the T YG MIES of the Jnctents. 3 3; 



that they had Tails on their Rumps 5 and were very lafcivious toward 

 the Women in the Ship. But of thefe more, when we come to dilcourfe 

 of Satyrs. 



And we may the lefs wonder to find that they call Brutes Men , 

 fince 'twas common for thefe Hijlormns to give the Title of Men^ not on- 

 ly to Brutes^ but they were grown fo wanton in their Inventions, as to 

 defcribe feveral Nations of MoKJirous Men, that had never any Being, but 

 in their own Imagination, as I have inftanced in feveral. I therefore 

 excufe Strabo for denying the Pygmies, fince he could not but be convin- 

 ced, they could not be fuch Men, as thefe Hiftorians have defcribed them. 

 And the better to judge of the Reafons that fome of the Moderns have 

 . given to prove the Being of Mf» Pygmies, I have laid down as Pojiula- 

 ta's, that hereby we muft not under ftand Z)a7<zy/f, nor yet a Nation of 

 Men,tho' fomewhat of a leiTer fize and ftature than ordinary , but we muft 

 obferve thofe two Charafterifticks th-Zt Homer gives of them, that they are 

 Cnbitales, and fight Cranes. 



Having premifed this, I have taken into confideration Caj^ar BarthoUne 

 Senior his Opufmlum de Pygm£fs, and Jo. Talentonius's Dillertation about 

 them j and upon examination do find, that neither the Humane Autho- 

 rities, nor Divine that they alledge, do any ways prove , as they pre- 

 tend, the Being of Men Pjigmks. St. Aujiin, who is like wife quoted on- 

 their fide, is fo far from favouring this Opinion, that he doubts whe- 

 ther any fuch Creatures exiflr, and if they do, concludes them to be Jpes^ 

 or Monkeys ; and cenfures thofe Indian Hijiorians for impofing fuch Beafts 

 upon us, as diftind Races of Men. Julius C£far Scaliger, and Jfaac Ca- 

 fanbon, and Adrian Spigeliuf Utterly deny the Being of Pygmies, and look 

 upon them as a Figment only of the Ancients, becaufe fuch little Men 

 as they defcribe them to be,are no where to be met with in all the World. 

 The Learned Bochartm, tho' he efteemsthe Geranomachia to be a Fable, 

 and flights it, yet thinks that what might give the occafion to the Story 

 of the Pygmies, might be the NHb£ or Nob£ ^ as Ifaac Vojjius conjedures 

 that it was thofe Djrar/jr beyond the Fountains of the Nile, that Dapper 

 czWs thtMimos, and tells us, they y;\\\ Elephants for to make a TrafBck 

 with their Teeth. But Job Ludol^hus alters the Scene, and inftead of 

 Cranes, fubftitutes his G^/zis^^jri", who do not fight the Pygmies, hut fly 

 away with them, and then devour chera. 



Now all thefe Conjectures do no ways account for Homers Pygmies 

 a.nd Cranes, they are too much forced and ftrain'd. Truth is always 

 eafie and plain. In our prefent Cafe therefore I think the Orang-Outang, 

 or wild Man, may exactly fupply the place of the Pygmies, and without: 

 any violence or injury to the Story, fufEciently account for the whole- 

 Hiftory of the Pygmies, but what is moft apparently fabulous ^ for what, 

 has been the greateft diflSculty to be folved or fatisfied, was their being 



Ms.n ,. 



