188 



A HISTORY OF 



has on those parts in particular, without being 

 able to assign a cause how this effect is pro- 

 duced ; and why the imagination may not 

 produce the same effect in marking the child 

 that it does in forming it, I see no reason. 

 Those persons whose employment it is to rear 

 up pigeons of different colours can breed 

 them, as their expression is, to a feather. In 

 fact, by properly pairing them, they can give 

 what colour they will to any feather, in any 

 part of the body. Were we to reason upon 

 this fact, what could we say ? Might it not 

 be asserted, that the egg, being distinct from 

 the body of the female, cannot be influenced 

 by it ? Might it not be plausibly said, that 

 there is no similitude between any part of the 

 egg and any particular feather which we ex- 

 pect to propagate ; and yet, for all this, the 

 tact is known to be true, and what no specu- 

 lation can invalidate. In the same manner, 

 a thousand various instances assure us, that 

 the child in the womb is sometimes marked 

 by the strong affections of the mother : how 

 this is performed we know not ; we only see 

 the effect, without any connection between it 

 and the cause. The best physicians have al- 

 lowed it; and have been satisfied to submit 

 to the experience of a number of ages ; but 

 many disbelieve it, because they expect a 

 reason for every effect. This, however, is 

 very hard to be given, while it is very easy to 

 appear wise by pretending incredulity. 



Among the number of monsters, dwarfs and 

 giants are usually reckoned ; though not, per- 

 haps, with the strictest propriety, since they 

 are no way different from the rest of mankind, 

 except in stature. It is a dispute, however, 

 about words; and, therefore, scarcely worth 

 contending about. But there is a dispute, of 

 a more curious nature, on this subject ; name- 

 ly, whether there are races of people thus 

 very diminutive, or vastly large; or whether 

 they be merely accidental varieties, that now 

 and then are seen in a country, in a few per- 

 sons, whose bodies some external cause has 

 contributed to lessen or enlarge. 



With regard to men of diminutive stature, 

 all antiquity has been unanimous in asserting 

 their national existence. Homer was the first 

 who has given us an account of the pigmy na- 

 tion contending with the cranes; and what 

 poetical license might be supposed to exag- 



gerate, Athenseus has attempted seriously to 

 confirm by historical assertion." If we attend 

 to these, we must believe that, in the internal 

 parts of Africa, there are whole nations of pig- 

 my beings, not more than a foot in stature, 

 who continually wage an unequal war with the 

 birds and beasts that inhabit the plains in 

 which they reside. Some of the ancients, 

 however, and Strabo in particular, have sup- 

 posed all these accounts to be fabulous ; and 

 have been more inclined to think this suppos- 

 ed nation of pigmies nothing more than a spe- 

 cies of apes, well known to be numerous in 

 that part of the world. With this opinion the 

 moderns have all concurred ; and that dimi- 

 nutive race, which was described as human, 

 has been long degraded into a class of ani- 

 mals that resemble us but very imperfectly. 



The existence, therefore, of a pigmy race 

 of mankind being founded in error, or in fable, 

 we can expect to find men of diminutive sta- 

 ture only by accident, among men of the or- 

 dinary size. Of these accidental dwarfs, 

 every country, and almost every village, can 

 produce numerous instances. There was a 

 time when these unfavoured children of Na- 

 ture were the peculiar favourites of the great ; 

 and no prince or nobleman thought himself 

 completely attended unless he had a dwarf 

 among the number of his domestics. These 

 poor little men were kept to be laughed at ; 

 or to raise the barbarous pleasure of their 

 masters, by their contrasted inferiority. Even 

 in England, as late as the times of King James 

 I. the court was at one time furnished with a 

 dwarf, a giant, and a jester ; these the king 

 often took a pleasure in opposing to each 

 other, and often fomented quarrels among 

 them, in order to be a concealed spectator of 

 their animosity. It was a particular entertain- 

 ment of the courtiers at that time to see little 

 Jeffrey, for so the dwarf was called, ride round 

 the lists, expecting his antagonist; and dis- 

 covering, in his actions, all the marks of con- 

 temptible resolution. 



It was in the same spirit, that Peter of Rus- 

 sia, in the year 1710, celebrated a marriage 

 of dwarfs. This monarch, though raised by 

 his native genius far above a barbarian, was, 

 nevertheless, still many degrees removed from 



Athenaeus, ix. 390. 



