ian touches with
regard to the mouth and tongue, and it may refer to some of the insular
races which exist or existed in the district of which he is treating.

A much fuller account[A] by the same author relates to Pigmies in the
neighbourhood of a river, stated by a commentator[B] to be the
Yangtze-Kiang, "a gret ryvere, that men clepen Dalay, and that is the
grettest ryvere of fressche water that is in the world. For there, as it
is most narow, it is more than 4 myle of brede. And thanne entren men azen
in to the lond of the great Chane. That ryvere gothe thorge the lond of
Pigmaus, where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but 3 span
long, and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe
the men and the women. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half zere of age
and getten children. And thei lyven not, but 6 zeer or 7 at the moste. And
he that lyveth 8 zeer, men holden him there righte passynge old. Theise
men ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle
such thinges, of ony other, that be in the world. And thei han often tymes
werre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. This
litylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. But thei han grete
men amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren
amonges the vynes for hem. And of the men of oure stature, han thei als
grete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of Geauntes, zif thei
weren amonges us. There is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is
duellynge gret plentee of the lytylle folk, and is a gret cytee and a
fair, and the men ben grete that duellen amonges hem; but whan thei getten
ony children, thei ben als litylle as the Pygmeyes, and therefore thei ben
alle, for the moste part, alle Pygmeyes, for the nature of the land is
suche. The great Cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel, for it is his. And
alle be it, that the Pygmeyes ben litylle, zit thei ben fulle resonable,
aftre here age and connen bothen wytt and gode and malice now." This
passage, as will be noted, incorporates the Homeric tale of the battles
between the Pigmies and the Cranes, and is adorned with a representation
of such an encounter. Whether Maundeville's dwarfs were the same as the
Siao-Jin of the Shan-hai-King is a question difficult to decide; but, in
any case, both these pigmy races of legend inhabited a part of what is now
the Chinese Empire. The same Pigmies seem to be alluded to in the rubr