^2 A Philological EJJay concerning 



obtained, that t\\dt?ygmks were really a Race o^ little Men And tho' they 

 trt only Brutes, yet being at firlt call'd n?//^ Me», no doubt from the 

 Refemblance they bear to Men ; there have not been v/anting thofe efpe- 

 cially amongft the Ancients, who have invented a hundred ridiculous 

 Stories concerning them ^ and have attributed thofe things to them, were 

 they to be believed in what they fay, that neceffarily conclude them real 

 Men. 



To fum up therefore what I have already difcourfed , I think I have 

 proved , that the Pygmies were not an Humane Species or Men. And 

 tho' Homer, who firft mentioned them, calls them av^^i? 'TnyiuaToi, yet 

 we need not underftand by this Expreffion any thing more than Apes : 

 And tho' his Geranomarhia hath been look'd upon by moft only as a 

 Poetical Fidion ; yet by affigning what might be the true Caufe of this 

 Quarrel between the Cranes and Pygmies, and by divefting it of the ma- 

 ny fabulous Relations that the Indian Hiflorians, and Others, have load- 

 ed it with, I have endeavoured to render it a true,at leaft a probable Sto- 

 ry. I have inftanced in Ctejias and the Indian Hijiorians, as the Authors 

 and Inventors of the many Fables we have had concerning them : Par- 

 ticularly, I have Examined thofe Relations, where Speech or Language 

 •is attributed to them , and (hewn, that there is no reafon to believe, 

 that they ever fpake any Language at all. Butthefe Indian Hiflorians ha- 

 ving related fo many extravagant Romances of the Pygmies, as to render 

 their whole Hiftory fufpedted, nay to be utterly denied, that there were 

 ever any fuch Creatures as Pygmies in Nature, both by Strabo of old, and 

 moft of our Learned Men of late, I have endeavoured to aflert the Truth 

 of their being, from a Text in Ariftotle ; which being fo pofitive in af- 

 firming their Exigence, creates a difficulty, that can no ways be got over 

 by fuch as are of the contrary Opinion. This Text I have vindicated 

 from the falfe Interpretations and Glofles of feveral Great Men, who had 

 their Minds fo prepoflefled and prejudiced with the Notion of Men Pyg- 

 rfiies^ that they often would quote it, and mifapply it, tho' it contain'd 

 nothing that any ways favoured their Opinion ; but the contrary rather, 

 . that they were Bn/Ze J, and not Me«. 



And that the Pygmies were really Brutes, I think I have plainly pro- 

 ved out of Herodotus and Phileftratus , who reckon them amongft the 

 wild Beafls that breed in thofe Countries ; For tho' by Herodotf0 they are 

 call'd ai'^fS? aye/O'. and Philoflratus CZWS them ai/0pa!7ra$ /xiAaya?, yet both 

 make them Sfyi^cc. or wild Beafls. And I might here add what Paufanias 

 (t) relates from Euphemus Car, who by contrary Winds was driven upon 

 Ibiiie Iflands, where he tells us, q^ g toJtoi? oh^v av^gje; a^g/a;, but 

 when he comes to defcribe them, tells us that they had no Speech 5 



(t ) Paujanias in Att':ck, p. m. ai. 



that 



