4'20 historV or 



body of his courtiers, and all the foreign ambassadors, to be pre- 

 sent at the marriage of a pigmy man and womnn. The prepara- 

 tions for this wedding were not only very grand, but executed 

 in a style of barbarous ridicule. He ordered that all the dwai-f 

 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 supplied them with proper 

 vehicles ; but so contrived it, that one horse was seen carrying 

 in a dozen of them into the city at once, while the mob follow 

 ed, shouting and laughing, from behind. Some of them were 

 at first imwilling to obey an order which they knew was calcu- 

 lated 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, besides the bride and bridegroom, 

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

 For this little company in miniature, 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 gra- 

 vity 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 consent 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 w:ere 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 entertaining. 



But whatever may be the entertainment such guests might 

 afford when imited, I never found a dwarf capable of affording 

 atiy 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 getieral, seemed to me to have faculties very much resembling 

 those of children, and their desires likewise of the same kind ; 



1 Die dench wurdige. Iwerg. Hockweit, &c, Lip^aj, l?!."!, vol. viii. p. 

 102. acq. 



