The Anatomy of a T Y G M I E. 79 



Subjeft to be exadtly the Vygr^ik of the Ancients : Of this ^.adm-manm 

 fort of Animals there are divers Species, and fome may be taller and o- 

 thers {hotter 5 but all of them being but, Brutes, I was unwilling to call 

 ours a Mtf», tho' with an Epithet. Twas neceifary to give it a Nanie,be- 

 caufe not tallying exaftly with the Defcriptions of thofe that are given 

 us, I did not know but that it might be diifcrent : and it's prefent height 

 correfponding fo well Vv^ith that of the Pygmies of the Ancients, ( and 

 we may allow fomething for growth too) induced rae to this denomina- 

 tion: For as A.Gellius^^'^^ tells us, the Pygmies were two Foot and a 

 quarter high. Pygmaos quoqiie (faith he) baud long^ ah his nafci , quorum 

 qni longijjimi Jltnt, non longiores ejfe quhm pedes duos & quadrantem. And 

 fo Pliny (89), Supra hos extrema in parte M.ontium Trij^ithami, Pygmcei- 

 que narrantur, ternas Spimathas longiiudine, hoc elt ternos dodrantes non 

 excedentes ^ that is twenty feven Inches. For as Ludovicus Fives (90) 

 obferves, a Foot contains fixteen Digiti or twelve Pol/ices. The Do- 

 drans or Spithama^ which is the Palmus major, contains nine PoUices 5 

 the Palmm minor is but three PoUices, or four Digiti, that is, a quarter 

 of a Foot : And fo Herodotus (91) informs us, that the Valmm contains 

 four Digiti, and the Cubit fix Palmi. The Pygmie therefore being TriJ^ 

 pithamus or three Spithams long, was twenty feven Inches long , or as 

 A. Gellius tells us, two Foot and a quarter. So our Animal, before Dif- 

 feftion meafured twenty fix Inches ; but in the Sceleton, only four and 

 twenty Inches. Not but Strabo (92) out o£ Megajihenes, does mention 

 too, the -Trivlaum^cifMig ar6^(»7ra?, as well as the r^am^x/utag ; but thefe lat- 

 ter (he tells us) were thofe, that Homer makes to fight the Cranes, How- 

 ever it be, if our Ape be not the Pygmie of the Ancients, yet I can't 

 but think, the Pygmies of the Ancients were only a fort of Apes, not- 

 withftanding all the Romances that have been made about them. And if 

 fo, and our Ape be'found not much to exceed the mcafures given, I (hall 

 think my Conjedture in giving this Name, not amifs. But of this here= 

 after. And to proceed : 



Since the Bones are the main Timber-work in this Fabrick of Animal 

 Bodies, by which the whole is fupported, and upon their Strudure, in 

 a good meafure, does depend their manner of local motion, we will here 

 more particularly enquire, which may be thought the moll: natural way 

 of walking in our Pygmie, either as a ^ladruped or a Biped, for it did 

 both upon occafion ; and we will fee whether by Nature 'tvv as equally 

 provided for the doing both. 



Now when I obferved it to go upon all four,- as z^adruped (as has 

 been already remark'd) it did not place the Palms of the Hands fiat to 



(88) ^.(reZ^.iVff^.^W/c. lib.9.cap.4.p,205. (89) P/;n?j2»;d^/S,ff.lib.7.cap.2.p.m.i3-. (90) Lu£Vives 

 CommentM V.Auguftini de Civhate Dei, lib.i^.cap.8.p.ra.882, (91) Hmdotifs inEuterpej'N'', iti^.'p. m, 

 4^i8' (92) Strabo.Geo^raph,]ib.iS.^.m-4rS9. 



