xix THE PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS 291 



apparently more scientific character of the occurrence of races 

 of very small human beings are met with in Aristotle, 

 Herodotus, Ctesias, Pliny, Pomponius Mela, and others. 

 Aristotle places his pygmies in Africa, near the sources of the 

 Nile, while Ctesias describes a race of dwarfs in the interior 

 of India. The account in Herodotus is so circumstantial, and 

 has such an air of truthfulness about it, especially in connec- 

 tion with recent discoveries, that it is worth quoting in full. 1 



" I did hear, indeed, what I will now relate, from certain 

 natives of Gyrene. Once upon a time, they said, they were 

 on a visit to the oracular shrine of Ammon, when it chanced 

 that, in the course of conversation with Etearchus, the 

 Ammonian king, the talk fell upon the Nile, how that its 

 sources were unknown to all men. Etearchus upon this 

 mentioned that some Nasamonians had once come to his 

 court, and when asked if they could give any information 

 concerning the uninhabited parts of Libya, had told the 

 following tale. (The Nasamonians are a Libyan race vho 

 occupy the Syrtes, and a tract of no great size towards the 

 east.) They said there had grown up among them some 

 wild young men, the sons of certain chiefs, who, when they 

 came to man's estate, indulged in all manner of extravagances, 

 and among other things drew lots for five of their number to 

 go and explore the desert parts of Libya, and try if they 

 could not penetrate further than any had done previously. 

 The young men, therefore, dispatched on this errand by their 

 comrades with a plentiful supply of water and provisions, 

 travelled at first through the inhabited region, passing which 

 they came to the wild beast tract, whence they finally entered 

 upon the desert, which they proceeded to cross in a direction 

 from east to west. After journeying for many days over a 

 wide extent of sand, they came at last to a plain where they 

 observed trees growing ; approaching them, and seeing fruit 

 on them, they proceeded to gather it. While they were 

 thus engaged, there came upon them some dwarfish men, 

 under the middle height, who seized them and carried them 

 off. The Nasamonians could not understand a word of their 

 language, nor had they any acquaintance with the language of 



1 Herodotus, Book ii. 32, Rawlinson's translation, p. 47. 



