Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 8 1 



migrate from the Scythian regions into the 

 marmes of Upper Egypt where the Nile takes 

 its rife. The Pygmies dwell in thefe parts ; the 

 tale told of them is no myth, but in good truth 

 they are a nation of fmall ftature, as the ftory 

 runs, both they and their horfes. They live after 

 the fafhion of Troglodytes." Strabo naturally 

 diflents from the common belief: " The Ethiopians 

 lead a wretched life, and are for the moft part 

 naked, and roamers from place to place. Their 

 flocks confift of fmall fheep, goats, oxen, and dogs. 

 They are morofe, too, and warlike, in confequence 

 of their fmall ftature. Perhaps it was from the 

 fhort ftature of thefe men that the ftory of the 

 Pygmies was devifed and ftruck out. No one 

 worthy of credit relates that he had actually feen 

 them." 



The ordinary ftory appears in Pliny that they 

 fit upon rams and {he-goats, and, armed with 

 arrows, in the fpring-time defcend in a body to 

 the fea, and eat the eggs and young ones of the 

 cranes, an expedition which occupies three whole 

 months. He places the Pygmies among the 

 furtheft nations of India. With him agrees 

 Ctefias, who ftates that in the centre of India 

 are men of a dark hue called Pygmies, ufmg the 

 fame language as the reft of the Indians. They 

 are covered with long hair, and very fmall, the 

 talleft being two cubits in height, but moft of 

 them only one and a half cubit in ftature. Such 

 ftories probably helped Swift to his Lilliputians, 

 who alfo bore bows and quivers full of arrows. 

 G 



