The T RE F ACE, 



This great Agreement, which I obferved between the Ormg- 

 Ohtang^ and a Md», put me upon confidering, whether it might 

 not afford the Occafion to the Ancients, of inventing the ma- 

 ny Relations, which they have given us of feveral/orfj-of Men, 

 which are no where to be met with but in their Writings. For 

 I could not but thinkj there might be fome Real Foundation 

 for their Mythology i which made me more ftridly enquire into 

 their Records; and examining them, I always found fomething 

 new , that infenfibly lead me on far beyond what at firfi: I in- 

 tended: and if I do not deceive my felf, I have at laft gained 

 a clearer Light in thefe Matters^ than any that has hitherto ap- 

 peared. 



For what created the greateft difficulty, was their cal- 

 ling them Men^hnt yet with an Epithet for diftindion fake^ as the 



"Af^ps; ''A}/e/0(, Miz^), Tlv^fJLOJioi^'NliT^.a.yit; j fo_ the '"AyBp^Troi KwOTT^awTroj, 

 &c. i. e. the Wild Men, the Little Men , the Tygmcean 

 Men , the Blac\ Men , the Men with Dogs Faces , &c. 

 yet at the fame time I find that they made them >e/'«, Wdd 

 Beajis j and if fo,no doubt but they were of the Qmdm-manus 

 kind j i. e. either Apes or Monh^ys. And fuch were likewife the 

 SatyrSy the Fauni, Pan^Mgipan, Sylzfanus^Silenns^ and the Nym- 

 ph<£, as alfo the Sphinges of the Ancients. 



But fo many Romances have been made about them, that not 

 only Strabo formerly, but the mod noted Men of Learning of 

 late, have looked upon them as meer Fidions of the Poets ^ 

 and have utterly denied them any real Being. Homers Gera- 

 nomachia therefore, or Fight of the Cranes and Pygmies ^IhzvQ 

 rendered a probable Story. Arijiotle's alTcrtion of the being of 

 Pygmies, I have vindicated from the falfe GIofTes of others. 

 The Conjedures of other Learned Men about them, I have 

 examined ; And by what I have faid in the following Phik- 

 logical Ejfay, I think I have fully proved, that there were fuch 

 Animals as the Ancients called Pygmies, CynocephaU, Satyrs^ and 

 Sphinges ', and that they were only Apes and Monkeys. 



Had^ 



