84 Gleanings from the 



fhould blow him away." Of courfe Milton, with 

 his claflical lore, has not forgotten 



" That fmall infantry 

 Warr'd on by cranes." (Par. loft, i. 575.) 



For a later difquifition on Pygmies, the reader 

 may be referred to Ritfon's diflertation, publifhed 

 at the end of his "Fairy Tales" (London, 1831). 

 He, too, quotes the chief claflical allufions to 

 them, adding (from Ctefias): "Of thefe Pygmies 

 the King of the Indians has 3,000 in his train, 

 for they are very fkilful archers. They are, how- 

 ever, moft juft, and ufe the fame laws as the other 

 Indians." Sir John Maundeville plants them near 

 the "gret ryvere that men clepen Dalay;" calls 

 them three fpans high, " thei lyven not but fix 

 yeer or feven at the mofle, and he that lyvethe 

 eight yeer, men holden him there righte pafTynge 

 old. Thefe men be the worcheres of gold, fylver, 

 cotoun, fylk, and of alle fuch thinges of ony other 

 that be in the world," with more marvels. 1 One 

 Mr. Grofe, fays Ritfon, author of "A Voyage to 

 the Eaft Indies" (London, 1772), had heard of 

 Pygmies in Coromandel, but foon after, to his 

 amazement, he difcovered them in Great Britain. 

 " At the north poynt of Lewis there is a little ile 

 called the Pygmies ile, with ane little kirk in it 

 of their own handey-wark, within this kirk the 

 ancients of that countrey of the Lewis fays, that 

 the faid Pigmies has been eirdit thair. Maney 

 men of divers countreys has delvit upe dieplie the 



1 "Voiage and Travaill " (London, 1727), p. 232. 



