CURIOUS CREATURES. 29 



when people bring over pygmies which they allege to 

 come from India, 'tis all a lie and a cheat. For those 

 little men, as they call them, are manufactured on this 

 Island (Sumatra), and I will tell you how. You see 

 there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very 

 small, and has a face just like a man's. They take 

 these, and pluck out all the hair, except the hair of the 

 beard, and on the breast, and then dry them, and stuff 

 them, and daub them with saffron, and other things, 

 until they look like men. But you see it is all a cheat ; 

 for nowhere in India, nor anywhere else in the world, 

 were there ever men seen so small as these pretended 

 pygmies." 



But there are much more modern mention of these 

 small folk. Olaus Magnus not only reproduces the 

 classical story, but tells of the Pygmies of Greenland 

 the modern Esquimaux. These are also mentioned in 

 Purchas his Pilgrimage, as living in Iceland, "pigmies 

 represent the most perfect shape of man ; that they are 

 hairy to the uttermost joynts of the fingers, and that the 

 males have beards downe to the knees ; but, although 

 they have the shape of men, yet they have little sense 

 or understanding, nor distinct speech, but make shew of 

 a kinde of hissing, after the manner of geese." 



But to bring the history of pygmies down to modern 

 times I quote from " Giants and Dwarfs," by E. J. 

 Wood, 1868, and I am thus particular in giving my 

 authority, as the news comes from America, whence, 

 sometimes, fact is mixed with fiction (pp. 246, 247, 248). 

 " It is alleged by contemporary newspapers, that in 

 1828 several burying-grounds, from half an acre to an 

 acre and a half in extent, were discovered in the county 

 of White, state of Tennessee, near the town of Sparta, 



