132 
pliny's natueal history. 
[Book VII. 
nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor 
drink ; when they go upon a long journey they only carry with 
them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples,^^ 
that they may not be without something to smell at. Eut an 
odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily de- 
stroys them,^^ 
Eeyond these people, and at the very extremity of the moun- 
tains, the Trispithami^^ and the Pygmies are said to exist ; two 
races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty- 
seven inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, and a 
perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the 
northern blasts ; it is these people that Homer has mentioned 
as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said, that they are 
in the h abit of going down every spring to the sea- shore, in a large 
body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with 
arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those 
birds ; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three 
months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to 
withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their 
cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and 
egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves ; 
but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other 
writers. 
Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live 
to their four hundredth year ; and he is of opinion that the 
same is the case also with the ^Ethiopian Macrobii,^^ the Serae, 
and the inhabitants of Mount Athos.^"^ In the case of these 
81 In Eastern stories we find not uncommonly, wonderful eifects attri- 
buted to the smell of the apple. See the Arabian Nights, passim. 
S2 Cuvier remarks, that these accounts of the Struthopodes, the Scyritse, 
and the Atomi, are not capable of any explanation, being mere fables. — B. 
^3 From rpeiC) "three," and (TTTLOafiai, " spans," the span being about 
nine inches English. 
He alludes to the wars between the Cranes and the Pygmies in the 
Iliad, B. iii. 1. 3 — 6. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenal. 
85 On the subject of the Pygmies, Cuvier remarks, I am not surprised 
at finding the Pygmies in the works of Homer ; but to find them in Pliny, 
I am surprised, indeed." — B. 
86 Or the "long livers," from the Greek fiaKpbg, "long," and/?toc, "life." 
Of course, there is no truth in this statement ; there are, no doubt, 
various circumstances in these countries favourable to longevity ; but these 
are more than counter-balanced by certain peculiarities in their mode of 
life, and by the fatal epidemics to which they are occasionally subject. — B. 
