Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 83 



ftill among us." Moft of his fcorn is poured out 

 upon Ariftotle, who can afford to fmile at it 

 however, " wherein indeed Ariftotle plays the 

 Ariftotle, that is, the wary and evading afTertor ; 

 for though with non efl fabula^ he feems at firft to 

 confirm it, yet at the laft he claps in ut aiunt^ 

 and makes the belief he put before upon it." 

 Much of his own chapter is taken up with a 

 confederation of Ezekiel xxvii. 12, where, in the 

 Vulgate, the Pygmies appear as a tranflation of 

 "Gammadim," which our verfion tranflates "men 

 of Arvad :" " Et Pygmaei qui erant in turribus 

 tuis pharetras fuas fufpenderunt in muris tuis per 

 gyrum." It is difficult, indeed, to connect the 

 Pygmies with the city of Tyre, to which thefe 

 words refer ; fome might call it impoflible, were 

 not the commentary of the ingenious Forerius 

 extant. He confiders that "the watchmen of 

 Tyre might well be called Pygmies, the towers of 

 that city being fo high that, unto men below, they 

 appeared in a cubital ftature." But the Pygmies, 

 it will be feen, are to be found in much ftranger 

 places than ancient Phoenicia ; fuffice it now to 

 ftate Sir T. Browne's cautious judgments on them : 

 "Since it is not defined in what dimenfions the 

 foul may exercife her faculties, we mall not con- 

 clude impoflibility ; or that there might not be a 

 race of Pygmies, as there is fometimes of giants ; 

 but to believe they fhould be in the ftature of a 

 foot or a fpan requires the preafpection of fuch a 

 one as Philetas the poet in Athenasus, who was 

 fain to faften lead unto his feet, left the wind 



