132 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTOEY. [Book VII, 



nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat noi 

 drink ; when they go upon a long journey they only carry with 

 them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples, 81 

 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, 82 



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

 tains, the Trispithami 83 and the Pygmies are said to exist ; twc 

 races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty- 

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

 perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the 

 northern blasts ; it is these people that Homer s4 has mentioned 

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

 in the habit of going do wn 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. 85 



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

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

 same "islne" case : aTsoi" wifEnflie ^Ethiopian Macrobii, 86 the Serse, 

 and the inhabitants of Mount Athos. 87 In the case of these 



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

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



82 Cuvier remarks, that these accounts of the Struthopodes, the Scyritae, 

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



83 From rpeif, " three," and ajriOafjiai, " spans," the span being about 

 nine inches English. 



8i He alludes to the wars between the Cranes and the Pygmies in the 

 Iliad, B. in. 1. 36. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenal. 



85 On the subject of the Pygmies, Cuvier 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. 



86 Or the "long livers," from the Greek fiaicpbg, "long," and/Jroc, "life." 

 8 ? Of course, there is no truth in this statement ; there are, no doubt, 



various circumstances in these countries favourable to longevity ; but these 

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

 life, and by the fatal epidemics to which they are occasionally subject. B. 



