26 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



children they send them to theyr fathers, when they can 

 eate & go, and if they have maide chyldren they kepe 

 them, and if they bee of gentill bloud they brene 1 

 the left pappe 2 away, for bearing of a shielde, and, if 

 they be of little bloud, they brene the ryght pappe away 

 for shoting. For those women of that countrey are good 

 warriours, and are often in soudy 3 with other lordes, and 

 the queene of that lande governeth well that lande ; this 

 lande is all environed with water." 



PYGMIES. 



The antitheses of men Dwarfs, and Giants must 

 not be overlooked, as they are abnormal, and yet have 

 existed in all ages. Dwarfs are mentioned in the Bible, 

 Leviticus xxi. 20, where following the injunction of " Let 

 him not approach to offer the bread of his God" are 

 mentioned the " crookbackt or dwarf." Dwarfs in all 

 ages have been made the sport of Royalty, and the 

 wealthy ; but it is not of them I write, but of a race 

 called the Pygmies, very small men who were descended 

 from Pygmaeus. They are noted in the earliest classics, 

 for even Homer mentions them in his Iliad (B. 3, 1. 

 3-6), which Pope translates : 



" So, wlien inclement winter vex the plain 

 With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 

 To warmer seas, the Cranes embody'd fly, 

 With noise, and order, through the mid-way sky ; 

 To pigmy nations, wounds and death they bring, 

 And all the war descends upon the wing." 



Homer also wrote a poem, " Pygmaeogeranomachia," 



, l Burn. Breast At war. 



