254 A HISTORY OF 



known to be numerous in that part of the world. With this opinion 

 the moderns have all concurred ; and that diminutive race, which was 

 described as human, has been long degraded into a class of animals 

 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 

 stature only by accident, among men of the ordinary size. Of these 

 accidental dwarfs, every country, and almost every village, can pro- 

 duce numerous instances. There was a time when these unfavoured 

 children of nature 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 plea 

 sure 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 entertainment of the courtiers at that time, to see little 

 Jeffery, for so the dwarf was called, ride round the lists, expecting his 

 antagonist ; and discovering in his actions, all the marks of contemp- 

 tible resolution. 



It was in the same spirit, that Peter of Russia, 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 de- 

 grees removed from 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 courtiers, and all the foreign amb<rs- 

 sadors, to be present at the marriage of a pigmy man and woman. 

 The preparations for this wedding were not only very grand, but exe- 

 cuted in a style of barbarous ridicule. He ordered that all the dwarf 

 men and women, within two hundred miles, should repair to the capi- 

 tal ; and also insisted that they should be present at the ceremony. 

 For this purpose he supplied 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 unwilling 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 seventy, beside the bride and bride- 

 groom, who were richly adorned, and in the extremity of the fashion. 

 For this little company in miniature, every thing was suitably pro- 

 vided ; 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 su- 

 periority. This point he attempted to adjust, by ordering that the 

 most diminutive should take the lead ; but this bred disputes, for none 

 would then consent to sit foremost. All this, however, beinj/ at lasl 



