A Thiiologkal Bffay concerning 



not only Strabo of old, but our greateft Men of Learning of late, have 

 wholly exploded them, as a m^tx figment ^ invented only to amufe, and 

 divert the R^eader with the Comical Narration of their Atchievements, be- 

 lieving that there were never any fuch Creatures in Nature. 



This Opinion had fo fully obtained with me,, that I never thought it 

 worth the Enquiry, how they came to invent fuch Extravagant Stories: 

 Nor Ihould I now, but upon the Occafion of Diffefting this Animal: For 

 obferving that 'tis call'd even to this day in the Indian or Malabar Lan- 

 guage, Orang-Ontang, i. e. a Man of the Woods ^ or Wild-men 5 and be- 

 ing brought from Africa^ that part of the World, where the Fygmies are 

 faid to inhabit ; and it's prefent Stature likewife tallying fo well with that 

 of the Pygmies of the Ancients 5 thefe Confiderations put me upon the 

 fearch, to inform my felf farther about them, and to examine, whether 

 I could meet with any thing that might illuftratc their Hifiory. For I 

 thought it ftrange, that if the whole was but a meer Fidion, that fo ma- 

 ny fucceeding Generations fhould be fo fond of preferving a Story ^ that 

 had no Foundation at all in Nature 3 and that the Ancients fhould trou- 

 ble themfelves fo much about them. If therefore 1 can make out in this 

 Ejfay^ that there were fuch Animals as Pygmies ; and that they were not a 

 Race of Mea, but Apes ; and can difcover the Authors, who have forged 

 all, or mod of the idle Stori^es concerning them; and fliew, how the 

 Cheat in after Ages has been carried on, by embalming the Bodies of 

 A^pes^ then expofing them for the Men of the Country, from whence they 

 brought them : if I can do this, I (hall think my time not wholly loft, 

 nor the trouble altogether ufelefs, that I have had in this Enquiry. 



My Defign is not to juftifie all the R elations that have been given of 

 this Animal^Qven by Authors of reputed Credit , but, as far as I can, to 

 diftinguifli Truth from Fable 5 and herein, if what I alTert amounts to a 

 Probability, 'tis all I pretend to. I (hall accordingly endeavour to make 

 it appear, that not only the Pygmies of th^ Ancients, but alfo the Cynoce- 

 phdli^ and Satyrs and Sphinges were only Apes or Monkeys, not Men, as 

 they have been reprefented. But the Story of the Pygmies being the 

 greateO: Impofture, I fhall chiefly concern my felf about them., and (hall 

 be more concife on the others, fince they will not need fo (trift an Exa- 

 mination. 



We will begin with the Poet Homer, who is generally owned as the 

 firft Inventor of the Fable of the Pygmies, if it be a Fable, and not a 

 true Story, as I believe will appear in the Account I fhall give of them. 

 Now Homer only mentions them in a Simile, wherein he compares the 

 Shouts that the Trojans made, when they were going to joyn Battle with 

 the Gr<£cians,to the great Noife of the Cranes,goixig to fight the Pygmies.' 

 he faith (a\ 



(a) Homer. Iliad, lib. a. ver. 4. 



