ANTMALS. 4. JO 



confirm by historical assertion.' If we attend to these, we musf 

 believe that, in the internal parts of Africa, there are whole na. 

 tions of pigKiy beings, not more than a foot in stature, who con- 

 tinually wage an unequal war with the birds and beasts that in- 

 habit the plains in which they reside. Some of the ancients, 

 however, and Strabo in particular, have supposed all these ac- 

 counts to be fabulous ; and have been more inclined to think 

 tliis supposed nation of pigmies nothing more than a species 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 degrad- 

 ed 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 dimi- 

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

 Of these accidental dwarfs, every country, and almost every vil- 

 lage, can produce 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 com 

 pletely 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 op- 

 posing 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 f o see little 

 .Jeffrey, for so the dwarf was called, ride round the lists, expect- 

 ing his antagonist ; and discovering in his actions, all the marks 

 of contemptible 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, neverthe- 

 ess, still many degrees 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 

 10 be proclaimed several months before, he invited the whole 



I Atlienacus, ix. 390. 



