Pygmies_, before I determine what they were, since the very
being of them is called in question, and utterly denied by so great Men,
and by others too that might be here produced. Now in the doing this,
_Aristotle_'s Assertion of them is so very positive, that I think there
needs not a greater or better Proof; and it is so remarkable a one, that I
find the very Enemies to this Opinion at a loss, how to shift it off. To
lessen it's Authority they have interpolated the _Text_, by foisting into
the _Translation_ what is not in the Original; or by not translating at
all the most material passage, that makes against them; or by miserably
glossing it, to make him speak what he never intended: Such unfair
dealings plainly argue, that at any rate they are willing to get rid of a
Proof, that otherwise they can neither deny, or answer.

_Aristotle_'s Text is this, which I shall give with _Theodorus Gaza's_
Translation: for discoursing of the Migration of Birds, according to the
Season of the Year, from one Country to another, he saith:[A]

[Footnote A: _Aristotel. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. cap. 12.]

[Greek: Meta men taen phthinoporinaen Isaemerian, ek tou Pontou kaiton
psychron pheugonta ton epionta cheimona; meta de taen earinaen, ek ton
therinon, eis tous topous tous psychrous, phoboumena ta kaumata; ta men,
kai ek ton engus topon poioumena tas metabolas, ta de, kai ek ton eschaton
hos eipein, hoion hai geranoi poiousi. Metaballousi gar ek ton Skythikon
eis ta helae ta ano taes Aigyptou, othen ho Neilos rhei. Esti de ho topos
outos peri on hoi pigmaioi katoikousin; ou gar esti touto mythos, all'
esti kata taen alaetheian. Genos mikron men, hosper legetai, kai autoi kai
hoi hippoi; Troglodytai d' eisi ton bion.]

_Tam ab Autumnali AEquinoctio ex Ponto, Locisque frigidis fugiunt Hyemem
futuram. A Verno autem ex tepida Regione ad frigidam sese conferunt, aestus
metu futuri: & alia de locis vicinis discedunt, alia de ultimis, prope
dixerim, ut Grues faciunt, quae ex Scythicis Campis ad Paludes AEgypto
superiores, unde Nilus profluit, veniunt, quo in loco pugnare cum Pygmaeis
dicuntur. Non enim id fabula est, sed certe, genus tum hominum, tum etiam
Equorum pusillum (ut dicitur) est, deguntque in Cavernis, unde Nomen
Troglodytae a subeundis Cavernis accepere._

In English 'tis thus: 'At the _Autumnal AEquinox_ they go out of _Pontus_
and the cold Countreys to avoid the Winter that is coming on. At the
_Vernal AEquinox_ they pass fro