THE PIGMIES. 93 



" they had to wage against the cranes, in order to save their 

 " fruit." 0) 



The translator of Pompontus Mela looks upon the small recess 

 in the Bed Sea, here above-mentioned, as being our present G-ulf 

 of Aden ; but I should hardly fancy that the Latin geographer 

 would have applied that expression to the vast expanse of water 

 which extends from Cape Guardafui to the Straits of Bab-el- 

 Mandeb. The Bay of Moscha, which penetrates far inland south- 

 west of the straits, seems to correspond much better, in every 

 respect, to the indication given by Pomponius. On the other 

 hand, this bay is situated on the same parallel ( 13° N. lat .) as 

 the commencement of the grassy region of the Nile, ( 2 ) but at 

 about four degrees further north than the labyrinth from whence 

 the river seems to spring. Pomponius does not mention the Nile ; 

 he says nothing either of the Abyssinian mountains between the 

 African stream and the sea ; he appears, therefore, to place his Pig- 

 mies on the very eastern shores of that part of the continent. __ 



With Pliny, Pompontits accepts the fable as to the cranes, and the 

 consequent exaggeration as to the small size of their antagonists ; but 

 he differs from his fellow countryman in one important point, 

 since he accepts the extinction of the dwarf race. What he says 

 on that subject may perhaps have resulted from a greater know- 

 ledge of those countries — knowledge which must have done away 

 with the old legends. There may be, however, in his account, a sub- 

 stratum of truth, as we shall see further on. 



In speaking of these famous dwarfs of the ancients, I had to 

 dwell first on those whom Homep immortalised and who were 

 placed either in Asia or in the north-eastern regions of Africa ; but, 

 a century before Aristotle, Herodotus had also mentioned a race 

 of Pigmies, though he did not apply that actual name to them. 



We are indebted to him for having handed down to us an account 



(i) Collection des Auteurs Latins, traduits sous la direction de M. Nisard, 

 p. 658b. 



(2) Baker was stopped, for the first time, by the floating- islands, eleven 

 days only after having- left Khartoum. The journey from the latter place to 

 Gondokoro lasted forty-four days. 



