86 Gleanings from the 



their native Akka and the Arabic which they 

 learnt when young, but fpeak, read, and write 

 Italian. The girl can neither read nor write, but 

 can fpeak Italian, and a little German, languages 

 which fhe hears daily around her. She is fuppofed 

 to be about fifteen years of age. Her prefent 

 height is 1-34 metre (52*7 inches 1 ). All thefe 

 three Akkas have good health, and are generally 

 well-behaved, but have exceedingly childim taftes. 

 If thefe different accounts of ancient and 

 modern Pygmies be weighed, it will be found that 

 either monkeys or aboriginal Troglodytic tribes 

 are defcribed under that name. The Book of 

 Job 2 alludes to the Horites and other Troglodytic 

 races of Paleftine, whofe haunts were in the rocks 

 of Edom on one fide of the world. On the 

 other fide, the neolithic Iberian race, the Trog- 

 lodytes of Dordogne, the Picts, makers of the 

 fo-called Picts' houfes, the primal natives of the 

 Atlas, and the like, have been efteemed Pygmies 

 by the races which fucceeded them. In India the 

 dark fkins and flat Mongol features of many of 

 the aboriginal hill and jungle tribes being diftafte- 

 ful to their Aryan conquerors, led the latter to 

 transform them into goblins, pygmies, or demons. 

 In juft the fame manner the aborigines of Scan- 

 dinavia became the elves and gnomes, the mif- 

 chievous trolls or pygmies of Icelandic and Norfe 

 tradition. Doubtless the fcorn of the conquerors 



1 Cnf. Juvenal, "Satires," vi. 504. "Breviorque videtur 

 Virgine Pygmaea." 



2 Cap. xxx. 6, 7. 



