en made about the _Pygmies_. He does not
say that they were [Greek: andres], or [Greek: anthropoi mikroi], or
[Greek: melanes]; he only calls them [Greek: pygmaioi]. And discoursing of
the _Pygmies_ in a place, where he is only treating about _Brutes_, 'tis
reasonable to think, that he looked upon them only as such. _This is the
place where the_ Pygmies _are; this is no fable,_ saith Aristotle, as 'tis
that they are a Dwarfish Race of Men; that they speak the _Indian_
Language; that they are excellent Archers; that they are very Just; and
abundance of other Things that are fabulously reported of them; and
because he thought them _Fables_, he does not take the least notice of
them, but only saith, _This is no Fable, but a Truth, that about the Lakes
of_ Nile such _Animals_, as are called _Pygmies_, do live. And, as if he
had foreseen, that the abundance of Fables that _Ctesias_ (whom he saith
is not to be believed) and the _Indian Historians_ had invented about
them, would make the whole Story to appear as a Figment, and render it
doubtful, whether there were ever such Creatures as _Pygmies_ in Nature;
he more zealously asserts the _Being_ of them, and assures us, That _this
is no Fable, but a Truth_.

I shall therefore now enquire what sort of Creatures these _Pygmies_ were;
and hope so to manage the Matter, as in a great measure, to abate the
Passion these Great Men have had against them: for, no doubt, what has
incensed them the most, was, the fabulous _Historians_ making them a part
of _Mankind_, and then inventing a hundred ridiculous Stories about them,
which they would impose upon the World as real Truths. If therefore they
have Satisfaction given them in these two Points, I do not see, but that
the Business may be accommodated very fairly; and that they may be allowed
to be _Pygmies_, tho' we do not make them _Men_.

For I am not of _Gesner_'s mind, _Sed veterum nullus_ (saith he[A])
_aliter de Pygmaeis scripsit, quam Homunciones esse_. Had they been a Race
of _Men_, no doubt but _Aristotle_ would have informed himself farther
about them. Such a Curiosity could not but have excited his Inquisitive
_Genius_, to a stricter Enquiry and Examination; and we might easily have
expected from him a larger Account of them. But finding them, it may be, a
sort of _Apes_, he only tells us, that in such a place these _Pygmies_
live.

[Footnote A: _Gesner. Histor. Quadruped._ p.m. 885.]

Herodotus[A] plainly makes them _Brut