132 PLI>'T's >'ATrEAL HISTOEY. [Book YII. 



nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor 

 •irink ; ^^hen they go upon a long journey they only carry with 

 them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples,^^ 

 that they may not be without something to smell at. But an 

 odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily de- 

 stroys them,^"- 



Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the moun- 

 tains, the Trispithami^^ and the Pygmies are said to exist ; two 

 races which ai'e but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty- 

 seven inches only. They enjoy a scdubrious atmosphere, and a 

 perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the 

 northtrn blasts : it is the^e people that Homer - has mentioned 

 as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said,, that they are 

 in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large 

 body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with 

 arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those 

 birds ; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three 

 months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to 

 withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their 

 cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and 

 egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves ; 

 but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other 

 writers.^ 



Isigonus informs us, that the Cymi, a people of India, live 

 to their four hundredth year ; and he is of opinion that the 

 same is the case also with the Ethiopian !Macrobii,^ the Sei^se, 

 and the inhabitants of llount Athos.^' In the case of these 



-^ In Eastern stories we find not uncommonly, wonderful effects attri- 

 buted to the smell of the apple. See the Arabian Xights, passim. 



*- Cuvier remarks, that these accounts of the Struthopodes, the Scvritae, 

 and the Atomi, are not capable of any explanation, being mere fables. — B. 



^^ From -oHc, '' three," and aMidafiai, '' spans," the span being about 

 nine inches English. 



" He alludes to the wars between the Cranes and the Pygmies in the 

 Ihad, B. iii. 1. 3 — 6. Their story is also'xeferred to by Orid and Juvenal. 



^ On the subject of the Pygmies, Curier remarks, '• I am not surprised 

 at finding the Pygmies in the' works of Homer ; but to find them in Pliny, 

 I am surprised, indeed." — B. 



^ Or the ''longUvers," from the Greek ;x a rpof, "long," and /?('oc, "hfe." 



^"^ Of course, there is no truth in this statement ; there are, no doubt, 

 Tarious circumstances in these countries favourable to longevity ; but these 

 are more than counter-balanced by certain peculiarities in their mode of 

 Ufe, and by the fatal epidemics to which they are occasionally subject. — E. 



