CHAPTER VI. 



PYGMIES. 



" Do you any ambaflage to the Pigmies ?" 



(" Much Ado," ii. i. 



|N the myths of antiquity, and in 

 modern folk-lore, pygmies hold an 

 equally honoured place. Thofe of 

 early Greek legend are own brothers 

 to the trolls and elves of Northern mythology ; 

 while their defcendants, the pixies of to-day, yet 

 dance among the moonlit glades of Devon 

 and Cornwall in the belief of the Weftern 

 peafantry. Pygmies firft appear in the "Iliad," 

 iii. 2-7: "The Trojans advanced with clangour 

 and a war-cry, like birds ; like the clamour of 

 cranes aloft in heaven, when flying from winter 

 and a mighty ftorm, loudly clamouring, they wing 

 their way to the ocean ftreams, bringing daughter 

 and death to the Pygmies." Ariftotle ("Hift. 

 An.," viii. 14, 2) amplifies this pafTage, which 

 he evidently had in his remembrance: "Cranes 



