C i ) 



A 



Philological Effay 



Concerning the 



PYGMIES 



O F T H E 



ANCIENTS.' 



HAVING had the Opportunity of DlfTeaing this remarka- 

 ble Creature, which not only in the outward Jhape of the 

 Body, but likewife in the ftru£ture of many of the Inward 

 Parts, fo nearly refembles a Man^ as plainly appears by the 

 Anatomy I have here given of it, it fuggefted the Thought 

 to me, whether this fort of Animal^ might not give the Foundation to 

 the Stories of the Fygmies .<? and afford an occafion not only to the Poets, 

 but Hifiorians too, of inventing the many Fables and wonderful and mer- 

 ry Relations, that are tranfmitted down to us concerning them ? I muffc 

 confefs, I could never before entertain any other Opinion about them , 

 but that the whole was a Fi&wn : and as the firffc Account we have of 

 them, was from a Poet, fo that they were only a Creature of the Brain, 

 produced by a warm and wanton Imagination, and that they never had 

 any Exiftence or Habitation elfewhere . 



In this Opinion I was the more confirmed, becaufe the moft diligent 

 Enquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never 

 difcover any fuch Puny diminutive Race of Mankind. That they (hould 

 be totally deftroyed by the Cr^we/, their Enemies, and not a Straggler 

 here and there left remaining, was a Fate, that even thofe Animals that 

 are conftantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. Nothing there- 

 fore appeared to me more Fabulous and Romantick, than their Hljiorj, 

 and the Relations about them, that Antiquity has delivered to us. And 



