\NIMALS. 



189 



actual refinement. His pleasures, therefore, 

 were of the vulgar kind ; and this was among 

 the number. Upon a certain day, which he 

 had ordered to be proclaimed several months 

 before, he invited the whole body of his cour- 

 tiers, and all the foreign ambassadors, to be 

 present at the marriage of a pigmy man and 

 woman. The preparations for this wedding 

 were not only very grand, but executed in a 

 style of barbarous ridicule. He ordered that 

 all the dwarf men and women, within two 

 hundred miles, should repair to the capital ; 

 and also insisted that they should be present 

 at the ceremony. For this purpose he sup- 

 plied them with proper vehicles ; but so con- 

 trived it, that one horse was seen carrying in 

 a dozen of them into the city at once, while 

 the mob followed, shouting and laughing, 

 from behind. Some of them were at first un- 

 willing to obey an order which they knew was 

 calculated to turn them into ridicule, and did 

 not come : but he soon obliged them to obey ; 

 and, as a punishment, enjoined, that they 

 should wait upon the rest at dinner. The 

 whole company of dwarfs amounted to seven- 

 ty, besides the bride and bridegroom, who 

 were richly adorned, and in the extremity of 

 the fashion. For this little company in mini- 

 ature, every thing was suitably provided ; a 

 low table, small plates, little glasses, and, in 

 short, every thing was so fitted as if all things 

 had been dwindled to their own standard. 

 It was his great pleasure to see their gravity 

 and their pride ; the contention of the women 

 for places, and the men for superiority. This 

 point he attempted to adjust, by ordering that 

 the most diminutive should take the lead ; but 

 this bred disputes, for none would then con- 

 sent to sit foremost. All this, however, being 

 at last settled, dancing followed the dinner, 

 and the ball was opened with a minuet by the 

 bridegroom, who measured exactly three feet 

 two inches high. In the end, matters were 

 so contrived, that this little company, who met 

 together in gloomy pride, and unwilling to be 

 pleased, being at last familiarized to laughter, 

 joined in the diversion, and became, as the 

 journalist has it,' extremely sprightly and en- 

 tertaining. 



Die dench wurdige. Iwerg. Hockweit, &c. Lipsia-, 

 1713, vol. viii. p. 102. seq. 



But whatever may be the entertainment 

 such guests might afford when united, I never 

 found a dwarf capable of affording any when 

 alone. I have sometimes conversed with some 

 of these that were exhibited at our fairs about 

 Town, and have ever found their intellects as 

 contracted as their persons. They, in gene- 

 ral, seemed to me to have faculties very much 

 resembling those of children, and their desires 

 likewise of the same kind ; being diverted 

 with the same sports, and best pleased with 

 such companions. Of all those I have seen, 

 which may amount to five or six, the little man, 

 whose name was Coan, that died lately at 

 Chelsea, was the most intelligent and sprightly. 

 I have heard him and the giant, who snug at 

 the theatres, sustain a very ridiculous duct, 

 to which they were taught to give great spirit. 

 But this mirth, and seeming sagacity, were 

 but assumed. He had, by long habit, been 

 taught to look cheerful upon the approach of 

 company ; and his conversation was but the 

 mere etiquette of a person that had been used 

 to receive visiters. When driven out of his 

 walk, nothing could be more stupid or igno- 

 rant, nothing more dejected or forlorn. But 

 we have a complete history of a dwarf, very 

 accurately related by Mr. Daubenton, in his 

 part of the Histoire Naturelle ; which I will 

 here take leave to translate. 



This dwarf, whose name was Baby, was 

 well known, having spent the greatest part 

 of his life at Lunenville, in the palace of Sta- 

 nislaus, the titular king of Poland. He was 

 born near the village of Plaisne, in France, in 

 the year 1741. His father and mother were 

 peasants, both of good constitutions, and inured 

 to a life of husbandry and labour. Baby, 

 when born, weighed but a pound and a quar- 

 ter. We are not informed of the dimensions 

 of his body at that time ; but we may conjec- 

 ture they were very small, as he was present- 

 ed on a plate to be baptized, and for a long 

 time lay in a slipper. His mouth, although 

 proportioned to the rest of his body, was not, 

 at that time, large enough to take in the nip- 

 ple; and he was, therefore, obliged to be suck- 

 led by a she-goat that was in the house ; and 

 that served as a nurse, attending to his cries 

 with a kind of maternal fondness. He began 

 to articulate some words when eighteen months 

 old ; and at two vears he was able to walk 

 2L* 



