J 888.] on tie Pygmy Baces of Men. 2G7 



oracular shrine of Ammon, when it chanced that, in the course of 

 conversation with Etearchus, the Ammonian king, the talk fell upon 

 the Xile, how that its sources were unknown to all men. Etearchns 

 upon this mentioned that some Xasamonians had once come to his 

 court, and when asked if they could give any information concerning 

 the uninhabited parts of Libya, had told the following tale. (The 

 Xasamonians are a Libyan race who occupy the Syrtes, and a tract 

 of no great size towards the east. ) They said there had grown np 

 among them some wild young men, the sons of certain chiefs, who, 

 when they came to man's estate, indulged in all manner of extrava- 

 gancies, and among other things drew lots for five of their number to 

 go and explore the desert parts of Libya, and try if they could not 

 penetrate fui'ther than any had done previously. The young men 

 therefore dispatched on this errand by their comrades with a plentiful 

 supply of water and provisions, travelled at first through the inhabited 

 region, passing which they came to the wild beast tract, whence they 

 finally entered upon the desert, which they proceeded to cross in a 

 direction from east to west. After journeying for many days over a 

 wide extent of sand, they came at last to a plain where they observed 

 trees growing : approaching them, and seeing fruit on them, they 

 proceeded to gather it. While they were thus engaged, there came 

 upon them some dwarfish men, under the middle height, who seized 

 them and carried them ofi". The Xasamonians could not understand 

 a word of their language, nor had they any acquaintance with the 

 language of the Xasamonians. They wt-re led across extensive 

 marshes, and finally came to a town, where all the men were of the height 

 of their conductors, and black-complexioned. A great river flowed 

 by the town, running from west to east, and containing crocodiles."' 



It is satisfactory to know that the narrative concludes by saying 

 that these pioneers of African exploration, forerunners of Bruce and 

 Park, of Earth. Livingstone, Speke, Grant, Schweinfurth. Stanley, and 

 the rest, '•' got safe back to their country." 



Extension of knowledge of the natural products of the earth, and 

 a more critical spirit on the part of authors, led to attempts to account 

 for this belief, and the discovery of races of monkeys — of the doings 

 of which, it must be said, more or less fabulous stories M-ere often 

 reported by travellers — generally sufficed the commentators and 

 naturalists of the last century to explain the origin of the stories of 

 the pygmies. To this view the great authority of Buftbn was extended. 



Still more recently-acquired information as to the actual condition 

 of the human j^opulation of the globe has, however, led to a revision 

 of the ideas upon the subject, and to more careful and critical 

 researches into the ancient documents. M. de Quatrefages, the emi- 

 nent and veteran Professor of Anthropology at the Huseum d'Histoire 

 Xaturelle of Paris, especially, has carefully examined and collated all 

 the evidence bearing upon the question, and devoted much ingenuity 

 of argument to prove that the two localities in which the ancient 

 authors appear to place their pygmies, the interior of Africa near 



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