, then, it appears as if the idea, so widely diffused, of little,\ninvisible, or only sometimes visible, people, is of the most complex\nnature. From the darkness which shrouds it, however, it is possible to\ndiscern some rays of light. That the souls of the departed, and the\nunderground world which they inhabit, are largely responsible for it, is,\nI hope, rendered probable by the facts which I have brought forward. That\nanimistic ideas have played an important part in the evolution of the idea\nof fairy peoples, is not open to doubt. That to these conceptions were\nsuperadded many features really derived from the actions of aboriginal\nraces hiding before the destroying might of their invaders, and this not\nmerely in these islands, but in many parts of the world, has been, I\nthink, demonstrated by the labours of the gentleman whose theory I have so\noften alluded to. But the point upon which it is desired to lay stress is\nthat the features derived from aboriginal races are only one amongst many\nsources. Possibly they play an important part, but scarcely, I think, one\nso important as Mr. MacRitchie would have us believe.\n\n\n\n\nA PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY\n\nConcerning the PYGMIES, THE CYNOCEPHALI, THE SATYRS and SPHINGES OF THE\nANCIENTS,\n\nWherein it will appear that they were all either APES or MONKEYS; and not\nMEN, as formerly pretended.\n\nBy Edward Tyson M.D.\n\n\n\n\nA Philological Essay Concerning the PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS.\n\n\nHaving had the Opportunity of Dissecting this remarkable Creature, which\nnot only in the _outward shape_ of the Body, but likewise in the structure\nof many of the Inward Parts, so nearly resembles a Man, as plainly appears\nby the _Anatomy_ I have here given of it, it suggested the Thought to me,\nwhether this sort of _Animal_, might not give the Foundation to the\nStories of the _Pygmies_ and afford an occasion not only to the _Poets_,\nbut _Historians_ too, of inventing the many Fables and wonderful and merry\nRelations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them? I must\nconfess, I could never before entertain any other Opinion about them, but\nthat the whole was a _Fiction_: and as the first Account we have of them,\nwas from a _Poet_, so that they were only a Creature of the Brain,\nproduced by a warm and wanton Imagination, and that they never had any\nExistence or Habitation elsewhere.\n\nIn this Opinion I was the more confirmed, because the most diligent\nEnquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never\ndiscover any such _Puny_ diminutive _Race_ of _Mankind_. That they should\nbe totally destroyed by the _Cranes_, their Enemies, and not a Straggler\nhere and there left remaining, was a Fate, that even those _Animals_ that\nare constantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. Nothing therefore\nappeared to me more Fabulous and Romantick, than their _History_, and the\nRelations about them, that _Antiquity_ has delivered to us. And not only\n_Strabo_ of old, but our greatest Men of Learning of late, have wholly\nexploded them, as a mere _figment_; invented only to amuse, and divert the\nReader with the Comical Narration of their Atchievements, believing that\nthere were never any such Creatures in Nature.\n\nThis opinion had so fully obtained with me, that I never thought it worth\nthe Enquiry, how they came to invent such Extravagant Stories: Nor should\nI now, but upon the Occasion of Dissecting this _Animal_: For observing\nthat 'tis call'd even to this day in the _Indian_ or _Malabar_ Language,\n_Orang-Outang_, i.e. a _Man_ of the _Woods_, or _Wild-men_; and being\nbrought from _Africa_, that part of the World, where the _Pygmies_ are\nsaid to inhabit; and it's present _Stature_ likewise tallying so well with\nthat of the _Pygmies_ of the Ancients; these Considerations put me upon\nthe search, to inform my self farther about them, and to examine, whether\nI could meet with any thing that might illustrate their _History_. For I\nthought it strange, that if the whole was but a meer Fiction, that so many\nsucceeding Generations should be so fond of preserving a _Story_, that had\nno Foundation at all in Nature; and that the _Ancients_ should trouble\nthemselves so much about them. If therefore I can make out in this\n_Essay_, that there were such _Animals_ as _Pygmies_; and that they were\nnot a _Race_ of _Men_, but _Apes_; and can discover the _Authors_, who\nhave forged all, or most of the idle Stories concerning them; and shew how\nthe Cheat in after Ages has been carried on, by embalming the Bodies of\n_Apes_, then exposing them for the _Men_ of the Country, from whence they\nbrought them: If I can do this, I shall think my time not wholly lost, nor\nthe trouble altogether useless, that I have had in this Enquiry.\n\nMy Design is not to justifie all the Relations that have been given of\nthis _Animal_, even by Authors of reputed Credit; but, as far as I can, to\ndistinguish Truth from Fable; and herein, if what I assert amounts to a\nProbability, 'tis all I pretend to. I shall accordingly endeavour to make\nit appear, that not only the _Pygmies_ of the Ancients, but also the\n_Cynocephali_, and _Satyrs_ and _Sphinges_ were only _Apes_ or _Monkeys_,\nnot _Men_, as they have been represented. But the Story of the _Pygmies_\nbeing the greatest Imposture, I shall chiefly concern my self about them,\nand shall be more concise on the others, since they will not need so\nstrict an Examination.\n\nWe will begin with the Poet _Homer_, who is generally owned as the first\nInventor of the Fable of the _Pygmies_, if it be a Fable, and not a true\nStory, as I believe will appear in the Account I shall give of them. Now\n_Homer_ only mentions them in a _Simile_, wherein he compares the Shouts\nthat the _Trojans_ made, when they were going to joyn Battle with the\n_Gr\u00e6cians_, to the great Noise of the _Cranes_, going to fight the\n_Pygmies_: he saith,[A]\n\n[Greek: Ai t' epei oun cheimona phygon, kai athesphaton ombron\nKlangae tai ge petontai ep' okeanoio rhoaon\n'Andrasi pygmaioisi phonon kai kaera pherousai.] i.e.\n\n_Qu\u00e6 simul ac fugere Imbres, Hyememque Nivalem\nCum magno Oceani clangore ferantur ad undas\nPygm\u00e6is pugnamque Viris, c\u00e6desque ferentes._\n\n[Footnote A: _Homer. Iliad_. lib. 3. ver. 4.]\n\nOr as _Helius Eobanus Hessus_ paraphrases the whole.[A]\n\n_Postquam sub Ducibus digesta per agmina stabant\nQu\u00e6que fuis, Equitum turm\u00e6, Peditumque Cohortes,\nObvia torquentes Danais vestigia Tro\u00ebs\nIbant, sublato Campum clamore replentes:\nNon secus ac cuneata Gruum sublime volantum\nAgmina, dum fugiunt Imbres, ac frigora Brum\u00e6,\nPer Coelum matutino clangore feruntur,\nOceanumque petunt, mortem exitiumque cruentum\nIrrita Pigm\u00e6is moturis arma ferentes._\n\n[Footnote A: _Homeri Ilias Latino Carmine reddita ab Helio Eobano Hesso_.]\n\nBy [Greek: andrasi pygmaioisi] therefore, which is the Passage upon which\nthey have grounded all their fabulous Relations of the _Pygmies_, why may\nnot _Homer_ mean only _Pygmies_ or _Apes_ like _Men_. Such an Expression\nis very allowable in a _Poet_, and is elegant and significant, especially\nsince there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him to use it, as we\nhave already seen, in the _Anatomy of the Orang-Outang_. Nor is a _Poet_\ntied to that strictness of Expression, as an _Historian_ or _Philosopher_;\nhe has the liberty of pleasing the Reader's Phancy, by Pictures and\nRepresentations of his own. If there be a becoming likeness, 'tis all that\nhe is accountable for. I might therefore here make the same _Apology_ for\nhim, as _Strabo_[A] do's on another account for his _Geography_, [Greek:\nou gar kat' agnoian ton topikon legetai, all' haedonaes kai terpseos\ncharin]. That he said it, not thro' Ignorance, but to please and delight:\nOr, as in another place he expresses himself,[B] [Greek: ou gar kat'\nagnoian taes istorias hypolaepteon genesthai touto, alla tragodias\ncharin]. _Homer_ did not make this slip thro' Ignorance of the true\n_History_, but for the Beauty of his _Poem_. So that tho' he calls them\n_Men Pygmies_, yet he may mean no more by it, than that they were like\n_Men_. As to his Purpose, 'twill serve altogether as well, whether this\nbloody Battle be fought between the _Cranes_ and _Pygm\u00e6an Men_, or the\n_Cranes_ and _Apes_, which from their Stature he calls _Pygmies_, and from\ntheir shape _Men_; provided that when the _Cranes_ go to engage, they make\na mighty terrible noise, and clang enough to fright these little _Wights_\ntheir mortal Enemies. To have called them only _Apes_, had been flat and\nlow, and lessened the grandieur of the Battle. But this _Periphrasis_ of\nthem, [Greek: andres pygmaioi], raises the Reader's Phancy, and surprises\nhim, and is more becoming the Language of an Heroic Poem.\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 1. p.m. 25.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Strabo_ ibid. p.m. 30.]\n\nBut how came the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_ to fall out? What may be the Cause\nof this Mortal Feud, and constant War between them? For _Brutes_, like\n_Men_, don't war upon one another, to raise and encrease their Glory, or\nto enlarge their Empire. Unless I can acquit my self herein, and assign\nsome probable Cause hereof, I may incur the same Censure as _Strabo_[A]\npassed on several of the _Indian Historians_, [Greek: enekainisan de kai\ntaen 'Omaerikaen ton Pygmaion geranomachin trispithameis eipontes], for\nreviewing the _Homerical_ Fight of the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_, which he\nlooks upon only as a fiction of the Poet. But this had been very\nunbecoming _Homer_ to take a _Simile_ (which is designed for illustration)\nfrom what had no Foundation in Nature. His _Betrachomyomachia_, 'tis true,\nwas a meer Invention, and never otherwise esteemed: But his _Geranomachia_\nhath all the likelyhood of a true Story. And therefore I shall enquire now\nwhat may be the just Occasion of this Quarrel.\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 2. p.m. 48.]\n\n_Athen\u00e6us_[A] out of _Philochorus_, and so likewise _\u00c6lian_[B], tell us a\nStory, That in the Nation of the _Pygmies_ the Male-line failing, one\n_Gerana_ was the Queen; a Woman of an admired Beauty, and whom the\nCitizens worshipped as a Goddess; but she became so vain and proud, as to\nprefer her own, before the Beauty of all the other Goddesses, at which\nthey grew enraged; and to punish her for her Insolence, Athen\u00e6us tells us\nthat it was _Diana_, but _\u00c6lian_ saith 'twas _Juno_ that transformed her\ninto a _Crane_, and made her an Enemy to the _Pygmies_ that worshipped her\nbefore. But since they are not agreed which Goddess 'twas, I shall let\nthis pass.\n\n[Footnote A: _Athen\u00e6i Deipnosoph_. lib. 9 p.m. 393.]\n\n[Footnote B: _\u00c6lian. Hist. Animal_. lib. 15. cap. 29.]\n\n_Pomponius Mela_ will have it, and I think some others, that these cruel\nEngagements use to happen, upon the _Cranes_ coming to devour the _Corn_\nthe _Pygmies_ had sowed; and that at last they became so victorious, as\nnot only to destroy their Corn, but them also: For he tells us,[A] _Fuere\ninteri\u00f9s Pygm\u00e6i, minutum genus, & quod pro satis frugibus contra Grues\ndimicando, defecit._ This may seem a reasonable Cause of a Quarrel; but it\nnot being certain that the _Pygmies_ used to sow _Corn_, I will not insist\non this neither.\n\n[Footnote A: _Pomp. Mela de situ Orbis_, lib. 3. cap. 8.]\n\nNow what seems most likely to me, is the account that _Pliny_ out of\n_Megasthenes_, and _Strabo_ from _Onesicritus_ give us; and, provided I be\nnot obliged to believe or justifie _all_ that they say, I could rest\nsatisfied in great part of their Relation: For _Pliny_[B] tells us, _Veris\ntempore universo agmine ad mare descendere, & Ova, Pullosque earum Alitum\nconsumere_: That in the Spring-time the whole drove of the _Pygmies_ go\ndown to the Sea side, to devour the _Cranes_ Eggs and their young Ones. So\nlikewise _Onesicritus_,[B] [Greek: Pros de tous trispithamous polemon\neinai tais Geranois (hon kai Homaeron daeloun) kai tois Perdixin, ous\nchaenomegetheis einai; toutous d' eklegein auton ta oa, kai phtheirein;\nekei gar ootokein tas Geranous; dioper maedamou maed' oa euriskesthai\nGeranon, maet' oun neottia;] i.e. _That there is a fight between the_\nPygmies _and the_ Cranes (_as_ Homer _relates_) _and the_ Partridges\n_which are as big as_ Geese; _for these_ Pygmies _gather up their Eggs,\nand destroy them; the_ Cranes _laying their Eggs there; and neither their\nEggs, nor their Nests, being to be found any where else_. 'Tis plain\ntherefore from them, that the Quarrel is not out of any _Antipathy_ the\n_Pygmies_ have to the _Cranes_, but out of love to their own Bellies. But\nthe _Cranes_ finding their Nests to be robb'd, and their young Ones prey'd\non by these Invaders, no wonder that they should so sharply engage them;\nand the least they could do, was to fight to the utmost so mortal an\nEnemy. Hence, no doubt, many a bloody Battle happens, with various success\nto the Combatants; sometimes with great slaughter of the _long-necked\nSquadron_; sometimes with great effusion of _Pygm\u00e6an_ blood. And this may\nwell enough, in a _Poet's_ phancy, be magnified, and represented as a\ndreadful War; and no doubt of it, were one a _Spectator_ of it, 'twould be\ndiverting enough.\n\n[Footnote A: _Plinij. Hist. Nat._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 13.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Strab. Geograph_. lib. 15. pag. 489.]\n\n  -----_Si videas hoc\n  Gentibus in nostris, risu quatiere: sed illic,\n  Quanquam eadem assidu\u00e8 spectantur Pr\u00e6lia, ridet\n  Nemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Juvenal. Satyr_. 13 vers. 170.]\n\nThis Account therefore of these Campaigns renewed every year on this\nProvocation between the _Cranes_ and the _Pygmies_, contains nothing but\nwhat a cautious Man may believe; and _Homer's Simile_ in likening the\ngreat shouts of the _Trojans_ to the Noise of the _Cranes_, and the\nSilence of the _Greeks_ to that of the _Pygmies_, is very admirable and\ndelightful. For _Aristotle_[B] tells us, That the _Cranes_, to avoid the\nhardships of the Winter, take a Flight out of _Scythia_ to the _Lakes_\nabout the _Nile_, where the _Pygmies_ live, and where 'tis very likely the\n_Cranes_ may lay their Eggs and breed, before they return. But these rude\n_Pygmies_ making too bold with them, what could the _Cranes_ do less for\npreserving their Off-spring than fight them; or at least by their mighty\nNoise, make a shew as if they would. This is but what we may observe in\nall other Birds. And thus far I think our _Geranomachia_ or _Pygm\u00e6omachia_\nlooks like a true Story; and there is nothing in _Homer_ about it, but\nwhat is credible. He only expresses himself, as a _Poet_ should do; and if\nReaders will mistake his meaning, 'tis not his fault.\n\n[Footnote B: _Aristotle. Hist. Animal_. lib. 8. cap. 15. Edit. Scalig.]\n\n'Tis not therefore the _Poet_ that is to be blamed, tho' they would father\nit all on him; but the fabulous _Historians_ in after Ages, who have so\nodly drest up this Story by their fantastical Inventions, that there is no\nknowing the truth, till one hath pull'd off those Masks and Visages,\nwherewith they have disguised it. For tho' I can believe _Homer_, that\nthere is a fight between the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_, yet I think I am no\nways obliged to imagine, that when the _Pygmies_ go to these Campaigns to\nfight the _Cranes_, that they ride upon _Partridges_, as _Athen\u00e6as_ from\n_Basilis_ an _Indian Historian_ tells us; for, saith he,[A] [Greek:\nBasilis de en toi deuteroi ton Indikon, oi mikroi, phaesin, andres oi tais\nGeranois diapolemountes Perdixin ochaemati chrontai;]. For presently\nafterwards he tells us from _Menecles_, that the _Pygmies_ not only fight\nthe _Cranes_, but the _Partridges_ too, [Greek: Meneklaes de en protae\ntaes synagogaes oi pygmaioi, phaesi, tois perdixi, kai tais Geranois\npolemousi]. This I could more readily agree to, because _Onesicritus_, as\nI have quoted him already confirms it; and gives us the same reason for\nthis as for fighting the _Cranes_, because they rob their Nests. But\nwhether these _Partridges_ are as big as _Geese_, I leave as a _Qu\u00e6re_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Athen\u00e6i Deipnesoph_. lib. p. 9. m. 390.]\n\n_Megasthenes_ methinks in _Pliny_ mounts the _Pygmies_ for this expedition\nmuch better, for he sets them not on a _Pegasus_ or _Partridges_, but on\n_Rams_ and _Goats_: _Fama est_ (saith _Pliny[A]) insedentes Arietum\nCaprarumque dorsis, armatis sagittis, veris tempore universo agmine ad\nmare descendere_. And _Onesicritus_ in Strabo tells us, That a _Crane_ has\nbeen often observed to fly from those parts with a brass Sword fixt in\nhim, [Greek: pleistakis d' ekpiptein geranon chalkaen echousan akida apo\nton ekeithen plaegmaton.][B] But whether the _Pygmies_ do wear Swords, may\nbe doubted. 'Tis true, _Ctesias_ tells us,[C] That the _King_ of _India_\nevery fifth year sends fifty Thousand Swords, besides abundance of other\nWeapons, to the Nation of the _Cynocephali_, (a fort of _Monkeys_, as I\nshall shew) that live in those Countreys, but higher up in the Mountains:\nBut he makes no mention of any such Presents to the poor _Pygmies_; tho'\nhe assures us, that no less than three Thousand of these _Pygmies_ are the\n_Kings_ constant Guards: But withal tells us, that they are excellent\n_Archers_, and so perhaps by dispatching their Enemies at a distance, they\nmay have no need of such Weapons to lye dangling by their sides. I may\ntherefore be mistaken in rendering [Greek: akida] a Sword; it may be any\nother sharp pointed Instrument or Weapon, and upon second Thoughts, shall\nsuppose it a sort of Arrow these cunning _Archers_ use in these\nEngagements.\n\n[Footnote A: _Plinij. Nat. Hist._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p. 13.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 15. p. 489.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Vide Photij. Biblioth._]\n\nThese, and a hundred such ridiculous _Fables_, have the _Historians_\ninvented of the _Pygmies_, that I can't but be of _Strabo_'s mind,[A]\n[Greek: Rhadion d' an tis Haesiodio, kai Homaeroi pisteuseien\nhaeroologousi, kai tois tragikois poiaetais, hae Ktaesiai te kai\nHaerodotoi, kai Hellanikoi, kai allois toioutois;] i.e. _That one may\nsooner believe_ Hesiod, _and_ Homer, _and the_ Tragick Poets _speaking of\ntheir_ Hero's, _than_ Ctesias _and_ Herodotus _and_ Hellanicus _and such\nlike_. So ill an Opinion had _Strabo_ of the _Indian Historians_ in\ngeneral, that he censures them _all_ as fabulous;[B] [Greek: Hapantes men\ntoinun hoi peri taes Indikaes grapsantes hos epi to poly pseudologoi\ngegonasi kath' hyperbolaen de Daeimachos; ta de deutera legei\nMegasthenaes, Onaesikritos te kai Nearchos, kai alloi toioutoi;] i.e. _All\nwho have wrote of_ India _for the most part, are fabulous, but in the\nhighest degree_ Daimachus; _then_ Megasthenes, Onesicritus, _and_\nNearchus, _and such like_. And as if it had been their greatest Ambition\nto excel herein, _Strabo_[C] brings in _Theopompus_, as bragging, [Greek:\nHoti kai mythous en tais Historiais erei kreitton, ae hos Haerodotos, kai\nKtaesias, kai Hellanikos, kai hoi ta Hindika syngrapsantes;] _That he\ncould foist in Fables into History, better than_ Herodotus _and_ Ctesias\n_and_ Hellanicus, _and all that have wrote of_ India. The _Satyrist_\ntherefore had reason to say,\n\n  -----_Et quicquid Gr\u00e6cia mendax\n  Audet in Historia._[D]\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 11. p.m. 350.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Strabo ibid._ lib. 2. p.m. 48.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Strabo ibid._ lib. 1 p.m. 29.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Juvenal._ _Satyr._ X. _vers._ 174.]\n\n_Aristotle_,[A] 'tis true, tells us, [Greek: Holos de ta men agria\nagriotera en tae Asia, andreiotera de panta ta en taei Europaei,\npolymorphotata de ta en taei libyaei; kai legetai de tis paroimia, hoti\naei pherei ti libyae kainon;] i.e. _That generally the Beasts are wilder\nin_ Asia, _stronger in_ Europe, _and of greater variety of shapes in_\nAfrica; _for as the_ Proverb _saith_, Africa _always produces something\nnew_. _Pliny_[B] indeed ascribes it to the Heat of the _Climate,\nAnimalium, Hominumque effigies monstriferas, circa extremitates ejus\ngigni, minim\u00e8 mirum, artifici ad formanda Corpora, effigiesque c\u00e6landas\nmobilitate igne\u00e2_. But _Nature_ never formed a whole _Species_ of\n_Monsters_; and 'tis not the _heat_ of the Country, but the warm and\nfertile Imagination of these _Historians_, that has been more productive\nof them, than _Africa_ it self; as will farther appear by what I shall\nproduce out of them, and particularly from the Relation that _Ctesias_\nmakes of the _Pygmies_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Aristotle Hist. Animal_, lib. 8. cap. 28.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Plin. Nat. Hist._ lib. 6. cap. 30. p.m. 741.]\n\nI am the more willing to instance in _Ctesias_, because he tells his Story\nroundly; he no ways minces it; his Invention is strong and fruitful; and\nthat you may not in the least mistrust him, he pawns his word, that all\nthat he writes, is certainly true: And so successful he has been, how\nRomantick soever his Stories may appear, that they have been handed down\nto us by a great many other Authors, and of Note too; tho' some at the\nsame time have looked upon them as mere Fables. So that for the present,\ntill I am better informed, and I am not over curious in it, I shall make\n_Ctesias_, and the other _Indian Historians_, the _Inventors_ of the\nextravagant Relations we at present have of the _Pygmies_, and not old\n_Homer_. He calls them, 'tis true, from something of Resemblance of their\nshape, [Greek: andres]: But these _Historians_ make them to speak the\n_Indian Language_; to use the same _Laws_; and to be so considerable a\nNation, and so valiant, as that the _King_ of _India_ makes choice of them\nfor his _Corps de Guards_; which utterly spoils _Homer's Simile_, in\nmaking them so little, as only to fight _Cranes_.\n\n_Ctesias_'s Account therefore of the _Pygmies_ (as I find it in\n_Photius_'s _Bibliotheca_,[A] and at the latter end of some Editions of\n_Herodotus_) is this:\n\n[Footnote A: _Photij. Bibliothec. Cod._ 72. p.m. 145.]\n\n[Greek: Hoti en mesae tae Indikae anthropoi eisi melanes, kai kalountai\npygmaioi, tois allois homoglossoi Indois. mikroi de eisi lian; hoi\nmakrotatoi auton paecheon duo, hoi de pleistoi, henos haemiseos paecheos,\nkomaen de echousi makrotataen, mechri kai hepi ta gonata, kai eti\nkatoteron, kai pogona megiston panton anthropon; epeidan oun ton pogona\nmega physosin, ouketi amphiennyntai ouden emation: alla tas trichas, tas\nmen ek taes kephalaes, opisthen kathientai poly kato ton gonaton; tas de\nek tou po gonos, emprosthen mechri podon elkomenas. Hepeita\nperipykasamenoi tas trichas peri apan to soma, zonnyntai, chromenoi autais\nanti himatiou, aidoion de mega echousin, hoste psauein ton sphyron auton,\nkai pachy. autoite simoi te kai aischroi. ta de probata auton, hos andres.\nkai hai boes kai hoi onoi, schedon hoson krioi? kai hoi hippoi auton kai\nhoi aemionoi, kai ta alla panta zoa, ouden maezo krion; hepontai de toi\nbasilei ton Indon, touton ton pygmaion andres trischilioi. sphodra gar\neisi toxotai; dikaiotatoi de eisi kai nomoisi chrontai osper kai hoi\nIndoi. Dagoous te kai alopekas thaereuousin, ou tois kysin, alla koraxi\nkai iktisi kai koronais kai aetois.]\n\n_Narrat pr\u00e6ter ista, in media India homines reperiri nigros, qui Pygm\u00e6i\nappellentur. Eadem hos, qua Inda reliqui, lingua uti, sed valde esse\nparvos, ut maximi duorum cubitorum, & plerique unius duntaxat cubiti cum\ndimidio altitudinem non excedant. Comam alere longissimam, ad ipsa usque\ngenua demissam, atque etiam infra, cum barba longiore, qu\u00e0m, apud ullos\nhominum. Qu\u00e6 quidem ubi illis promissior esse c\u00e6perit, nulla deinceps\nveste uti: sed capillos mult\u00f2 infra genua \u00e0 tergo demissos, barb\u00e1mque\npr\u00e6ter pectus ad pedes usque defluentem, per totum corpus in orbem\nconstipare & cingere, atque ita pilos ipsis suos vestimenti loco esse.\nVeretrum illis esse crassum ac longum, quod ad ipsos quoque pedum\nmalleolos pertingat. Pygmeos hosce simis esse naribus, & deformes. Ipsorum\nitem oves agnorem nostrotum instar esse; boves & asinos, arietum fere\nmagnitudine, equos item multosque & c\u00e6tera jumenta omnia nihilo esse\nnostris arietibus majora. Tria horum Pygm\u00e6orum millia Indorum regem in suo\ncomitatu habere, quod sagittarij sint peritissimi. Summos esse justiti\u00e6\ncultores iisdemque quibus Indi reliqui, legibus parere. Venari quoque\nlepores vulpesque, non canibus, sed corvis, milvis, cornicibus, aquilis\nadhibitis._\n\nIn the middle of _India_ (saith _Ctesias_) there are black Men, they are\ncall'd _Pygmies_, using the same Language, as the other _Indians_; they\nare very little, the tallest of them being but two Cubits, and most of\nthem but a Cubit and a half high. They have very long hair, reaching down\nto their Knees and lower; and a Beard larger than any Man's. After their\nBeards are grown long, they wear no Cloaths, but the Hair of their Head\nfalls behind a great deal below their Hams; and that of their Beards\nbefore comes down to their Feet: then laying their Hair thick all about\ntheir Body, they afterwards gird themselves, making use of their Hair for\nCloaths. They have a _Penis_ so long, that it reaches to the Ancle, and\nthe thickness is proportionable. They are flat nosed and ill favoured.\nTheir Sheep are like Lambs; and their Oxen and Asses scarce as big as Rams;\nand their Horses and Mules, and all their other Cattle not bigger. Three\nthousand Men of these _Pygmies_ do attend the _King_ of _India_. They are\ngood _Archers_; they are very just, and use the same _Laws_ as the\n_Indians_ do. They kill Hares and Foxes, not with Dogs, but with Ravens,\nKites, Crows, and Eagles.'\n\nWell, if they are so good Sports-men, as to kill Hares and Foxes with\nRavens, Kites, Crows and Eagles, I can't see how I can bring off _Homer_,\nfor making them fight the _Cranes_ themselves. Why did they not fly their\n_Eagles_ against them? these would make greater Slaughter and Execution,\nwithout hazarding themselves. The only excuse I have is, that _Homer_'s\n_Pygmies_ were real _Apes_ like _Men_; but those of _Ctesias_ were neither\n_Men_ nor _Pygmies_; only a Creature begot in his own Brain, and to be\nfound no where else.\n\n_Ctesias_ was Physician to _Artaxerxes Mnemon_ as _Diodorus Siculus_[A]\nand _Strabo_[B] inform us. He was contemporary with _Xenophon_, a little\nlater than _Herodotus_; and _Helvicus_ in his _Chronology_ places him\nthree hundred eighty three years before _Christ_: He is an ancient Author,\n'tis true, and it may be upon that score valued by some. We are beholden\nto him, not only for his Improvements on the Story of the _Pygmies_, but\nfor his Remarks likewise on several other parts of _Natural History_;\nwhich for the most part are all of the same stamp, very wonderful and\nincredible; as his _Mantichora_, his _Gryphins_, the _horrible Indian\nWorm_, a Fountain of _Liquid Gold_, a Fountain of _Honey_, a Fountain\nwhose Water will make a Man confess all that ever he did, a Root he calls\n[Greek: paraebon], that will attract Lambs and Birds, as the Loadstone\ndoes filings of Steel; and a great many other Wonders he tells us: all of\nwhich are copied from him by _\u00c6lian, Pliny, Solinus, Mela, Philostratus_,\nand others. And _Photius_ concludes _Ctesias_'s Account of _India_ with\nthis passage; [Greek: Tauta graphon kai mythologon Ktaesias. legei t'\nalaethestata graphein; epagon hos ta men autos idon graphei, ta de par\nauton mathon ton eidoton. polla de touton kai alla thaumasiotera\nparalipein, dia to mae doxai tois mae tauta theasamenois apista\nsyngraphein;] i.e. _These things_ (saith he) Ctesias _writes and feigns,\nbut he himself says all he has wrote is very true. Adding, that some\nthings which he describes, he had seen himself; and the others he had\nlearn'd from those that had seen them: That he had omitted a great many\nother things more wonderful, because he would not seem to those that have\nnot seen them, to write incredibilities_. But notwithstanding all this,\n_Lucian_[C] will not believe a word he saith; for he tells us that\n_Ctesias_ has wrote of _India_, [Greek: A maete autos eide, maete allou\neipontos aekousen], _What he neither saw himself, nor ever heard from any\nBody else._ And _Aristotle_ tells us plainly, he is not fit to be believed:\n[Greek: En de taei Indikaei hos phaesi Ktaesias, ouk on axiopistos.][D]\nAnd the same opinion _A. Gellius_[E] seems to have of him, as he had\nlikewise of several other old _Greek Historians_ which happened to fall\ninto his hands at _Brundusium_, in his return from _Greece_ into _Italy_;\nhe gives this Character of them and their performance: _Erant autem isti\nomnes libri Gr\u00e6ci, miraculorum fabularumque pleni: res inaudit\u00e6,\nincredul\u00e6, Scriptores veteres non parv\u00e6 authoritatis_, Aristeas\nProconnesius, & Isagonus, & Nic\u00e6ensis, & Ctesias, & Onesicritus, &\nPolystephanus, & Hegesias. Not that I think all that _Ctesias_ has wrote\nis fabulous; For tho' I cannot believe his _speaking Pygmies_, yet what he\nwrites of the _Bird_ he calls [Greek: Bittakos], that it would speak\n_Greek_ and the _Indian Language_, no doubt is very true; and as _H.\nStephens_[F] observes in his Apology for _Ctesias_, such a Relation would\nseem very surprising to one, that had never seen nor heard of a _Parrot_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Diodor. Siculi Bibliothec_. lib. 2. p.m. 118.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 14. p. 451.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Lucian_ lib 1. _ver\u00e6 Histor_. p.m. 373.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. cap. 28.]\n\n[Footnote E: _A. Gellij. Noctes. Attic._ lib. 9. cap. 4.]\n\n[Footnote F: _Henr. Stephani de Ctesia Historico antiquissimo disquisitio,\nad finem Herodoti._]\n\nBut this Story of _Ctesias_'s _speaking Pygmies_, seems to be confirm'd by\nthe Account that _Nonnosus_, the Emperour _Justinian_'s Ambassador into\n_\u00c6thiopia_, gives of his Travels. I will transcribe the Passage, as I find\nit in _Photius_,[A] and 'tis as follows:\n\n[Footnote A: _Photij. Bibliothec._ cod. 3. p.m. 7.]\n\n[Greek: Hoti apo taes pharsan pleonti toi Nonnosoi, epi taen eschataen ton\nnaeson kataentaekoti toion de ti synebae, thauma kai akousai. enetuche gar\ntisi morphaen men kai idean echousin anthropinaen, brachytatois de to\nmegethos, kai melasi taen chroan. hypo de trichon dedasysmenois dia pantos\ntou somatos. heiponto de tois andrasi kai gynaikes paraplaesiai kai\npaidaria eti brachytera, ton par autois andron. gymnoi de aesan hapantes;\nplaen dermati tini mikroi taen aido periekalypron, hoi probebaekotes\nhomoios andres te kai gynaikes. agrion de ouden eped eiknynto oude\nanaemeron; alla kai phonaen eichon men anthropinaen, agnoston de pantapasi\ntaen dialekton tois te perioikois hapasi, kai polloi pleon tois peri taen\nNonnoson, diezon de ek thalattion ostreion, kai ichthyon, ton apo taes\nthalassaes eis taen naeson aporrhiptomenon; tharsos de eichon ouden. alla\nkai horontes tous kath' haemas anthropous hypeptaesan, hosper haemeis ta\nmeiso ton thaerion.]\n\n_Naviganti \u00e0 Pharsa Nonoso, & ad extremam usque insularum delato, tale\nquid occurrit, vel ipso auditu admirandum. Incidit enim in quosdam forma\nquidem & figura humana, sed brevissimos, & cutem nigros, tot\u00famque pilosos\ncorpus. Sequebantur viros \u00e6quales foemin\u00e6, & pueri adhuc breviores. Nudi\nomnes agunt, pelle tantum brevi adultiores verenda tecti, viri pariter ac\nfoemin\u00e6: agreste nihil, neque efferum quid pr\u00e6 se ferentes. Quin & vox\nillis humana, sed omnibus, etiam accolis, prorsus ignota lingua, multoque\namplius Nonosi sociis. Vivunt marinis ostreis, & piscibus \u00e8 mari ad\ninsulam projectis. Audaces minime sunt, ut nostris conspectis hominibus,\nquemadmodum nos visa ingenti fera, metu perculsi fuerint._\n\n'That _Nonnosus_ sailing from _Pharsa_, when he came to the farthermost of\nthe Islands, a thing, very strange to be heard of, happened to him; for he\nlighted on some (_Animals_) in shape and appearance like _Men_, but little\nof stature, and of a black colour, and thick covered with hair all over\ntheir Bodies. The Women, who were of the same stature, followed the Men:\nThey were all naked, only the Elder of them, both Men and Women, covered\ntheir Privy Parts with a small Skin. They seemed not at all fierce or wild;\nthey had a Humane Voice, but their _Dialect_ was altogether unknown to\nevery Body that lived about them; much more to those that were with\n_Nonnosus_. They liv'd upon Sea Oysters, and Fish that were cast out of\nthe Sea, upon the Island. They had no Courage; for seeing our Men, they\nwere frighted, as we are at the sight of the greatest wild Beast.'\n\n[Greek: _phonaen eichon men anthropinaen_] I render here, _they had a\nHumane Voice_, not _Speech_: for had they spoke any Language, tho' their\n_Dialect_ might be somewhat different, yet no doubt but some of the\nNeighbourhood would have understood something of it, and not have been\nsuch utter Strangers to it. Now 'twas observed of the _Orang-Outang_, that\nit's _Voice_ was like the Humane, and it would make a Noise like a Child,\nbut never was observed to speak, tho' it had the _Organs_ of _Speech_\nexactly formed as they are in _Man_; and no Account that ever has been\ngiven of this Animal do's pretend that ever it did. I should rather agree\nto what _Pliny_[A] mentions, _Quibusdam pro Sermone nutus motusque\nMembrorum est_; and that they had no more a Speech than _Ctesias_ his\n_Cynocephali_ which could only bark, as the same _Pliny_[B] remarks; where\nhe saith, _In multis autem Montibus Genus Hominum Capitibus Caninis,\nferarum pellibus velari, pro voce latratum edere, unguibus armatum venatu\n& Aucupio vesci, horum supra Centum viginti Millia fuisse prodente se\nCtesias scribit._ But in _Photius_ I find, that _Ctesias's Cynocephali_\ndid speak the _Indian Language_ as well as the _Pygmies_. Those therefore\nin _Nonnosus_ since they did not speak the _Indian_, I doubt, spoke no\n_Language_ at all; or at least, no more than other _Brutes_ do.\n\n[Footnote A: _Plinij Nat. Hist._ lib. 6. cap. 30. p.m. 741.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Plinij. Nat. Hist._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 11.]\n\n_Ctesias_ I find is the only Author that ever understood what Language\n'twas that the _Pygmies_ spake: For _Herodotus_[A] owns that they use a\nsort of Tongue like to no other, but screech like _Bats_. He saith, [Greek:\nHoi Garamantes outoi tous troglodytas Aithiopas thaereuousi toisi\ntetrippoisi. Hoi gar Troglodytai aithiopes podas tachistoi anthropon\npanton eisi, ton hymeis peri logous apopheromenous akouomen. Siteontai de\nhoi Troglodytai ophis, kai Saurous, kai ta toiauta ton Herpeton. Glossan\nde oudemiaei allaei paromoiaen nenomikasi, alla tetrygasi kathaper hai\nnukterides;] i.e. _These_ Garamantes _hunt the_ Troglodyte \u00c6thiopians _in\nChariots with four Horses. The_ Troglodyte \u00c6thiopians _are the swiftest of\nfoot of all Men that ever he heard of by any Report. The_ Troglodytes _eat\nSerpents and Lizards, and such sort of Reptiles. They use a Language like\nto no other Tongue, but screech like Bats._\n\n[Footnote A: _Herodot. in Melpomene._ pag. 283.]\n\nNow that the _Pygmies_ are _Troglodytes_, or do live in Caves, is plain\nfrom _Aristotle_,[A] who saith, [Greek: Troglodytai de' eisi ton bion].\nAnd so _Philostratus_,[B] [Greek: Tous de pygmaious oikein men\nhypogeious]. And methinks _Le Compte_'s Relation concerning the _wild_ or\n_savage Man_ in _Borneo_, agrees so well with this, that I shall\ntranscribe it: for he tells us,[C] _That in_ Borneo _this_ wild _or_\nsavage Man _is indued with extraordinary strength; and not withstanding he\nwalks but upon two Legs, yet he is so swift of foot, that they have much\nado to outrun him. People of Quality course him, as we do Stags here: and\nthis sort of hunting is the King's usual divertisement._ And _Gassendus_\nin the Life of _Peiresky_, tells us they commonly hunt them too in\n_Angola_ in _Africa_, as I have already mentioned. So that very likely\n_Herodotus's Troglodyte \u00c6thiopians_ may be no other than our\n_Orang-Outang_ or _wild Man_. And the rather, because I fancy their\nLanguage is much the same: for an _Ape_ will chatter, and make a noise\nlike a _Bat_, as his _Troglodytes_ did: And they undergo to this day the\nsame Fate of being hunted, as formerly the _Troglodytes_ used to be by the\n_Garamantes_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Arist. Hist. Animal._, lib. 8. cap. 15. p.m. 913.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Philostrat. in vita Appollon. Tyan\u00e6i_, lib. 3. cap. 14. p.m.\n152.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Lewis le Compte_ Memoirs and Observations on _China_, p.m.\n510.]\n\nWhether those [Greek: andras mikrous metrion elassonas andron] which the\n_Nasamones_ met with (as _Herodotus_[A] relates) in their Travels to\ndiscover _Libya_, were the _Pygmies_; I will not determine: It seems that\n_Nasamones_ neither understood their Language, nor they that of the\n_Nasamones_. However, they were so kind to the _Nasamones_ as to be their\nGuides along the Lakes, and afterwards brought them to a City, [Greek: en\ntaei pantas einai toisi agousi to megethos isous, chroma de melanas], i.e.\n_in which all were of the same stature with the Guides, and black_. Now\nsince they were all _little black Men_, and their Language could not be\nunderstood, I do suspect they may be a Colony of the _Pygmies_: And that\nthey were no farther Guides to the _Nasamones_, than that being frighted\nat the sight of them, they ran home, and the _Nasamones_ followed them.\n\n[Footnote A: _Herodotus in Euterpe_ seu lib. 2. p.m. 102.]\n\nI do not find therefore any good Authority, unless you will reckon\n_Ctesias_ as such, that the _Pygmies_ ever used a Language or Speech, any\nmore than other _Brutes_ of the same _Species_ do among themselves, and\nthat we know nothing of, whatever _Democritus_ and _Melampodes_ in\n_Pliny_,[A] or _Apollonius Tyan\u00e6us_ in _Porphyry_[B] might formerly have\ndone. Had the _Pygmies_ ever spoke any _Language_ intelligible by Mankind,\nthis might have furnished our _Historians_ with notable Subjects for their\n_Novels_; and no doubt but we should have had plenty of them.\n\n[Footnote A: _Plinij Nat. Hist._ lib. 10. cap. 49.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Porphyrius de Abstinentia_, lib. 3. pag. m. 103.]\n\nBut _Albertus Magnus_, who was so lucky as to guess that the _Pygmies_\nwere a sort of _Apes_; that he should afterwards make these _Apes_ to\n_speak_, was very unfortunate, and spoiled all; and he do's it, methinks,\nso very awkwardly, that it is as difficult almost to understand his\nLanguage as his _Apes_; if the Reader has a mind to attempt it, he will\nfind it in the Margin.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Si qui Homines sunt Silvestres, sicut Pygmeus, non secundum\nunam rationem nobiscum dicti sunt Homines, sed aliquod habent Hominis in\nquadam deliberatione & Loquela, &c._ A little after adds, _Voces qu\u00e6dam\n(sc. Animalia) formant ad diversos conceptus quos habent, sicut Homo &\nPygm\u00e6us; & qu\u00e6dam non faciunt hoc, sicut multitudo fere tota aliorum\nAnimalium. Adhuc autem eorum qu\u00e6 ex ratione cogitativa formant voces,\nqu\u00e6dam sunt succumbentia, qu\u00e6dam autem non succumbentia. Dico autem\nsuccumbentia, \u00e0 conceptu Anim\u00e6 cadentia & mota ad Natur\u00e6 Instinctum, sicut\nPygmeus, qui non, sequitur rationem Loquel\u00e6 sed Natur\u00e6 Instinctum; Homo\nautem non succumbit sed sequitur rationem._ Albert. Magn. de Animal. lib.\n1. cap. 3. p.m. 3.]\n\nHad _Albertus_ only asserted, that the _Pygmies_ were a sort of _Apes_,\nhis Opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he\ncould have produced some Body that had heard them talk. But _Ulysses\nAldrovandus_[A] is so far from believing his _Ape Pygmies_ ever spoke,\nthat he utterly denies, that there were ever any such Creatures in being,\nas the _Pygmies_, at all; or that they ever fought the _Cranes_. _Cum\nitaque Pygm\u00e6os_ (saith he) _dari negemus, Grues etiam cum iis Bellum\ngerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne\njurantibus credemus._\n\n[Footnote A: _Ulys. Aldrovandi Ornitholog._ lib. 20. p.m. 344.]\n\nI find a great many very Learned Men are of this Opinion: And in the first\nplace, _Strabo_[A] is very positive; [Greek: Heorakos men gar oudeis\nexaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. _No Man worthy of belief did\never see them_. And upon all occasions he declares the same. So _Julius\nC\u00e6sar Scaliger_[B] makes them to be only a Fiction of the Ancients, _At\nh\u00e6c omnia_ (saith he) _Antiquorum figmenta & mer\u00e6 Nug\u00e6, si exstarent,\nreperirentur. At cum universus Orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi h\u00e6c\nNatur\u00e6 Excrementa reperiri certissimum est._ And _Isaac Casaubon_[C]\nridicules such as pretend to justifie them: _Sic nostra \u00e6tate_ (saith he)\n_non desunt, qui eandem de Pygm\u00e6is lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam\n\u00e8 Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. Legi etiam\nBergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. At non ego credulus\nilli, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo._ I shall add one Authority\nmore, and that is of _Adrian Spigelius,_ who produces a Witness that had\nexamined the very place, where the _Pygmies_ were said to be; yet upon a\ndiligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of\nthem.[D] _Spigelius_ therefore tells us, _Hoc loco de Pygm\u00e6is dicendum\nerat, qui [Greek: para pygonos] dicti \u00e0 statura, qu\u00e6 ulnam non excedunt.\nVer\u00f9m ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen_ Aristoteles\n_minim\u00e8 haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam._ 8. Hist. Animal. 12.\n_asseverat. Ego quo min\u00f9s hoc statuam, tum Authoritate prim\u00f9m Doctissimi_\nStrabonis I. Geograph. _coactus sum, tum potissim\u00f9m nunc moveor, quod\nnostro tempore, quo nulla Mundi pars est, quam Nautarum Industria non\nperlustrarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum.\nAccedit quod_ Franciscus Alvarez _Lusitanus, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit,\ncirca qu\u00e6 Aristoteles Pygm\u00e6os esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam\nGentem \u00e0 se conspectam tradidit, sed Populum esse Mediocris statur\u00e6, &_\n\u00c6thiopes _tradit._\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 17. p.m. 565.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Jul. C\u00e6s. Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib.\n8. \u00a7 126. p.m. 914.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Isaac Causabon Not\u00e6 & Castigat. in_ lib. 1. _Strabonis\nGeograph._ p.m. 38.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Adrian. Spigelij de Corporis Humani fabrica_, lib. 1. cap.\n7. p.m. 15.]\n\nI think my self therefore here obliged to make out, that there were such\nCreatures as _Pygmies_, before I determine what they were, since the very\nbeing of them is called in question, and utterly denied by so great Men,\nand by others too that might be here produced. Now in the doing this,\n_Aristotle_'s Assertion of them is so very positive, that I think there\nneeds not a greater or better Proof; and it is so remarkable a one, that I\nfind the very Enemies to this Opinion at a loss, how to shift it off. To\nlessen it's Authority they have interpolated the _Text_, by foisting into\nthe _Translation_ what is not in the Original; or by not translating at\nall the most material passage, that makes against them; or by miserably\nglossing it, to make him speak what he never intended: Such unfair\ndealings plainly argue, that at any rate they are willing to get rid of a\nProof, that otherwise they can neither deny, or answer.\n\n_Aristotle_'s Text is this, which I shall give with _Theodorus Gaza's_\nTranslation: for discoursing of the Migration of Birds, according to the\nSeason of the Year, from one Country to another, he saith:[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Aristotel. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. cap. 12.]\n\n[Greek: Meta men taen phthinoporinaen Isaemerian, ek tou Pontou kaiton\npsychron pheugonta ton epionta cheimona; meta de taen earinaen, ek ton\ntherinon, eis tous topous tous psychrous, phoboumena ta kaumata; ta men,\nkai ek ton engus topon poioumena tas metabolas, ta de, kai ek ton eschaton\nhos eipein, hoion hai geranoi poiousi. Metaballousi gar ek ton Skythikon\neis ta helae ta ano taes Aigyptou, othen ho Neilos rhei. Esti de ho topos\noutos peri on hoi pigmaioi katoikousin; ou gar esti touto mythos, all'\nesti kata taen alaetheian. Genos mikron men, hosper legetai, kai autoi kai\nhoi hippoi; Troglodytai d' eisi ton bion.]\n\n_Tam ab Autumnali \u00c6quinoctio ex Ponto, Locisque frigidis fugiunt Hyemem\nfuturam. A Verno autem ex tepida Regione ad frigidam sese conferunt, \u00e6stus\nmetu futuri: & alia de locis vicinis discedunt, alia de ultimis, prope\ndixerim, ut Grues faciunt, qu\u00e6 ex Scythicis Campis ad Paludes \u00c6gypto\nsuperiores, unde Nilus profluit, veniunt, quo in loco pugnare cum Pygm\u00e6is\ndicuntur. Non enim id fabula est, sed certe, genus tum hominum, tum etiam\nEquorum pusillum (ut dicitur) est, deguntque in Cavernis, unde Nomen\nTroglodyt\u00e6 a subeundis Cavernis accepere._\n\nIn English 'tis thus: 'At the _Autumnal \u00c6quinox_ they go out of _Pontus_\nand the cold Countreys to avoid the Winter that is coming on. At the\n_Vernal \u00c6quinox_ they pass from hot Countreys into cold ones, for fear of\nthe ensuing heat; some making their Migrations from nearer places; others\nfrom the most remote (as I may say) as the _Cranes_ do: for they come out\nof _Scythia_ to the Lakes above _\u00c6gypt_, whence the _Nile_ do's flow. This\nis the place, whereabout the _Pygmies_ dwell: For this is no _Fable_, but\na _Truth_. Both they and the Horses, as 'tis said, are a small kind. They\nare _Troglodytes_, or live in Caves.'\n\nWe may here observe how positive the _Philosopher_ is, that there are\n_Pygmies_; he tells us where they dwell, and that 'tis no Fable, but a\nTruth. But _Theodorus Gaza_ has been unjust in translating him, by\nfoisting in, _Quo in loco pugnare cum Pygm\u00e6is dicuntur_, whereas there is\nnothing in the Text that warrants it: As likewise, where he expresses the\nlittle Stature of the _Pygmies_ and the Horses, there _Gaza_ has rendered\nit, _Sed cert\u00e8 Genus tum Hominum, tum etiam Equorum pusillum_. _Aristotle_\nonly saith, [Greek: Genos mikron men hosper legetai, kai autoi, kai hoi\nhippoi]. He neither makes his _Pygmies Men_, nor saith any thing of their\nfighting the _Cranes_; tho' here he had a fair occasion, discoursing of\nthe Migration of the _Cranes_ out of _Scythia_ to the _Lakes_ above\n_\u00c6gypt_, where he tells us the _Pygmies_ are. Cardan[A] therefore must\ncertainly be out in his guess, that _Aristotle_ only asserted the\n_Pygmies_ out of Complement to his friend _Homer_; for surely then he\nwould not have forgot their fight with the _Cranes_; upon which occasion\nonly _Homer_ mentions them.[B] I should rather think that _Aristotle_,\nbeing sensible of the many Fables that had been raised on this occasion,\nstudiously avoided the mentioning this fight, that he might not give\ncountenance to the Extravagant Relations that had been made of it.\n\n[Footnote A: _Cardan de Rerum varietate_, lib. 8. cap. 40. p.m. 153.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Apparet ergo_ (saith _Cardan_) Pygm\u00e6orum Historiam esse\nfabulosam, quod &_ Strabo _sentit & nosira \u00e6tas, cum omnia nunc ferm\u00e8\norbis mirabilia innotuerint, declarat. Sed quod tantum Philosophum\ndecepit, fuit Homeri Auctoritas non apud illium levis.]\n\nBut I wonder that neither _Casaubon_ nor _Duvall_ in their Editions of\n_Aristotle_'s Works, should have taken notice of these Mistakes of _Gaza_,\nand corrected them. And _Gesner_, and _Aldrovandus_, and several other\nLearned Men, in quoting this place of _Aristotle_, do make use of this\nfaulty Translation, which must necessarily lead them into Mistakes. _Sam.\nBochartus_[A] tho' he gives _Aristotle_'s Text in Greek, and adds a new\nTranslation of it, he leaves out indeed the _Cranes_ fighting with the\n_Pygmies_, yet makes them _Men_, which _Aristotle_ do's not; and by\nanti-placing, _ut aiunt_, he renders _Aristotle_'s Assertion more dubious;\n_Neque enim_ (saith he in the Translation) _id est fabula, sed rever\u00e2, ut\naiunt, Genus ibi parvum est tam Hominum qu\u00e0m Equorum. Julius C\u00e6sar\nScaliger_ in translating this Text of _Aristotle_, omits both these\nInterpretations of _Gaza_; but on the other hand is no less to be blamed\nin not translating at all the most remarkable passage, and where the\nPhilosopher seems to be so much in earnest; as, [Greek: ou gar esti touto\nmythos, all' esti kata taen alaetheian], this he leaves wholly out,\nwithout giving us his reason for it, if he had any: And Scaliger's[B]\ninsinuation in his Comment, _viz. Negat esse fabulam de his (sc. Pygmeis)_\nHerodotus, _at Philosophus semper moderatus & prudens etiam addidit_,\n[Greek: hosper legetai], is not to be allowed. Nor can I assent to Sir\n_Thomas Brown_'s[C] remark upon this place; _Where indeed_ (saith he)\nAristotle _plays the_ Aristotle; _that is, the wary and evading asserter;\nfor tho' with_ non est fabula _he seems at first to confirm it, yet at\nlast he claps in,_ sicut aiunt, _and shakes the belief he placed before\nupon it. And therefore_ Scaliger (saith he) _hath not translated the\nfirst, perhaps supposing it surreptitious, or unworthy so great an\nAssertor._ But had _Scaliger_ known it to be surreptitious, no doubt but\nhe would have remarked it; and then there had been some Colour for the\nGloss. But 'tis unworthy to be believed of _Aristotle_, who was so wary\nand cautious, that he should in so short a passage, contradict himself:\nand after he had so positively affirmed the Truth of it, presently doubt\nit. His [Greek: hosper legetai] therefore must have a Reference to what\nfollows, _Pusillum genus, ut aiunt, ipsi atque etiam Equi_, as _Scaliger_\nhimself translates it.\n\n[Footnote A: _Bocharti Hierozoic. S. de Animalib. S. Script. part.\nPosterior_. lib. 1. cap. 11. p.m. 76.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. p.m.\n914.]\n\n[Footnote C: Sir _Thomas Brown_'s _Pseudodoxia_, or, _Enquiries into\nVulgar Errors_, lib. 4. cap. 11.]\n\nI do not here find _Aristotle_ asserting or confirming any thing of the\nfabulous Narrations that had been made about the _Pygmies_. He does not\nsay that they were [Greek: andres], or [Greek: anthropoi mikroi], or\n[Greek: melanes]; he only calls them [Greek: pygmaioi]. And discoursing of\nthe _Pygmies_ in a place, where he is only treating about _Brutes_, 'tis\nreasonable to think, that he looked upon them only as such. _This is the\nplace where the_ Pygmies _are; this is no fable,_ saith Aristotle, as 'tis\nthat they are a Dwarfish Race of Men; that they speak the _Indian_\nLanguage; that they are excellent Archers; that they are very Just; and\nabundance of other Things that are fabulously reported of them; and\nbecause he thought them _Fables_, he does not take the least notice of\nthem, but only saith, _This is no Fable, but a Truth, that about the Lakes\nof_ Nile such _Animals_, as are called _Pygmies_, do live. And, as if he\nhad foreseen, that the abundance of Fables that _Ctesias_ (whom he saith\nis not to be believed) and the _Indian Historians_ had invented about\nthem, would make the whole Story to appear as a Figment, and render it\ndoubtful, whether there were ever such Creatures as _Pygmies_ in Nature;\nhe more zealously asserts the _Being_ of them, and assures us, That _this\nis no Fable, but a Truth_.\n\nI shall therefore now enquire what sort of Creatures these _Pygmies_ were;\nand hope so to manage the Matter, as in a great measure, to abate the\nPassion these Great Men have had against them: for, no doubt, what has\nincensed them the most, was, the fabulous _Historians_ making them a part\nof _Mankind_, and then inventing a hundred ridiculous Stories about them,\nwhich they would impose upon the World as real Truths. If therefore they\nhave Satisfaction given them in these two Points, I do not see, but that\nthe Business may be accommodated very fairly; and that they may be allowed\nto be _Pygmies_, tho' we do not make them _Men_.\n\nFor I am not of _Gesner_'s mind, _Sed veterum nullus_ (saith he[A])\n_aliter de Pygm\u00e6is scripsit, qu\u00e0m Homunciones esse_. Had they been a Race\nof _Men_, no doubt but _Aristotle_ would have informed himself farther\nabout them. Such a Curiosity could not but have excited his Inquisitive\n_Genius_, to a stricter Enquiry and Examination; and we might easily have\nexpected from him a larger Account of them. But finding them, it may be, a\nsort of _Apes_, he only tells us, that in such a place these _Pygmies_\nlive.\n\n[Footnote A: _Gesner. Histor. Quadruped._ p.m. 885.]\n\nHerodotus[A] plainly makes them _Brutes_: For reckoning up the _Animals_\nof _Libya_, he tells us, [Greek: Kai gar hoi ophies hoi hypermegathees,\nkai hoi leontes kata toutous eisi, kai hoi elephantes te kai arktoi, kai\naspides te kai onoi hoi ta kerata echontes; kai hoi kynokephaloi\n(akephaloi) hoi en toisi staethesi tous ophthalmous echontes (hos dae\nlegetai ge hypo libyon) kai agrioi andres, kai gynaikes agriai kai alla\nplaethei polla thaeria akatapseusta;] i.e. _That there are here prodigious\nlarge Serpents, and Lions, and Elephants, and Bears, and Asps, and Asses\nthat have horns, and Cynocephali,_ (in the Margin 'tis _Acephali_) _that\nhave Eyes in their Breast, (as is reported by the Libyans) and wild Men,\nand wild Women, and a great many other wild Beasts that are not fabulous._\nTis evident therefore that _Herodotus_ his [Greek: agrioi andres, kai\ngynaikes agriai] are only [Greek: thaeria] or wild Beasts: and tho' they\nare called [Greek: andres], they are no more _Men_ than our\n_Orang-Outang_, or _Homo_ _Sylvestris_, or _wild Man_, which has exactly\nthe same Name, and I must confess I can't but think is the same Animal:\nand that the same Name has been continued down to us, from his Time, and\nit may be from _Homer's_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Herodot. Melpomene seu_ lib. 4. p.m. 285.]\n\nSo _Philostratus_ speaking of _\u00c6thiopia_ and _\u00c6gypt_, tells us,[A] [Greek:\nBoskousi de kai thaeria hoia ouch heterothi; kai anthropous melanas, ho\nmae allai aepeiroi. Pygmaion te en autais ethnae kai hylaktounton allo\nallaei.] i.e. _Here are bred wild Beasts that are not in other places; and\nblack Men, which no other Country affords: and amongst them is the Nation\nof the Pygmies, and the_ BARKERS, that is, the _Cynocephali._ For tho'\n_Philostratus_ is pleased here only to call them _Barkers_, and to reckon\nthem, as he does the _Black Men_ and the _Pygmies_ amongst the _wild\nBeasts_ of those Countreys; yet _Ctesias_, from whom _Philostratus_ has\nborrowed a great deal of his _Natural History_, stiles them _Men_, and\nmakes them speak, and to perform most notable Feats in Merchandising. But\nnot being in a merry Humour it may be now, before he was aware, he speaks\nTruth: For _C\u00e6lius Rhodiginus's_[B] Character of him is, _Philostratus\nomnium qui unquam Historiam conscripserunt, mendacissimus._\n\n[Footnote A: _Philostratus in vita Apollon. Tyan\u00e6i_, lib. 6. cap. 1. p.m.\n258.]\n\n[Footnote B: _C\u00e6lij Rhodigini Lection. Antiq._ lib. 17. cap. 13.]\n\nSince the _Pygmies_ therefore are some of the _Brute Beasts_ that\nnaturally breed in these Countries, and they are pleased to let us know as\nmuch, I can easily excuse them a Name. [Greek: Andres agrioi], or\n_Orang-Outang_, is alike to me; and I am better pleased with _Homer_'s\n[Greek: andres pygmaioi], than if he had called [Greek: pithaekoi]. Had\nthis been the only Instance where they had misapplied the Name of _Man_,\nmethinks I could be so good natur'd, as in some measure to make an Apology\nfor them. But finding them, so extravagantly loose, so wretchedly\nwhimsical, in abusing the Dignity of Mankind, by giving the name of _Man_\nto such monstrous Productions of their idle Imaginations, as the _Indian\nHistorians_ have done, I do not wonder that wise Men have suspected all\nthat comes out of their Mint, to be false and counterfeit.\n\nSuch are their [Greek: Amykteres] or [Greek: Arrines], that want Noses,\nand have only two holes above their Mouth; they eat all things, but they\nmust be raw; they are short lived; the upper part of their Mouths is very\nprominent. The [Greek: Enotokeitai], whose Ears reach down to their Heels,\non which they lye and sleep. The [Greek: Astomoi], that have no Mouths, a\ncivil sort of People, that dwell about the Head of the _Ganges_; and live\nupon smelling to boil'd Meats and the Odours of Fruits and Flowers; they\ncan bear no ill scent, and therefore can't live in a Camp. The [Greek:\nMonommatoi] or [Greek: Monophthalmoi], that have but one Eye, and that in\nthe middle of their Foreheads: they have Dog's Ears; their Hair stands an\nend, but smooth on the Breasts. The [Greek: Sternophthalmoi], that have\nEyes in their Breasts. The [Greek: Panai sphaenokephaloi] with Heads like\nWedges. The [Greek: Makrokephaloi], with great Heads. The [Greek:\nhyperboreoi], who live a Thousand years. The [Greek: okypodes], so swift\nthat they will out-run a Horse. The [Greek: opiothodaktyloi], that go with\ntheir Heels forward, and their Toes backwards. The [Greek: Makroskeleis],\nThe [Greek: Steganopodes], The [Greek: Monoskeleis], who have one Leg, but\nwill jump a great way, and are call'd _Sciapodes_, because when they lye\non their Backs, with this _Leg_ they can keep off the Sun from their\nBodies.\n\nNow _Strabo_[A] from whom I have collected the Description of these\nMonstrous sorts of _Men_, and they are mentioned too by _Pliny, Solinus,\nMela, Philostratus_, and others; and _Munster_ in his _Cosmography_[B] has\ngiven a _figure_ of some of them; _Strabo_, I say, who was an Enemy to all\nsuch fabulous Relations, no doubt was prejudiced likewise against the\n_Pygmies_, because these _Historians_ had made them a Puny Race of _Men_,\nand invented so many Romances about them. I can no ways therefore blame\nhim for denying, that there were ever any such _Men Pygmies_; and do\nreadily agree with him, that no _Man_ ever saw them: and am so far from\ndissenting from those Great Men, who have denied them on this account,\nthat I think they have all the reason in the World on their side. And to\nshew how ready I am to close with them in this Point, I will here examine\nthe contrary Opinion, and what Reasons they give for the supporting it:\nFor there have been some _Moderns_, as well as the _Ancients_, that have\nmaintained that these _Pygmies_ were real _Men_. And this they pretend to\nprove, both from _Humane Authority_ and _Divine_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 15. p.m. 489. & lib. 2. p. 48. _&\nalibi_.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Munster Cosmograph._ lib. 6. p. 1151.]\n\nNow by _Men Pygmies_ we are by no means to understand _Dwarfs_. In all\nCountries, and in all Ages, there has been now and then observed such\n_Miniture_ of Mankind, or under-sized Men. _Cardan_[A] tells us he saw one\ncarried about in a Parrot's Cage, that was but a Cubit high.\n_Nicephorus_[B] tells us, that in _Theodosius_ the Emperour's time, there\nwas one in _\u00c6gypt_ that was no bigger than a Partridge; yet what was to be\nadmired, he was very Prudent, had a sweet clear Voice, and a generous Mind;\nand lived Twenty Years. So likewise a King of _Portugal_ sent to a Duke\nof _Savoy_, when he married his Daughter to him, an _\u00c6thiopian Dwarf_ but\nthree Palms high.[C] And _Thevenot_[D] tells us of the Present made by the\nKing of the _Abyssins_, to the _Grand Seignior_, of several _little black\nSlaves_ out of _Nubia_, and the Countries near _\u00c6thiopia_, which being\nmade _Eunuchs_, were to guard the Ladies of the _Seraglio_. And a great\nmany such like Relations there are. But these being only _Dwarfs_, they\nmust not be esteemed the _Pygmies_ we are enquiring about, which are\nrepresented as a _Nation_, and the whole Race of them to be of the like\nstature. _Dari tamen integras Pumilionum Gentes, tam falsum est, qu\u00e0m quod\nfalsissimum_, saith _Harduin_.[E]\n\n[Footnote A: _Cardan de subtilitate_, lib. 11. p. 458.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Nicephor. Histor. Ecclesiiast._ lib. 12. cap. 37.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Happelius in Relat. curiosis_, No. 85. p. 677.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Thevenot. Voyage de Levant._ lib. 2. c. 68.]\n\n[Footnote E: _Jo. Harduini Not\u00e6 in Plinij Nat. Hist._ lib. 6. cap. 22. p.\n688.]\n\nNeither likewise must it be granted, that tho' in some _Climates_ there\nmight be _Men_ generally of less stature, than what are to be met with in\nother Countries, that they are presently _Pygmies_. _Nature_ has not fixed\nthe same standard to the growth of _Mankind_ in all Places alike, no more\nthan to _Brutes_ or _Plants_. The Dimensions of them all, according to the\n_Climate_, may differ. If we consult the Original, _viz. Homer_ that first\nmentioned the _Pygmies_, there are only these two _Characteristics_ he\ngives of them. That they are [Greek: Pygmaioi] _seu Cubitales_; and that\nthe _Cranes_ did use to fight them. 'Tis true, as a _Poet_, he calls them\n[Greek: andres], which I have accounted for before. Now if there cannot be\nfound such _Men_ as are _Cubitales_, that the _Cranes_ might probably\nfight with, notwithstanding all the Romances of the _Indian Historians_, I\ncannot think these _Pygmies_ to be _Men_, but they must be some other\n_Animals_, or the whole must be a Fiction.\n\nHaving premised this, we will now enquire into their Assertion that\nmaintain the _Pygmies_ to be a Race of _Men_. Now because there have been\n_Giants_ formerly, that have so much exceeded the usual Stature of _Man_,\nthat there must be likewise _Pygmies_ as defective in the other extream\nfrom this Standard, I think is no conclusive Argument, tho' made use of by\nsome. Old _Caspar Bartholine_[A] tells us, that because _J. Cassanius_ and\nothers had wrote _de Gygantibus_, since no Body else had undertaken it, he\nwould give us a Book _de Pygm\u00e6is_; and since he makes it his design to\nprove the Existence of _Pygmies_, and that the _Pygmies_ were _Men_, I\nmust confess I expected great Matters from him.\n\n[Footnote A: _Caspar. Bartholin. Opusculum de Pygm\u00e6is._]\n\nBut I do not find he has informed us of any thing more of them, than what\n_Jo. Talentonius_, a Professor formerly at _Parma_, had told us before in\nhis _Variarum & Reconditarum Rerum Thesaurus_,[A] from whom he has\nborrowed most of this _Tract_. He has made it a little more formal indeed,\nby dividing it into _Chapters_; of which I will give you the _Titles_; and\nas I see occasion, some Remarks thereon: They will not be many, because I\nhave prevented my self already. The _first Chapter_ is, _De Homuncionibus\n& Pumilionilus seu Nanis \u00e0 Pygm\u00e6is distinctis_. The _second Chapter, De\nPygm\u00e6i nominibus & Etymologia_. The _third Chapter, Duplex esse Pygm\u00e6orum\nGenus; & primum Genus aliquando dari_. He means _Dwarfs_, that are no\n_Pygmies_ at all. The _fourth Chapter_ is, _Alterum Genus, nempe Gentem\nPygm\u00e6orum esse, aut saltem aliquando fuisse Autoritatibus Humanis, fide\ntamen dignorum asseritur_. 'Tis as I find it printed; and no doubt an\nError in the printing. The Authorities he gives, are, _Homer, Ctesias,\nAristotle, Philostratus, Pliny, Juvenal, Oppian, Baptista Mantuan_, St.\n_Austin_ and his _Scholiast. Ludovic. Vives, Jo. Laurentius Anania, Joh.\nCassanius, Joh. Talentonius, Gellius, Pomp. Mela_, and _Olaus Magnus_. I\nhave taken notice of most of them already, as I shall of St. _Austin_ and\n_Ludovicus Vives_ by and by. _Jo. Laurentius Anania_[B] ex Mercatorum\nrelatione tradit (saith _Bartholine_) eos _(sc. Pygm\u00e6os) in\nSeptentrionali Thraci\u00e6 Parte reperiri, (qu\u00e6 Scythi\u00e6 est proxima) atque ibi\ncum Gruibus pugnare_. And _Joh. Cassanius_[C] (as he is here quoted)\nsaith, _De Pygm\u00e6is fabulosa quidem esse omnia, qu\u00e6 de iis narrari solent,\naliquando existimavi. Ver\u00f9m cum videam non unum vel alterum, sed complures\nClassicos & probatos Autores de his Homunculis multa in eandem fere\nSententiam tradidisse; e\u00f2 adducor ut Pygm\u00e6os fuisse inficiari non ausim._\nHe next brings in _Jo. Talentonius_, to whom he is so much beholden, and\nquotes his Opinion, which is full and home, _Constare arbitror_ (saith\n_Talentonius_)[D] _debere concedi, Pygm\u00e6os non sol\u00f9m olim fuisse, sed nunc\netiam esse, & homines esse, nec parvitatem illis impedimenta esse quo\nmin\u00f9s sint & homines sint._ But were there such _Men Pygmies_ now in\nbeing, no doubt but we must have heard of them; some or other of our\nSaylors, in their Voyages, would have lighted on them. Tho' _Aristotle_ is\nhere quoted, yet he does not make them _Men_; So neither does _Anania_:\nAnd I must own, tho' _Talentonius_ be of this Opinion, yet he takes notice\nof the faulty Translation of this Text of _Aristotle_ by _Gaza_: and tho'\nthe parvity or lowness of Stature, be no Impediment, because we have\nfrequently seen such _Dwarf-Men_, yet we did never see a _Nation_ of them:\nFor then there would be no need of that _Talmudical_ Precept which _Job.\nLudolphus_[E] mentions, _Nanus ne ducat Nanam, ne fort\u00e8 oriatur ex iis\nDigitalis_ (in _Bechor_. fol. 45).\n\n[Footnote A: _Jo. Talentionij. Variar. & Recondit. Rerum. Thesaurus._ lib.\n3. cap. 21.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Joh. Laurent. Anania prope finem tractatus primi su\u00e6\nGeograph._]\n\n[Footnote C: _Joh. Cassanius libello de Gygantibus_, p. 73.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Jo. Talentonius Variar. & recondit. Rerum Thesaurus_, lib. 3.\ncap. 21. p.m. 515.]\n\n[Footnote E: _Job Ludolphi Comment. in Historiam \u00c6thiopic._ p.m. 71.]\n\nI had almost forgotten _Olaus Magnus_, whom _Bartholine_ mentions in the\nclose of this Chapter, but lays no great stress upon his Authority,\nbecause he tells us, he is fabulous in a great many other Relations, and\nhe writes but by hear-say, that the _Greenlanders_ fight the _Cranes_;\n_Tandem_ (saith _Bartholine_) _neque ideo Pygm\u00e6i sunt, si fort\u00e8 sagittis &\nhastis, sicut alij homines, Grues conficiunt & occidunt._ This I think is\ngreat Partiality: For _Ctesias_, an Author whom upon all turns\n_Bartholine_ makes use of as an Evidence, is very positive, that the\n_Pygmies_ were excellent _Archers_: so that he himself owns, that their\nbeing such, illustrates very much that _Text_ in _Ezekiel_, on which he\nspends good part of the next _Chapter_, whose Title is, _Pygm\u00e6orum Gens ex\nEzekiele, atque rationibus probabilibus adstruitur_; which we will\nconsider by and by. And tho' _Olaus Magnus_ may write some things by\nhear-say, yet he cannot be so fabulous as _Ctesias_, who (as _Lucian_\ntells us) writes what he neither saw himself, or heard from any Body else.\nNot that I think _Olaus Magnus_ his _Greenlanders_ were real _Pygmies_, no\nmore than _Ctesias_ his _Pygmies_ were real _Men_; tho' he vouches very\nnotably for them. And if all that have copied this Fable from _Ctesias_,\nmust be look'd upon as the same Evidence with himself; the number of the\n_Testimonies_ produced need not much concern us, since they must all stand\nor fall with him.\n\nThe _probable Reasons_ that _Bartholine_ gives in the _fifth Chapter_, are\ntaken from other _Animals_, as Sheep, Oxen, Horses, Dogs, the _Indian\nFormica_ and Plants: For observing in the same _Species_ some excessive\nlarge, and others extreamly little, he infers, _Qu\u00e6 cert\u00e8 cum in\nAnimalibus & Vegetabilibus fiant; cur in Humana specie non sit probabile,\nhaud video: imprimis cum detur magnitudinis excessus Gigant\u00e6us; cur non\netiam dabitur Defectus? Quia ergo dantur Gigantes, dabuntur & Pygm\u00e6i. Quam\nconsequentiam ut firmam, admittit Cardanus,[A] licet de Pygm\u00e6is hoc tant\u00f9m\nconcedat, qui pro miraculo, non pro Gente._ Now Cardan, tho' he allows\nthis Consequence, yet in the same place he gives several Reasons why the\n_Pygmies_ could not be _Men_, and looks upon the whole Story as fabulous.\n_Bartholine_ concludes this _Chapter_ thus: _Ulteri\u00f9s ut Probabilitatem\nfulciamus, addendum Sceleton Pygm\u00e6i, quod_ Dresd\u00e6 _vidimus inter alia\nplurima, servatum in Arce sereniss._ Electoris Saxoni\u00e6, _altitudine infra\nCubitum, Ossium soliditate, proportioneque tum Capitis, tum aliorum; ut\nEmbrionem, aut Artificiale quid Nemo rerum peritus suspicari possit.\nAddita insuper est Inscriptio_ Veri Pygm\u00e6i. I hereupon looked into Dr.\n_Brown_'s Travels into those Parts, who has given us a large Catalogue of\nthe Curiosities, the _Elector_ of _Saxony_ had at _Dresden_, but did not\nfind amongst them this _Sceleton_; which, by the largeness of the Head, I\nsuspect to be the _Sceleton_ of an _Orang-Outang_, or our _wild Man_. But\nhad he given us either a figure of it, or a more particular Description,\nit had been a far greater Satisfaction.\n\n[Footnote A: _Cardan. de Rerum varietate_, lib. 8. cap. 40.]\n\nThe Title of _Bartholine_'s _sixth Chapter_ is, _Pygm\u00e6os esse aut fuisse\nex variis eorum adjunctis, accidentibus_, &c. _ab Authoribus descriptis\nostenditur_. As first, their _Magnitude_: which he mentions from _Ctesias,\nPliny, Gellius_, and _Juvenal_; and tho' they do not all agree exactly,\n'tis nothing. _Autorum hic dissensus nullus est_ (saith _Bartholine_)\n_etenim sicut in nostris hominibus, ita indubi\u00e8 in Pygm\u00e6is non omnes\nejusdem magnitudinis._ 2. The _Place_ and _Country_: As _Ctesias_ (he\nsaith) places them in the middle of _India_; _Aristotle_ and _Pliny_ at\nthe Lakes above _\u00c6gypt_; _Homer_'s _Scholiast_ in the middle of _\u00c6gypt_;\n_Pliny_ at another time saith they are at the Head of the _Ganges_, and\nsometimes at _Gerania_, which is in _Thracia_, which being near _Scythia_,\nconfirms (he saith) _Anania's Relation_. _Mela_ places them at the\n_Arabian Gulf_; and _Paulus Jovius docet Pygm\u00e6os ultra Japonem esse_; and\nadds, _has Autorum dissensiones facile fuerit conciliare; nec mirum\ndiversas relationes \u00e0_, Plinio _auditas._ For (saith he) as the _Tartars_\noften change their Seats, since they do not live in Houses, but in Tents,\nso 'tis no wonder that the _Pygmies_ often change theirs, since instead of\nHouses, they live in Caves or Huts, built of Mud, Feathers, and\nEgg-shells. And this mutation of their Habitations he thinks is very plain\nfrom _Pliny_, where speaking of _Gerania_, he saith, _Pygm\u00e6orum Gens_\nfuisse _(non jam esse) proditur, creduntque \u00e0 Gruibus fugatos._ Which\npassage (saith _Bartholine_) had _Adrian Spigelius_ considered, he would\nnot so soon have left _Aristotle's_ Opinion, because _Franc. Alvares_ the\n_Portuguese_ did not find them in the place where _Aristotle_ left them;\nfor the _Cranes_, it may be, had driven them thence. His third Article is,\ntheir _Habitation_, which _Aristotle_ saith is in _Caves_; hence they are\n_Troglodytes_. _Pliny_ tells us they build Huts with Mud, Feathers, and\nEgg-shells. But what _Bartholine_ adds, _E\u00f2 quod Terr\u00e6 Cavernas\ninhabitent, non injuri\u00e2 dicti sunt olim Pygm\u00e6i, Terr\u00e6 filii_, is wholly\nnew to me, and I have not met with it in any Author before: tho' he gives\nus here several other significations of the word _Terr\u00e6 filij_ from a\ngreat many Authors, which I will not trouble you at present with. 4. The\n_Form_, being flat nosed and ugly, as _Ctesias_. 5. Their _Speech_, which\nwas the same as the _Indians_, as _Ctesias_; and for this I find he has no\nother Author. 6. Their _Hair_; where he quotes _Ctesias_ again, that they\nmake use of it for _Clothes_. 7. Their _Vertues and Arts_; as that they\nuse the same Laws as the _Indians_, are very just, excellent Archers, and\nthat the King of _India_ has Three thousand of them in his Guards. All\nfrom _Ctesias_. 8. Their _Animals_, as in _Ctesias_; and here are\nmentioned their Sheep, Oxen, Asses, Mules, and Horses. 9. Their various\n_Actions_; as what _Ctesias_ relates of their killing Hares and Foxes with\nCrows, Eagles, &c. and fighting the _Cranes_, as _Homer, Pliny, Juvenal_.\n\nThe _seventh Chapter_ in _Bartholine_ has a promising Title, _An Pygm\u00e6i\nsint homines_, and I expected here something more to our purpose; but I\nfind he rather endeavours to answer the Reasons of those that would make\nthem _Apes_, than to lay down any of his own to prove them _Men_. And\n_Albertus Magnus's_ Opinion he thinks absurd, that makes them part Men\npart Beasts; they must be either one or the other, not a _Medium_ between\nboth; and to make out this, he gives us a large Quotation out of _Cardan_.\nBut _Cardan_[A] in the same place argues that they are not Men. As to\n_Suessanus_[B] his Argument, that they want _Reason_, this he will not\nGrant; but if they use it less or more imperfectly than others (which yet,\nhe saith, is not certain) by the same parity of Reason _Children_, the\n_Boeotians_, _Cumani_ and _Naturals_ may not be reckoned _Men_; and he\nthinks, what he has mentioned in the preceding _Chapter_ out of _Ctesias_,\n&c. shews that they have no small use of Reason. As to _Suessanus_'s\nnext Argument, that they want Religion, Justice, &c. this, he saith, is\nnot confirmed by any grave Writer; and if it was, yet it would not prove\nthat they are not _Men_. For this defect (he saith) might hence happen,\nbecause they are forced to live in _Caves_ for fear of the _Cranes_; and\nothers besides them, are herein faulty. For this Opinion, that the\n_Pygmies_ were _Apes_ and not _Men_, he quotes likewise _Benedictus\nVarchius_,[C] and _Joh. Tinnulus_,[D] and _Paulus Jovius_,[E] and several\nothers of the Moderns, he tells us, are of the same mind. _Imprimis\nGeographici quos non puduit in Mappis Geographicis loco Pygm\u00e6orum simias\ncum Gruibus pugnantes ridicul\u00e8 dipinxisse._\n\n[Footnote A: _Cardan. de Rerum varietate_, lib. 8. cap. 40.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Suessanus Comment. in Arist. de Histor. Animal._ lib. 8.\ncap. 12.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Benedict. Varchius de Monstris. lingua vernacula._]\n\n[Footnote D: _Joh. Tinnulus in Glotto-Chrysio._]\n\n[Footnote E: _Paulus Jovius lib. de Muscovit. Legalione._]\n\nThe Title of _Bartholine's eighth_ and last _Chapter_ is, _Argumenta eorum\nqui Pygm\u00e6orum Historiam fabulosam censent, recitantur & refutantur._ Where\nhe tells us, the only Person amongst the Ancients that thought the Story\nof the _Pygmies_ to be fabulous was _Strabo_; but amongst the Moderns\nthere are several, as _Cardan, Bud\u00e6us, Aldrovandus, Fullerus_ and others.\nThe first Objection (he saith) is that of _Spigelius_ and others; that\nsince the whole World is now discovered, how happens it, that these\n_Pygmies_ are not to be met with? He has seven Answers to this Objection;\nhow satisfactory they are, the Reader may judge, if he pleases, by\nperusing them amongst the Quotations.[A] _Cardan_'s second Objection (he\nsaith) is, that they live but eight years, whence several Inconveniences\nwould happen, as _Cardan_ shews; he answers that no good Author asserts\nthis; and if there was, yet what _Cardan_ urges would not follow; and\ninstances out of _Artemidorus_ in _Pliny_,[B] as a _Parallel_ in the\n_Caling\u00e6_ a Nation in _India, where the Women conceive when five years\nold, and do not live above eight._ _Gesner_ speaking of the _Pygmies_,\nsaith, _Vit\u00e6 autem longitudo anni arciter octo ut_ Albertus _refert._\n_Cardan_ perhaps had his Authority from _Albertus_, or it may be both took\nit from this passage in _Pliny_, which I think would better agree to\n_Apes_ than _Men_. But _Artemidorus_ being an _Indian Historian_, and in\nthe same place telling other Romances, the less Credit is to be given to\nhim. The third Objection, he saith, is of _Cornelius \u00e0 Lapide_, who denies\nthe _Pygmies_, because _Homer_ was the first Author of them. The fourth\nObjection he saith is, because Authors differ about the Place where they\nshould be: This, he tells us, he has answered already in the fifth\nChapter. The _fifth_ and last Objection he mentions is, that but few have\nseen them. He answers, there are a great many Wonders in Sacred and\nProfane History that we have not seen, yet must not deny. And he instances\nin three; As the _Formic\u00e6 Indic\u00e6_, which are as big as great Dogs: The\n_Cornu Plantabile_ in the Island _Goa_, which when cut off from the Beast,\nand flung upon the Ground, will take root like a _Cabbage_: and the\n_Scotland Geese_ that grow upon Trees, for which he quotes a great many\nAuthors, and so concludes.\n\n[Footnote A: _Respondeo._ 1. _Contrarium testari Mercatorum Relationem\napud_ Ananiam _supra Cap. 4._ 2. _Et licet non inventi essent vivi \u00e0\nquolibet, pari jure Monocerota & alia negare liceret._ 3. _Qui maria\npernavigant, vix oras paucas maritimas lustrant, adeo non terras omnes \u00e0\nmari dissitas._ 4. _Neque in Oris illos habitare maritimis ex Capite\nquinto manifestum est._ 5. _Quis testatum se omnem adhibuisse diligentiam\nin inquirendo eos ut inveniret._ 6. _Ita in terra habitant, ut in Antris\nvitam tolerare dicantur._ 7. _Si vel maxim\u00e8 omni ab omnibus diligentia\nqu\u00e6siti fuissent, nec inventi; fieri potest, ut instar Gigantum jam\ndesierint nec sint ampli\u00f9s_.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Plinij Hist. Nat._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 14.]\n\nNow how far _Bartholine_ in his Treatise has made out that the _Pygmies_\nof the Ancients were real _Men_, either from the Authorities he has\nquoted, or his Reasonings upon them, I submit to the Reader. I shall\nproceed now (as I promised) to consider the Proof they pretend from _Holy\nWrit_: For _Bartholine_ and others insist upon that _Text_ in _Ezekiel_\n(_Cap. 27. Vers. 11_) where the _Vulgar_ Translation has it thus; _Filij\nArvad cum Exercitu tuo supra Muros tuos per circuitum, & Pygm\u00e6i in\nTurribus tuis fuerunt; Scuta sua suspenderunt supra Muros tuos per\ncircuitum._ Now _Talentonius_ and _Bartholine_ think that what _Ctesias_\nrelates of the _Pygmies_, as their being good _Archers_, very well\nillustrates this Text of _Ezekiel_: I shall here transcribe what Sir\n_Thomas Brown_[A] remarks upon it; and if any one requires further\nSatisfaction, they may consult _Job Ludolphus's Comment_ on his _\u00c6thiopic\nHistory_.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Sir _Thomas Brown's Enquiries into Vulgar Errors_, lib. 4.\ncap. 11. p. 242.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Comment. in Hist. \u00c6thiopic._ p. 73.]\n\nThe _second Testimony_ (saith Sir _Thomas Brown_) _is deduced from Holy\nScripture; thus rendered in the Vulgar Translation_, Sed & Pygm\u00e6i qui\nerant in turribus tuis, pharetras suas suspenderunt in muris tuis per\ngyrum: _from whence notwithstanding we cannot infer this Assertion, for\nfirst the Translators accord not, and the Hebrew word_ Gammadim _is very\nvariously rendered. Though_ Aquila, Vatablus _and_ Lyra _will have it_\nPygm\u00e6i, _yet in the_ Septuagint, _it is no more than Watchman; and so in\nthe_ Arabick _and_ High-Dutch. _In the_ Chalde, Cappadocians, _in_\nSymmachus, Medes, _and in the_ French, _those of_ Gamed. Theodotian _of\nold, and_ Tremillius _of late, have retained the Textuary word; and so\nhave the_ Italian, Low Dutch, _and_ English _Translators, that is, the Men\nof_ Arvad _were upon thy Walls round about, and the_ Gammadims _were in\nthy Towers._\n\n_Nor do Men only dissent in the Translation of the word, but in the\nExposition of the Sense and Meaning thereof; for some by_ Gammadims\n_understand a People of_ Syria, _so called from the City of_ Gamala; _some\nhereby understand the_ Cappadocians, _many the_ Medes: _and hereof_\nForerius _hath a singular Exposition, conceiving the Watchmen of_ Tyre,\n_might well be called_ Pygmies, _the Towers of that City being so high,\nthat unto Men below, they appeared in a Cubital Stature. Others expound it\nquite contrary to common Acception, that is not Men of the least, but of\nthe largest size; so doth_ Cornelius _construe_ Pygm\u00e6i, _or_ Viri\nCubitales, _that is, not Men of a Cubit high, but of the largest Stature,\nwhose height like that of Giants, is rather to be taken by the Cubit than\nthe Foot; in which phrase we read the measure of_ Goliah, _whose height is\nsaid to be six Cubits and span. Of affinity hereto is also the Exposition\nof_ Jerom; _not taking_ Pygmies _for Dwarfs, but stout and valiant\nChampions; not taking the sense of [Greek: pygmae], which signifies the\nCubit measure, but that which expresseth Pugils; that is, Men fit for\nCombat and the Exercise of the Fist. Thus there can be no satisfying\nillation from this Text, the diversity, or rather contrariety of\nExpositions and Interpretations, distracting more than confirming the\nTruth of the Story._\n\nBut why _Aldrovandus_ or _Caspar Bartholine_ should bring in St. _Austin_\nas a Favourer of this Opinion of _Men Pygmies_, I see no Reason. To me he\nseems to assert quite the contrary: For proposing this Question, _An ex\npropagine_ Adam _vel filiorum_ Noe, _qu\u00e6dam genera Hominum Monstrosa\nprodierunt?_ He mentions a great many monstrous Nations of _Men_, as they\nare described by the _Indian Historians_, and amongst the rest, the\n_Pygmies_, the _Sciopodes_, &c. And adds, _Quid dicam de_ Cynocephalis,\n_quorum Canina Capita atque ipse Latratus magis Bestias qu\u00e0m Homines\nconfitentur? Sed omnia Genera Hominum, qu\u00e6 dicuntur esse, esse credere,\nnon est necesse._ And afterwards so fully expresses himself in favour of\nthe _Hypothesis_ I am here maintaining, that I think it a great\nConfirmation of it. _Nam & Simias_ (saith he) _& Cercopithecos, &\nSphingas, si nesciremus non Homines esse, sed Bestias, possent isti\nHistorici de sua Curiositate gloriantes velut Gentes Aliquas Hominum nobis\nimpunit\u00e2 vanitate mentiri._ At last he concludes and determines the\nQuestion thus, _Aut illa, qu\u00e6 talia de quibusdam Gentibus scripta sunt,\nomnino nulla sunt, aut si sunt, Homines non sunt, aut ex_ Adam _sunt si\nHomines sunt._\n\nThere is nothing therefore in St. _Austin_ that justifies the being of\n_Men Pygmies_, or that the _Pygmies_ were _Men_; he rather makes them\n_Apes_. And there is nothing in his _Scholiast Ludovicus Vives_ that tends\nthis way, he only quotes from other Authors, what might illustrate the\nText he is commenting upon, and no way asserts their being _Men_. I shall\ntherefore next enquire into _Bochartus_'s Opinion, who would have them to\nbe the _Nub\u00e6_ or _Nob\u00e6_. _Hos Nubas Troglodyticos_ (saith[A] he) _ad\nAvalitem Sinum esse Pygm\u00e6os Veterum multa probant._ He gives us five\nReasons to prove this. As, 1. The Authority of _Hesychius_, who saith,\n[Greek: Noboi Pygmaioi]. 2. Because _Homer_ places the _Pygmies_ near the\nOcean, where the Nub\u00e6 were. 3. _Aristotle_ places them at the lakes of the\n_Nile_. Now by the _Nile Bochartus_ tells us, we must understand the\n_Astaborus_, which the Ancients thought to be a Branch of the _Nile_, as\nhe proves from _Pliny, Solinus_ and _\u00c6thicus_. And _Ptolomy_ (he tells us)\nplaces the _Nub\u00e6_ hereabout. 4. Because _Aristotle_ makes the _Pygmies_ to\nbe _Troglodytes_, and so were the _Nub\u00e6_. 5. He urges that Story of\n_Nonnosus_ which I have already mentioned, and thinks that those that\n_Nonnosus_ met with, were a Colony of the _Nub\u00e6_; but afterwards adds,\n_Quos tamen absit ut putemus Statur\u00e2 fuisse Cubitali, prout Poet\u00e6 fingunt,\nqui omnia in majus augent._ But this methinks spoils them from being\n_Pygmies_; several other Nations at this rate may be _Pygmies_ as well as\nthese _Nub\u00e6_. Besides, he does not inform us, that these _Nub\u00e6_ used to\nfight the _Cranes_; and if they do not, and were not _Cubitales_, they\ncan't be _Homer_'s _Pygmies_, which we are enquiring after. But the Notion\nof their being _Men_, had so possessed him, that it put him upon fancying\nthey must be the _Nub\u00e6_; but 'tis plain that those in _Nonnosus_ could not\nbe a Colony of the _Nub\u00e6_; for then the _Nub\u00e6_ must have understood their\nLanguage, which the _Text_ saith, none of the Neighbourhood did. And\nbecause the _Nub\u00e6_ are _Troglodytes_, that therefore they must be\n_Pygmies_, is no Argument at all. For _Troglodytes_ here is used as an\n_Adjective_; and there is a sort of _Sparrow_ which is called _Passer\nTroglodytes_. Not but that in _Africa_ there was a Nation of _Men_ called\n_Troglodytes_, but quite different from our _Pygmies_. How far _Bochartus_\nmay be in the right, in guessing the Lakes of the _Nile_ (whereabout\n_Aristotle_ places the _Pygmies_) to be the Fountains of the River\n_Astaborus_, which in his description, and likewise the _Map_, he places\nin the Country of the _Avalit\u00e6_, near the _Mossylon Emporium_; I shall not\nenquire. This I am certain of, he misrepresents _Aristotle_ where he tells\nus,[B] _Quamvis in ea fabula hoc saltem verum esse asserat Philosophus,\nPusillos Homines in iis locis degere_: for as I have already observed;\n_Aristotle_ in that _Text_ saith nothing at all of their being _Men_: the\ncontrary rather might be thence inferred, that they were _Brutes_. And\n_Bochart's_ Translation, as well as _Gaza's_ is faulty here, and by no\nmeans to be allowed, _viz. Ut aiunt, genus ibi parvum est tam Hominum,\nqu\u00e0m Equorum_; which had _Bochartus_ considered he would not have been so\nfond it may be of his _Nub\u00e6_. And if the [Greek: Noboi Pygmaioi] in\n_Hesychius_ are such _Pygmies_ as _Bochartus_ makes his _Nub\u00e6, Quos tamen\nabsit ut putemus staturt\u00e2 fuisse Cubitali_, it will not do our business at\nall; and neither _Homer's_ Authority, nor _Aristotle's_ does him any\nService.\n\n[Footnote A: _Sam. Bochart. Geograph. Sacr\u00e6_, Part. 1. lib. 2. cap. 23.\np.m. 142.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Bocharti Hierozoici pars Posterior_, lib. I. cap. II. p.\n76.]\n\nBut this Fable of _Men Pygmies_ has not only obtained amongst the _Greeks_\nand _Indian Historians_: the _Arabians_ likewise tell much such Stories of\nthem, as the same learned _Bochartus_ informs us. I will give his Latin\nTranslation of one of them, which he has printed in _Arabick_ also:\n_Arabes idem_ (saith[A] _Bochartus_) _referunt ex cujusdam_ Gr\u00e6culi _fide,\nqui_ Jacobo Isaaci _filio_, Sigariensi _fertur ita narrasse_. _Navigabam\naliquando in mari_ Zingitano, _& impulit me ventus in quandam Insulam_.\n_In cujus Oppidum cum devenissem, reperi Incolas Cubitalis esse statur\u00e6, &\nplerosque Coclites. Quorum multitudo in me congregata me deduxit ad Regem\nsuum. Fussit is, ut Captivus detinerer; & inquandam Cave\u00e6 speciem\nconjectus sum; eos autem aliquando ad bellum instrui cum viderem, dixerunt\nHostem imminere, & fore ut propediem ingrueret. Nec mult\u00f2 post Gruum\nexercitus in eos insurrexit. Atque ideo erant Coclites, quod eorum oculos\nh\u00e6 confodissent. Atque Ego, virg\u00e2 assumpt\u00e2, in eas impetum feci, & ill\u00e6\navol\u00e2runt atque aufugerunt; ob quod facinus in honore fui apud illos_.\nThis Author, it seems, represents them under the same Misfortune with the\n_Poet_, who first mentioned them, as being blind, by having their Eyes\npeck'd out by their cruel Enemies. Such an Accident possibly might happen\nnow and then, in these bloody Engagements, tho' I wonder the _Indian\nHistorians_ have not taken notice of it. However the _Pygmies_ shewed\nthemselves grateful to their Deliverer, in heaping _Honours_ on him. One\nwould guess, for their own sakes, they could not do less than make him\ntheir _Generalissimo_; but our Author is modest in not declaring what they\nwere.\n\n[Footnote A: _Bochartus ibid_. p.m. 77.]\n\nIsaac Vossius seems to unsettle all, and endeavours utterly to ruine the\nwhole Story: for he tells us, If you travel all over _Africa_, you shall\nnot meet with either a _Crane_ or _Pygmie_: _Se mirari_ (saith[A] _Isaac\nVossius_) Aristotelem, _quod tam seri\u00f2 affirmet non esse fabellam, qu\u00e6 de\nPygm\u00e6is & Bello, quod cum Gruibus gerant, narrantur. Si quis totam\npervadat_ Africam, _nullas vel Grues vel Pygm\u00e6os inveniet_. Now one would\nwonder more at _Vossius_, that he should assert this of _Aristotle_, which\nhe never said. And since _Vossius_ is so mistaken in what he relates of\n_Aristotle_; where he might so easily have been in the right, 'tis not\nimprobable, but he may be out in the rest too: For who has travelled all\n_Africa_ over, that could inform him? And why should he be so peremptory\nin the Negative, when he had so positive an Affirmation of _Aristotle_ to\nthe contrary? or if he would not believe _Aristotle's_ Authority, methinks\nhe should _Aristophanes's_, who tells us,[B] [Greek: Speirein hotau men\nGeranos kroizon es taen libyaen metachorae]. _'Tis time to sow when the\nnoisy Cranes take their flight into_ Libya. Which Observation is likewise\nmade by _Hesiod, Theognis, Aratus_, and others. And _Maximus Tyrius_ (as I\nfind him quoted in _Bochartus_) saith, [Greek: Hai geravoi ex Aigyptou ora\ntherous aphistamenai, ouk anechomenai to thalpos teinasai pterygas hosper\nistia, pherontai dia tou aeros euthy ton Skython gaes]. i.e. _Grues per\n\u00e6statem ex_ \u00c6gypto _abscedentes, quia Calorem pati non possunt, alis\nvelorum instar expansis, per aerem ad_ Scythicam _plagam rect\u00e0 feruntur_.\nWhich fully confirms that Migration of the _Cranes_ that _Aristotle_\nmentions.\n\n[Footnote A: _Isaac Vossius de Nili aliorumque stuminum Origine_, Cap.\n18.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Aristophanes in Nubibus_.]\n\nBut _Vossius_ I find, tho' he will not allow the _Cranes_, yet upon second\nThoughts did admit of _Pygmies_ here: For this Story of the _Pygmies_ and\nthe _Cranes_ having made so much _noise_, he thinks there may be something\nof truth in it; and then gives us his Conjecture, how that the _Pygmies_\nmay be those _Dwarfs_, that are to be met with beyond the Fountains of the\n_Nile_; but that they do not fight _Cranes_ but _Elephants_, and kill a\ngreat many of them, and drive a considerable Traffick for their teeth with\nthe _Jagi_, who sell them to those of _Congo_ and the _Portuguese_. I will\ngive you _Vossius's_ own words; _Attamen_ (saith[A] he) _ut solent fabell\u00e6\nnon de nihilo fingi & aliquod plerunque continent veri, id ipsum quoque\nque h\u00ecc factum esse existimo. Certum quippe est ultra_ Nili _fontes multos\nreperiri_ Nanos, _qui tamen non cum Gruibus, sed cum Elephantis perpetuum\ngerant bellum. Pr\u00e6cipuum quippe Eboris commercium in regno magni_ Macoki\n_per istos transigitur Homunciones; habitant in Sylvis, & mira dexteritate\nElephantos sagittis conficiunt. Carnibus vescuntur, Dentes ver\u00f4_ Jagis\n_divendunt, illi autem_ Congentibus & Lusitanis.\n\n[Footnote A: _Isaac Vossius ibid_.]\n\n_Job Ludolphus_[A] in his _Commentary_ on his _\u00c6thiopick History_ remarks,\nThat there was never known a Nation all of Dwarfs. _Nani quippe_ (saith\n_Ludolphus_) _Natur\u00e6 quodam errore ex aliis just\u00e6 statur\u00e6 hominibus\ngenerantur. Qualis ver\u00f4 ea Gens sit, ex qua ista Natur\u00e6 Ludibria tant\u00e2\ncopi\u00e2 proveniant, Vossium docere oportelat, quia Pumiliones Pumiles alios\nnon gignunt, sed plerunque steriles sunt, experientia teste; ut plan\u00e8 non\nopus habuerunt Doctores Talmudici Nanorum matrimonia prohibere, ne\nDigitales ex iis nascerentur. Ludolphus_ it may be is a little too strict\nwith _Vossius_ for calling them _Nani_; he may only mean a sort of Men in\nthat Country of less Stature than ordinary. And _Dapper_ in his History of\n_Africa_, from whom _Vossius_ takes this Account, describes such in the\nKingdom of _Mokoko_, he calls _Mimos_, and tells us that they kill\n_Elephants_. But I see no reason why _Vossius_ should take these Men for\nthe _Pygmies_ of the Ancients, or think that they gave any occasion or\nground for the inventing this Fable, is there was no other reason, this\nwas sufficient, because they were able to kill the _Elephants_. The\n_Pygmies_ were scarce a Match for the _Cranes_; and for them to have\nencountered an _Elephant_, were as vain an Attempt, as the _Pygmies_ were\nguilty of in _Philostratus_[B] 'who to revenge the Death of _Ant\u00e6us_,\nhaving found _Hercules_ napping in _Libya_, mustered up all their Forces\nagainst him. One _Phalanx_ (he tells us) assaulted his left hand; but\nagainst his right hand, that being the stronger, two _Phalanges_ were\nappointed. The Archers and Slingers besieged his feet, admiring the\nhugeness of his Thighs: But against his Head, as the Arsenal, they raised\nBatteries, the King himself taking his Post there. They set fire to his\nHair, put Reaping-hooks in his Eyes; and that he might not breath, clapp'd\nDoors to his Mouth and Nostrils; but all the Execution that they could do,\nwas only to awake him, which when done, deriding their folly, he gather'd\nthem all up in his Lion's Skin, and carried them (_Philostratus_ thinks)\nto _Euristhenes_.' This _Ant\u00e6us_ was as remarkable for his height, as the\n_Pygmies_ were for their lowness of Stature: For _Plutarch_[C] tells us,\nthat _Q. Sterorius_ not being willing to trust Common Fame, when he came\nto _Tingis_ (now _Tangier_) he caused _Ant\u00e6us's_ Sepulchre to be opened,\nand found his Corps full threescore Cubits long. But _Sterorius_ knew well\nenough how to impose upon the Credulity of the People, as is evident from\nthe Story of his _white Hind_, which _Plutarch_ likewise relates.\n\n[Footnote A: _Job Ludolphus in Comment, in Historiam \u00c6thiopicam_, p.m.\n71.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Philostratus. Icon_. lib. 2. p.m. 817.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Plutarch. in vita Q. Sertorij_.]\n\nBut to return to our _Pygmies_; tho' most of the great and learned Men\nwould seem to decry this Story as a Fiction and mere Fable, yet there is\nsomething of Truth, they think, must have given the first rise to it, and\nthat it was not wholly the product of Phancy, but had some real\nfoundation, tho' disguised, according to the different Imagination and\n_Genius_ of the _Relator_: 'Tis this that has incited them to give their\nseveral Conjectures about it. _Job Ludolphus_ finding what has been\noffered at in Relation to the _Pygmies_, not to satisfie, he thinks he can\nbetter account for this Story, by leaving out the _Cranes_, and placing in\ntheir stead, another sort of Bird he calls the _Condor_. I will give you\nhis own words: _Sed ad Pygm\u00e6os_ (saith [A] _Ludolphus_) _revertamur;\nfabula de Geranomachia Pygm\u00e6orum seu pugna cum Gruibus etiam aliquid de\nvero trahere videtur, si pro Gruibus_ Condoras _intelligas, Aves in\ninteriore_ Africa _maximas, ut fidem pen\u00e8 excedat; aiunt enim quod Ales\nista vitulum Elephanti in Aerem extollere possit; ut infra docebimus. Cum\nhis Pygm\u00e6os pugnare, ne pecora sua rapiant, incredibile non est. Error ex\neo natus videtur, quod primus Relator, alio vocabulo destitutus, Grues pro\nCondoris nomin\u00e2rit, sicuti_ Plautus _Picos pro Gryphilus_, & Romani _Boves\nlucas pro Elephantis dixere_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Job Ludolphus Comment, in Historiam suam \u00c6thiopic_. p. 73.]\n\n'Tis true, if what _Juvenal_ only in ridicule mentions, was to be admitted\nas a thing really done, that the _Cranes_ could fly away with a _Pygmie_,\nas our _Kites_ can with a Chicken, there might be some pretence for\n_Ludovicus's Condor_ or _Cunctor_: For he mentions afterwards[A] out of\n_P. Joh. dos Santos_ the _Portuguese_, that 'twas observed that one of\nthese _Condors_ once flew away with an Ape, Chain, Clog and all, about ten\nor twelve pounds weight, which he carried to a neighbouring Wood, and\nthere devoured him. And _Garcilasso de la Vega_[B] relates that they will\nseize and fly away with a Child ten or twelve years old. But _Juvenal_[C]\nonly mentions this in ridicule and merriment, where he saith,\n\n  Adsubitas Thracum volucres, nubemque sonoram\n  Pygm\u00e6os parvis currit Bellator in armis:\n  Mox impar hosti, raptusque per aera curvis\n  Unguibus \u00e0 f\u00e6v\u00e2 fertur Grue.\n\n[Footnote A: _Job Ludolphus ibid_. pag. 164.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Garcilasso de la Vega Royal Comment_, of Peru.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Juvenal Satyr_. 13 _vers_. 167.]\n\nBesides, were the _Condors_ to be taken for the _Cranes_, it would utterly\nspoil the _Pygm\u00e6omachia_; for where the Match is so very unequal, 'tis\nimpossible for the Pygmies to make the least shew of a fight. _Ludolphus_\nputs as great hardships on them, to fight these _Condors_, as _Vossius_\ndid, in making them fight _Elephants_, but not with equal Success; for\n_Vossius_'s _Pygmies_ made great Slaughters of the Elephants; but\n_Ludolphus_ his _Cranes_ sweep away the _Pygmies_, as easily as an _Owl_\nwould a _Mouse_, and eat them up into the bargain; now I never heard the\n_Cranes_ were so cruel and barbarous to their Enemies, tho' there are some\nNations in the World that are reported to do so.\n\nMoreover, these _Condor_'s I find are very rare to be met with; and when\nthey are, they often appear single or but a few. Now _Homer_'s, and the\n_Cranes_ of the Ancients, are always represented in Flocks. Thus\n_Oppian_[A] as I find him translated into Latin Verse:\n\n  _Et velut \u00c6thiopum veniunt, Nilique fluenta\n  Turmalim Palamedis Aves, celsoeque per altum\n  Aera labentes fugiunt Athlanta nivosum,\n  Pygm\u00e6os imbelle Genus, parvumque saligant,\n  Non perturbato procedunt ordine dens\u00e6\n  Instructis volucres obscurant a\u00ebra Turmis._\n\nTo imagine these _Grues_ a single Gigantick Bird, would much lessen the\nBeauty of _Homer's Simile_, and would not have served his turn; and there\nare none who have borrowed Homer's fancy, but have thought so. I will only\nfarther instance in _Baptista Mantuan_:\n\n  _Pygm\u00e6i breve vulgus, iners Plelecula, quando\n  Convenere Grues longis in pr\u00e6lia rostris,\n  Sublato clamore fremunt, dumque agmine magno\n  Hostibus occurrit, tellus tremit Indica, clamant\n  Littora, arenarum nimbis absconditur a\u00ebr;\n  Omnis & involvit Pulvis solemque, Polumque,\n  Et Genus hoc Hominum natur\u00e2 imbelle, quietum,\n  Mite, facit Mavors pugnax, immane Cruentum._\n\n[Footnote: A _Oppian lib. I. de Piscibus_.]\n\nHaving now considered and examined the various Opinions of these learned\nMen concerning this _Pygmaeomachia_; and represented the Reasons they give\nfor maintaining their Conjectures; I shall beg leave to subjoyn my own:\nand if what at present I offer, may seem more probable, or account for\nthis Story with more likelyhood, than what hath hitherto been advanced, I\nshall not think my time altogether misspent: But if this will not do, I\nshall never trouble my head more about them, nor think my self any ways\nconcerned to write on this Argument again. And I had not done it now, but\nupon the occasion of Dissecting this _Orang-Outang_, or _wild Man_, which\nbeing a Native of _Africa_, and brought from _Angola_, tho' first taken\nhigher up in the Country, as I was informed by the Relation given me; and\nobserving so great a Resemblance, both in the outward shape, and, what\nsurprized me more, in the Structure likewise of the inward Parts, to a\n_Man_; this Thought was easily suggested to me, That very probably this\n_Animal_, or some other such of the same _Species_, might give the first\nrise and occasion to the Stories of the _Pygmies_. What has been the\n[Greek: proton pheudos], and rendered this Story so difficult to be\nbelieved, I find hath been the Opinion that has generally obtained, that\nthese _Pygmies_ were really a Race of _little Men_. And tho' they are only\n_Brutes_, yet being at first call'd _wild Men_, no doubt from the\nResemblance they bear to _Men_; there have not been wanting those\nespecially amongst the Ancients, who have invented a hundred ridiculous\nStories concerning them; and have attributed those things to them, were\nthey to be believed in what they say, that necessarily conclude them real\n_Men_.\n\nTo sum up therefore what I have already discoursed, I think I have proved,\nthat the _Pygmies_ were not an _Humane Species_ or _Men_. And tho'\n_Homer_, who first mentioned them, calls them [Greek: andres pygmaioi],\nyet we need not understand by this Expression any thing more than _Apes_:\nAnd tho' his _Geranomachia_ hath been look'd upon by most only as a\nPoetical Fiction; yet by assigning what might be the true Cause of this\nQuarrel between the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_, and by divesting it of the\nmany fabulous Relations that the _Indian Historians_, and others, have\nloaded it with, I have endeavoured to render it a true, at least a\nprobable Story. I have instanced in _Ctesias_ and the _Indian Historians_,\nas the Authors and Inventors of the many Fables we have had concerning\nthem: Particularly, I have Examined those Relations, where Speech or\nLanguage is attributed to them; and shewn, that there is no reason to\nbelieve that they ever spake any Language at all. But these _Indian\nHistorians_ having related so many extravagant Romances of the _Pygmies_,\nas to render their whole History suspected, nay to be utterly denied, that\nthere were ever any such Creatures as _Pygmies_ in _Nature_, both by\n_Strabo_ of old, and most of our learned men of late, I have endeavoured\nto assert the Truth of their _being_, from a _Text_ in _Aristotle_; which\nbeing so positive in affirming their Existence, creates a difficulty, that\ncan no ways be got over by such as are of the contrary Opinion. This\n_Text_ I have vindicated from the false Interpretations and Glosses of\nseveral Great Men, who had their Minds so prepossessed and prejudiced with\nthe Notion of _Men Pygmies_, that they often would quote it, and misapply\nit, tho' it contain'd nothing that any ways favoured their Opinion; but\nthe contrary rather, that they were _Brutes_, and not _Men_.\n\nAnd that the _Pygmies_ were really _Brutes_, I think I have plainly proved\nout of _Herodotus_ and _Philostratus_, who reckon them amongst the _wild\nBeasts_ that breed in those Countries: For tho' by _Herodotus_ they are\ncall'd [Greek: andres agrioi], and _Philostratus_ calls them [Greek:\nanthropous melanas], yet both make them [Greek: theria] or _wild Beasts_.\nAnd I might here add what _Pausanias_[A] relates from _Euphemus Car_, who\nby contrary Winds was driven upon some Islands, where he tells us, [Greek:\nen de tautais oikein andras agrious], but when he comes to describe them,\ntells us that they had no Speech; that they had Tails on their Rumps; and\nwere very lascivious toward the Women in the Ship. But of these more, when\nwe come to discourse of _Satyrs_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Pausanias in Atticis_, p.m. 21.]\n\nAnd we may the less wonder to find that they call _Brutes Men_, since\n'twas common for these _Historians_ to give the Title of _Men_, not only\nto _Brutes_, but they were grown so wanton in their Inventions, as to\ndescribe several Nations of _Monstrous Men_, that had never any Being, but\nin their own Imagination, as I have instanced in several. I therefore\nexcuse _Strabo_, for denying the _Pygmies_, since he could not but be\nconvinced, they could not be such _Men_, as these _Historians_ have\ndescribed them. And the better to judge of the Reasons that some of the\nModerns have given to prove the Being of _Men Pygmies_, I have laid down\nas _Postulata's_, that hereby we must not understand _Dwarfs_, nor yet a\nNation of _Men_, tho' somewhat of a lesser size and stature than ordinary;\nbut we must observe those two Characteristicks that _Homer_ gives of them,\nthat they are _Cubitales_ and fight _Cranes_.\n\nHaving premised this, I have taken into consideration _Caspar Bartholine\nSenior_ his _Opusculum_ _de Pygm\u00e6is_, and _Jo. Talentonius_'s Dissertation\nabout them: and upon examination do find, that neither the Humane\nAuthorities, nor Divine that they alledge, do any ways prove, as they\npretend, the Being of _Men Pygmies_. St. _Austin_, who is likewise quoted\non their side, is so far from favouring this Opinion, that he doubts\nwhether any such Creatures exist, and if they do, concludes them to be\n_Apes_ or _Monkeys_; and censures those _Indian Historians_ for imposing\nsuch Beasts upon us, as distinct Races of _Men_. _Julius C\u00e6sar Scaliger_,\nand _Isaac Casaubon_, and _Adrian Spigelius_ utterly deny the Being of\n_Pygmies_, and look upon them as a Figment only of the Ancients, because\nsuch little Men as they describe them to be, are no where to be met with\nin all the World. The Learned _Bochartus_ tho' he esteems the\n_Geranomachia_ to be a Fable, and slights it, yet thinks that what might\ngive the occasion to the Story of the _Pygmies_, might be the _Nub\u00e6_ or\n_Nob\u00e6_; as _Isaac Vossius_ conjectures that it was those _Dwarfs_ beyond\nthe Fountains of the _Nile_, that _Dapper_ calls the _Mimos_, and tells\nus, they kill _Elephants_ for to make a Traffick with their Teeth. But\n_Job Ludolphus_ alters the Scene, and instead of _Cranes_, substitutes his\n_Condors_, who do not fight the _Pygmies_, but fly away with them, and\nthen devour them.\n\nNow all these Conjectures do no ways account for _Homer's Pygmies_ and\n_Cranes_, they are too much forced and strain'd. Truth is always easie and\nplain. In our present Case therefore I think the _Orang-Outang_, or _wild\nMan_, may exactly supply the place of the _Pygmies_, and without any\nviolence or injury to the Story, sufficiently account for the whole\nHistory of the _Pygmies_, but what is most apparently fabulous; for what\nhas been the greatest difficulty to be solved or satisfied, was their\nbeing _Men_; for as _Gesner_ remarks (as I have already quoted him) _Sed\nveterum nullus aliter de Pygm\u00e6is scripsit, qu\u00e0m Homunciones esse_. And the\nModerns too, being byassed and misguided by this Notion, have either\nwholly denied them, or contented themselves in offering their Conjectures\nwhat might give the first rise to the inventing this Fable. And tho'\n_Albertus_, as I find him frequently quoted, thought that the _Pygmies_\nmight be only a sort of _Apes_, and he is placed in the Head of those that\nespoused this Opinion, yet he spoils all, by his way of reasoning, and by\nmaking them speak; which was more than he needed to do.\n\nI cannot see therefore any thing that will so fairly solve this doubt,\nthat will reconcile all, that will so easily and plainly make out this\nStory, as by making the _Orang-Outang_ to be the _Pygmie_ of the Ancients;\nfor 'tis the same Name that Antiquity gave them. For _Herodotus_'s [Greek:\nandres agrioi], what can they be else, than _Homines Sylvestres_, or _wild\nMen_? as they are now called. And _Homer_'s [Greek: andres pygmaioi], are\nno more an Humane Kind, or Men, then _Herodotus_'s [Greek: andres agrioi],\nwhich he makes to be [Greek: theria], or _wild Beasts_: And the [Greek:\nandres mikroi] or [Greek: melanes] (as they are often called) were just\nthe same. Because this sort of _Apes_ had so great a resemblance to Men,\nmore than other _Apes_ or _Monkeys_; and they going naturally erect, and\nbeing designed by Nature to go so, (as I have shewn in the _Anatomy_) the\nAncients had a very plausible ground for giving them this denomination of\n[Greek: andres] or [Greek: anthropoi], but commonly they added an Epithet;\nas [Greek: agrioi, mikroi, pygmaioi, melanes], or some such like. Now the\nAncient _Greek_ and _Indian Historians_, tho' they might know these\n_Pygmies_ to be only _Apes_ like _Men_, and not to be real _Men_, yet\nbeing so extremely addicted to _Mythology_, or making Fables, and finding\nthis so fit a Subject to engraft upon, and invent Stories about, they have\nnot been wanting in furnishing us with a great many very Romantick ones on\nthis occasion. And the Moderns being imposed upon by them, and misguided\nby the Name of [Greek: andres] or [Greek: anthropoi], as if thereby must\nbe always understood an _Humane Kind_, or _real Men_, they have altogether\nmistaken the Truth of the Story, and have either wholly denied it, or\nrendered it as improbable by their own Conjectures.\n\nThis difficulty therefore of their being called _Men_, I think, may fairly\nenough be accounted by what I have said. But it may be objected that the\n_Orang-Outang_, or these _wild_ or _savage Men_ are not [Greek: pygmaioi],\nor _Trispithami_, that is, but two Foot and a quarter high, because by\nsome Relations that have been given, it appears they have been observed to\nbe of a higher stature, and as tall as ordinary Men. Now tho' this may be\nallowed as to these _wild Men_ that are bred in other places; and probably\nenough like wise, there are such in some Parts of the Continent of\n_Africa_; yet 'tis sufficient to our business if there are any there, that\nwill come within our Dimensions; for our Scene lies in _Africa_; where\n_Strabo_ observes, that generally the Beasts are of a less size than\nordinary; and this he thinks might give rise to the Story of the\n_Pygmies_. For, saith he[A] [Greek: Ta de boskaemata autois esti mikra,\nprobata kai aiges, kai kynes mikroi, tracheis de kai machimoi (oikountes\nmikroi ontes) tacha de kai tous pygmaious apo tes touton mikrophyias\nepenoaesan, kai aneplasan.] i.e. _That their Beasts are small, as their\nSheep, Goats and Oxen, and their Dogs are small, but hairy and fierce: and\nit may be_ (saith he) _from the [Greek: mikrophyia] or littleness of the\nstature of these Animals, they have invented and imposed on us the_\nPygmies. And then adds, _That no body fit to be believed ever saw them_;\nbecause he fancied, as a great many others have done, that these _Pygmies_\nmust be _real Men_, and not a sort of _Brutes_. Now since the other\n_Brutes_ in this Country are generally of a less size than in other Parts,\nwhy may not this sort of _Ape_, the _Orang-Outang_, or _wild Man_, be so\nlikewise. _Aristotle_ speaking of the _Pygmies_, saith, [Greek: genos\nmikron men kai autoi, kai oi hippoi.] _That both they and the Horses there\nare but small_. He does not say _their_ Horses, for they were never\nmounted upon _Horses_, but only upon _Partridges, Goats_ and _Rams_. And\nas the _Horses_, and other _Beasts_ are naturally less in _Africa_ than in\nother Parts, so likewise may the _Orang-Outang_ be. This that I dissected,\nwhich was brought from _Angola_ (as I have often mentioned) wanted\nsomething of the just stature of the _Pygmies_; but it was young, and I am\ntherefore uncertain to what tallness it might grow, when at full Age: And\nneither _Tulpius_, nor _Gassendus_, nor any that I have hitherto met with,\nhave adjusted the full stature of this _Animal_ that is found in those\nparts from whence ours was brought: But 'tis most certain, that there are\nsorts of _Apes_ that are much less than the _Pygmies_ are described to be.\nAnd, as other _Brutes_, so the _Ape-kind_, in different Climates, may be\nof different Dimensions; and because the other _Brutes_ here are generally\nsmall, why may not _they_ be so likewise. Or if the difference should be\nbut little, I see no great reason in this case, why we should be\nover-nice, or scrupulous.\n\n[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 17. p.m. 565.]\n\nAs to our _Ape Pygmies_ or _Orang-Outang_ fighting the _Cranes_, this, I\nthink, may be easily enough made out, by what I have already observed; for\nthis _wild Man_ I dissected was Carnivorous, and it may be Omnivorous, at\nleast as much as _Man_ is; for it would eat any thing that was brought to\nthe Table. And if it was not their Hunger that drove them to it, their\nWantonness, it may be, would make them apt enough to rob the _Cranes_\nNests; and if they did so, no doubt but the _Cranes_ would noise enough\nabout it, and endeavour what they could to beat them off, which a Poet\nmight easily make a Fight: Tho' _Homer_ only makes use of it as a\n_Simile_, in comparing the great Shouts of the _Trojans_ to the Noise of\nthe _Cranes_, and the Silence of the _Greeks_ to that of the _Pygmies_\nwhen they are going to Engage, which is natural enough, and very just, and\ncontains nothing, but what may easily be believed; tho' upon this account\nhe is commonly exposed, and derided, as the Inventor of this Fable; and\nthat there was nothing of Truth in it, but that 'twas wholly a Fiction of\nhis own.\n\nThose _Pygmies_ that _Paulus Jovius_[A] describes, tho' they dwell at a\ngreat distance from _Africa_, and he calls them _Men_, yet are so like\n_Apes_, that I cannot think them any thing else. I will give you his own\nwords: _Ultra Lapones_ (saith he) _in Regione inter Corum & Aquilonem\nperpetua oppressa Caligine_ Pygm\u00e6os _reperiri, aliqui eximi\u00e6 fidei testes\nretulerunt; qui postquam ad summum adoleverint, nostratis Pueri denum\nannorum Mensuram vix excedunt. Meticulosum genus hominum, & garritu\nSermonem exprimens, adeo ut tam Simi\u00e6 propinqui, quam Statura ac sensibus\nab just\u00e6 Proceritatis homine remoti videantur_. Now there is this\nAdvantage in our _Hypothesis_, it will take in all the _Pygmies_, in any\npart of the World; or wherever they are to be met with, without supposing,\nas some have done, that 'twas the _Cranes_ that forced them to quit their\nQuarters; and upon this account several Authors have described them in\ndifferent places: For unless we suppose the _Cranes_ so kind to them, as\nto waft them over, how came we to find them often in Islands? But this is\nmore than can be reasonably expected from so great Enemies.\n\n[Footnote A: _Paul. Jovij de Legatione Muschovitar_. lib. p.m. 489.]\n\nI shall conclude by observing to you, that this having been the Common\nError of the Age, in believing the _Pygmies_ to be a sort of _little Men_,\nand it having been handed down from so great Antiquity, what might\ncontribute farther to the confirming of this Mistake, might be, the\nImposture of the Navigators, who failing to Parts where these _Apes_ are,\nthey have embalmed their Bodies, and brought them home, and then made the\nPeople believe that they were the _Men_ of those Countries from whence\nthey came. This _M.P. Venetus_ assures us to have been done; and 'tis not\nunlikely: For, saith he,[A] _Abundat quoque Regio ipsa_ (sc. Basman in\nJava majori) _diversis Simiis magnis & parvis, hominibus simillimis, hos\ncapiunt Venatores & totos depilant, nisi quod, in barba & in loco secreto\nPilos relinquunt, & occisos speciebus Aromaticis condiunt, & postea\ndesiccant, venduntque Negociatoribus, qui per diversas Orbis Partes\nCorpora illa deferentes, homines persuadent Tales Homunciones in Maris\nInsulis reperiri. Joh. Jonston_[B] relates the same thing, but without\nquoting the Author; and as he is very apt to do, commits a great mistake,\nin telling us, _pro Homunculis marinis venditant_.\n\n[Footnote A: _M. Pauli Veneti de Regionibus Oriental_. lib. 3. cap. 15. p.\nm. 390.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Jo. Jonston. Hist. Nat. de Quadruped_. p.m. 139.]\n\nI shall only add, That the Servile Offices that these Creatures are\nobserved to perform, might formerly, as it does to this very day, impose\nupon Mankind to believe, that they were of the same _Species_ with\nthemselves; but that only out of Sullenness or cunning, they think they\nwill not _speak_, for fear of being made Slaves. _Philostratus_[A] tells\nus, That the _Indians_ make use of the _Apes_ in gathering the Pepper; and\nfor this Reason they do defend and preserve them from the _Lions_, who are\nvery greedy of preying upon them: And altho' he calls them _Apes_, yet he\nspeaks of them as _Men_, and as if they were the Husbandmen of the _Pepper\nTrees_, [Greek: kai ta dendra oi piperides, on georgoi pithekoi]. And he\ncalls them the People of _Apes_; [Greek: ou legetai pithekon oikein demos\nen mychois tou orous]. _Dapper_[B] tells us, _That the Indians take the_\nBaris _when young, and make them so tame, that they will do almost the\nwork of a Slave; for they commonly go erect as Men do. They will beat Rice\nin a Mortar, carry Water in a Pitcher_, &c. And Gassendus[C] in the Life\nof _Pieresky_, tells us, us, _That they will play upon a Pipe or Cittern,\nor the like Musick, they will sweep the House, turn the Spit, beat in a\nMortar, and do other Offices in a Family_. And _Acosta_, as I find him\nquoted by _Garcilasso de la Vega_[D] tells us of a _Monkey_ he saw at the\nGovernour's House at _Cartagena_, 'whom they fent often to the Tavern for\nWine, with Money in one hand, and a Bottle in the other; and that when he\ncame to the Tavern, he would not deliver his Money, until he had received\nhis Wine. If the Boys met with him by the way, or made a houting or noise\nafter him, he would set down his Bottle, and throw Stones at them; and\nhaving cleared the way he would take up his Bottle, and hasten home, And\ntho' he loved Wine excessively, yet he would not dare to touch it, unless\nhis Master gave him License.' A great many Instances of this Nature might\nbe given that are very surprising. And in another place he tells us, That\nthe Natives think that they can speak, but will not, for fear of being\nmade to work. And _Bontius_[E] mentions that the _Javans_ had the same\nOpinion concerning the _Orang-Outang_, _Loqui vero eos, easque Javani\naiunt, sed non velle, ne ad labores cogerentur_.\n\n[Footnote A: _Philostratus in vita Apollonij Tyan\u00e6i_, lib. 3. cap. I. p.\nm. 110, & 111.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Dapper Description de l'Afrique_, p.m. 249.]\n\n[Footnote C: _Gassendus in vita Pierskij_, lib. 5. p.m. 169.]\n\n[Footnote D: _Garcilasso de la Vega Royal Commentaries of Peru_, lib. 8.\ncap. 18. p. 1333.]\n\n[Footnote E: _Jac. Bontij Hist. Nat. & Med_. lib. 5. cap. 32. p.m. 85.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[NOTE.--A few obvious errors in the quotations have been corrected, but\nfor the most part they stand as in Tyson, who must, therefore, be held\nresponsible for any inaccuracies which may exist.]","title":"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":38387}