A Philological Essay Concerning The Pygmies Of The Ancients Part 7

I do not find therefore any good Authority, unless you will reckon _Ctesias_ as such, that the _Pygmies_ ever used a Language or Speech, any more than other _Brutes_ of the same _Species_ do among themselves, and that we know nothing of, whatever _Democritus_ and _Melampodes_ in _Pliny_,[A] or _Apollonius Tyanaeus_ in _Porphyry_[B] might formerly have done. Had the _Pygmies_ ever spoke any _Language_ intelligible by Mankind, this might have furnished our _Historians_ with notable Subjects for their _Novels_; and no doubt but we should have had plenty of them.

[Footnote A: _Plinij Nat. Hist._ lib. 10. cap. 49.]

[Footnote B: _Porphyrius de Abstinentia_, lib. 3. pag. m. 103.]

But _Albertus Magnus_, who was so lucky as to guess that the _Pygmies_ were a sort of _Apes_; that he should afterwards make these _Apes_ to _speak_, was very unfortunate, and spoiled all; and he do's it, methinks, so very awkwardly, that it is as difficult almost to understand his Language as his _Apes_; if the Reader has a mind to attempt it, he will find it in the Margin.[A]

[Footnote A: _Si qui Homines sunt Silvestres, sicut Pygmeus, non secundum unam rationem n.o.bisc.u.m dicti sunt Homines, sed aliquod habent Hominis in quadam deliberatione & Loquela, &c._ A little after adds, _Voces quaedam (sc. Animalia) formant ad diversos conceptus quos habent, sicut h.o.m.o & Pygmaeus; & quaedam non faciunt hoc, sicut mult.i.tudo fere tota aliorum Animalium. Adhuc autem eorum quae ex ratione cogitativa formant voces, quaedam sunt succ.u.mbentia, quaedam autem non succ.u.mbentia. Dico autem succ.u.mbentia, a conceptu Animae cadentia & mota ad Naturae Instinctum, sicut Pygmeus, qui non, sequitur rationem Loquelae sed Naturae Instinctum; h.o.m.o autem non succ.u.mbit sed sequitur rationem._ Albert. Magn. de Animal. lib.

1. cap. 3. p.m. 3.]

Had _Albertus_ only a.s.serted, that the _Pygmies_ were a sort of _Apes_, his Opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he could have produced some Body that had heard them talk. But _Ulysses Aldrovandus_[A] is so far from believing his _Ape Pygmies_ ever spoke, that he utterly denies, that there were ever any such Creatures in being, as the _Pygmies_, at all; or that they ever fought the _Cranes_. _c.u.m itaque Pygmaeos_ (saith he) _dari negemus, Grues etiam c.u.m iis Bellum gerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne jurantibus credemus._

[Footnote A: _Ulys. Aldrovandi Ornitholog._ lib. 20. p.m. 344.]

I find a great many very Learned Men are of this Opinion: And in the first place, _Strabo_[A] is very positive; [Greek: Heorakos men gar oudeis exaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. _No Man worthy of belief did ever see them_. And upon all occasions he declares the same. So _Julius Caesar Scaliger_[B] makes them to be only a Fiction of the Ancients, _At haec omnia_ (saith he) _Antiquorum figmenta & merae Nugae, si exstarent, reperirentur. At c.u.m universus...o...b..s nunc n.o.bis cognitus sit, nullibi haec Naturae Excrementa reperiri certissimum est._ And _Isaac Casaubon_[C]

ridicules such as pretend to justifie them: _Sic nostra aetate_ (saith he) _non desunt, qui eandem de Pygmaeis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam e Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. Legi etiam Bergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. At non ego credulus illi, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo._ I shall add one Authority more, and that is of _Adrian Spigelius,_ who produces a Witness that had examined the very place, where the _Pygmies_ were said to be; yet upon a diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of them.[D] _Spigelius_ therefore tells us, _Hoc loco de Pygmaeis dicendum erat, qui [Greek: para pygonos] dicti a statura, quae ulnam non excedunt.

Verum ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen_ Aristoteles _minime haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam._ 8. Hist. Animal. 12.

_a.s.severat. Ego quo minus hoc statuam, tum Authoritate primum Doctissimi_ Strabonis I. Geograph. _coactus sum, tum potissimum nunc moveor, quod nostro tempore, quo nulla Mundi pars est, quam Nautarum Industria non perl.u.s.trarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum.

Accedit quod_ Franciscus Alvarez _Lusita.n.u.s, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit, circa quae Aristoteles Pygmaeos esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam Gentem a se conspectam tradidit, sed Populum esse Mediocris staturae, &_ aethiopes _tradit._

[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 17. p.m. 565.]

[Footnote B: _Jul. Caes. Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib.

8. -- 126. p.m. 914.]

[Footnote C: _Isaac Causabon Notae & Castigat. in_ lib. 1. _Strabonis Geograph._ p.m. 38.]

[Footnote D: _Adrian. Spigelij de Corporis Humani fabrica_, lib. 1. cap.

7. p.m. 15.]

I think my self therefore here obliged to make out, that there were such Creatures as _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 a.s.sertion 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 pa.s.sage, 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 c.u.m Pygmaeis dic.u.n.tur. 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 pa.s.s from hot Countreys into cold ones, for fear of the ensuing heat; some making their Migrations from nearer places; others from the most remote (as I may say) as the _Cranes_ do: for they come out of _Scythia_ to the Lakes above _aegypt_, whence the _Nile_ do's flow. This is the place, whereabout the _Pygmies_ dwell: For this is no _Fable_, but a _Truth_. Both they and the Horses, as 'tis said, are a small kind. They are _Troglodytes_, or live in Caves.'

We may here observe how positive the _Philosopher_ is, that there are _Pygmies_; he tells us where they dwell, and that 'tis no Fable, but a Truth. But _Theodorus Gaza_ has been unjust in translating him, by foisting in, _Quo in loco pugnare c.u.m Pygmaeis dic.u.n.tur_, whereas there is nothing in the Text that warrants it: As likewise, where he expresses the little Stature of the _Pygmies_ and the Horses, there _Gaza_ has rendered it, _Sed certe Genus tum Hominum, tum etiam Equorum pusillum_. _Aristotle_ only saith, [Greek: Genos mikron men hosper legetai, kai autoi, kai hoi hippoi]. He neither makes his _Pygmies Men_, nor saith any thing of their fighting the _Cranes_; tho' here he had a fair occasion, discoursing of the Migration of the _Cranes_ out of _Scythia_ to the _Lakes_ above _aegypt_, where he tells us the _Pygmies_ are. Cardan[A] therefore must certainly be out in his guess, that _Aristotle_ only a.s.serted the _Pygmies_ out of Complement to his friend _Homer_; for surely then he would not have forgot their fight with the _Cranes_; upon which occasion only _Homer_ mentions them.[B] I should rather think that _Aristotle_, being sensible of the many Fables that had been raised on this occasion, studiously avoided the mentioning this fight, that he might not give countenance to the Extravagant Relations that had been made of it.

[Footnote A: _Cardan de Rerum varietate_, lib. 8. cap. 40. p.m. 153.]

[Footnote B: _Apparet ergo_ (saith _Cardan_) Pygmaeorum Historiam esse fabulosam, quod &_ Strabo _sent.i.t & nosira aetas, c.u.m omnia nunc ferme orbis mirabilia innotuerint, declarat. Sed quod tantum Philosophum decepit, fuit Homeri Auctoritas non apud illium levis.]

But I wonder that neither _Casaubon_ nor _Duvall_ in their Editions of _Aristotle_'s Works, should have taken notice of these Mistakes of _Gaza_, and corrected them. And _Gesner_, and _Aldrovandus_, and several other Learned Men, in quoting this place of _Aristotle_, do make use of this faulty Translation, which must necessarily lead them into Mistakes. _Sam.

Bochartus_[A] tho' he gives _Aristotle_'s Text in Greek, and adds a new Translation of it, he leaves out indeed the _Cranes_ fighting with the _Pygmies_, yet makes them _Men_, which _Aristotle_ do's not; and by anti-placing, _ut aiunt_, he renders _Aristotle_'s a.s.sertion more dubious; _Neque enim_ (saith he in the Translation) _id est fabula, sed revera, ut aiunt, Genus ibi parvum est tam Hominum quam Equorum. Julius Caesar Scaliger_ in translating this Text of _Aristotle_, omits both these Interpretations of _Gaza_; but on the other hand is no less to be blamed in not translating at all the most remarkable pa.s.sage, and where the Philosopher seems to be so much in earnest; as, [Greek: ou gar esti touto mythos, all' esti kata taen alaetheian], this he leaves wholly out, without giving us his reason for it, if he had any: And Scaliger's[B]

insinuation in his Comment, _viz. Negat esse fabulam de his (sc. Pygmeis)_ Herodotus, _at Philosophus semper moderatus & prudens etiam addidit_, [Greek: hosper legetai], is not to be allowed. Nor can I a.s.sent to Sir _Thomas Brown_'s[C] remark upon this place; _Where indeed_ (saith he) Aristotle _plays the_ Aristotle; _that is, the wary and evading a.s.serter; for tho' with_ non est fabula _he seems at first to confirm it, yet at last he claps in,_ sicut aiunt, _and shakes the belief he placed before upon it. And therefore_ Scaliger (saith he) _hath not translated the first, perhaps supposing it surrept.i.tious, or unworthy so great an a.s.sertor._ But had _Scaliger_ known it to be surrept.i.tious, no doubt but he would have remarked it; and then there had been some Colour for the Gloss. But 'tis unworthy to be believed of _Aristotle_, who was so wary and cautious, that he should in so short a pa.s.sage, contradict himself: and after he had so positively affirmed the Truth of it, presently doubt it. His [Greek: hosper legetai] therefore must have a Reference to what follows, _Pusillum genus, ut aiunt, ipsi atque etiam Equi_, as _Scaliger_ himself translates it.

[Footnote A: _Bocharti Hierozoic. S. de Animalib. S. Script. part.

Posterior_. lib. 1. cap. 11. p.m. 76.]

[Footnote B: _Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. p.m.

914.]

[Footnote C: Sir _Thomas Brown_'s _Pseudodoxia_, or, _Enquiries into Vulgar Errors_, lib. 4. cap. 11.]

I do not here find _Aristotle_ a.s.serting or confirming any thing of the fabulous Narrations that had been 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 a.s.serts the _Being_ of them, and a.s.sures 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 Pa.s.sion 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 _Brutes_: For reckoning up the _Animals_ of _Libya_, he tells us, [Greek: Kai gar hoi ophies hoi hypermegathees, kai hoi leontes kata toutous eisi, kai hoi elephantes te kai arktoi, kai aspides te kai onoi hoi ta kerata echontes; kai hoi kynokephaloi (akephaloi) hoi en toisi staethesi tous ophthalmous echontes (hos dae legetai ge hypo libyon) kai agrioi andres, kai gynaikes agriai kai alla plaethei polla thaeria akatapseusta;] i.e. _That there are here prodigious large Serpents, and Lions, and Elephants, and Bears, and Asps, and a.s.ses that have horns, and Cynocephali,_ (in the Margin 'tis _Acephali_) _that have Eyes in their Breast, (as is reported by the Libyans) and wild Men, and wild Women, and a great many other wild Beasts that are not fabulous._ Tis evident therefore that _Herodotus_ his [Greek: agrioi andres, kai gynaikes agriai] are only [Greek: thaeria] or wild Beasts: and tho' they are called [Greek: andres], they are no more _Men_ than our _Orang-Outang_, or _h.o.m.o_ _Sylvestris_, or _wild Man_, which has exactly the same Name, and I must confess I can't but think is the same Animal: and that the same Name has been continued down to us, from his Time, and it may be from _Homer's_.

[Footnote A: _Herodot. Melpomene seu_ lib. 4. p.m. 285.]

So _Philostratus_ speaking of _aethiopia_ and _aegypt_, tells us,[A] [Greek: Boskousi de kai thaeria hoia ouch heterothi; kai anthropous melanas, ho mae allai aepeiroi. Pygmaion te en autais ethnae kai hylaktounton allo allaei.] i.e. _Here are bred wild Beasts that are not in other places; and black Men, which no other Country affords: and amongst them is the Nation of the Pygmies, and the_ BARKERS, that is, the _Cynocephali._ For tho'

_Philostratus_ is pleased here only to call them _Barkers_, and to reckon them, as he does the _Black Men_ and the _Pygmies_ amongst the _wild Beasts_ of those Countreys; yet _Ctesias_, from whom _Philostratus_ has borrowed a great deal of his _Natural History_, stiles them _Men_, and makes them speak, and to perform most notable Feats in Merchandising. But not being in a merry Humour it may be now, before he was aware, he speaks Truth: For _Caelius Rhodiginus's_[B] Character of him is, _Philostratus omnium qui unquam Historiam conscripserunt, mendacissimus._

[Footnote A: _Philostratus in vita Apollon. Tyanaei_, lib. 6. cap. 1. p.m.

258.]

[Footnote B: _Caelij Rhodigini Lection. Antiq._ lib. 17. cap. 13.]

Since the _Pygmies_ therefore are some of the _Brute Beasts_ that naturally breed in these Countries, and they are pleased to let us know as much, I can easily excuse them a Name. [Greek: Andres agrioi], or _Orang-Outang_, is alike to me; and I am better pleased with _Homer_'s [Greek: andres pygmaioi], than if he had called [Greek: pithaekoi]. Had this been the only Instance where they had misapplied the Name of _Man_, methinks I could be so good natur'd, as in some measure to make an Apology for them. But finding them, so extravagantly loose, so wretchedly whimsical, in abusing the Dignity of Mankind, by giving the name of _Man_ to such monstrous Productions of their idle Imaginations, as the _Indian Historians_ have done, I do not wonder that wise Men have suspected all that comes out of their Mint, to be false and counterfeit.

Such are their [Greek: Amykteres] or [Greek: Arrines], that want Noses, and have only two holes above their Mouth; they eat all things, but they must be raw; they are short lived; the upper part of their Mouths is very prominent. The [Greek: Enotokeitai], whose Ears reach down to their Heels, on which they lye and sleep. The [Greek: Astomoi], that have no Mouths, a civil sort of People, that dwell about the Head of the _Ganges_; and live upon smelling to boil'd Meats and the Odours of Fruits and Flowers; they can bear no ill scent, and therefore can't live in a Camp. The [Greek: Monommatoi] or [Greek: Monophthalmoi], that have but one Eye, and that in the middle of their Foreheads: they have Dog's Ears; their Hair stands an end, but smooth on the b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The [Greek: Sternophthalmoi], that have Eyes in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The [Greek: Panai sphaenokephaloi] with Heads like Wedges. The [Greek: Makrokephaloi], with great Heads. The [Greek: hyperboreoi], who live a Thousand years. The [Greek: okypodes], so swift that they will out-run a Horse. The [Greek: opiothodaktyloi], that go with their Heels forward, and their Toes backwards. The [Greek: Makroskeleis], The [Greek: Steganopodes], The [Greek: Monoskeleis], who have one Leg, but will jump a great way, and are call'd _Sciapodes_, because when they lye on their Backs, with this _Leg_ they can keep off the Sun from their Bodies.

Now _Strabo_[A] from whom I have collected the Description of these Monstrous sorts of _Men_, and they are mentioned too by _Pliny, Solinus, Mela, Philostratus_, and others; and _Munster_ in his _Cosmography_[B] has given a _figure_ of some of them; _Strabo_, I say, who was an Enemy to all such fabulous Relations, no doubt was prejudiced likewise against the _Pygmies_, because these _Historians_ had made them a Puny Race of _Men_, and invented so many Romances about them. I can no ways therefore blame him for denying, that there were ever any such _Men Pygmies_; and do readily agree with him, that no _Man_ ever saw them: and am so far from dissenting from those Great Men, who have denied them on this account, that I think they have all the reason in the World on their side. And to shew how ready I am to close with them in this Point, I will here examine the contrary Opinion, and what Reasons they give for the supporting it: For there have been some _Moderns_, as well as the _Ancients_, that have maintained that these _Pygmies_ were real _Men_. And this they pretend to prove, both from _Humane Authority_ and _Divine_.

[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 15. p.m. 489. & lib. 2. p. 48. _& alibi_.]

[Footnote B: _Munster Cosmograph._ lib. 6. p. 1151.]

Now by _Men Pygmies_ we are by no means to understand _Dwarfs_. In all Countries, and in all Ages, there has been now and then observed such _Miniture_ of Mankind, or under-sized Men. _Cardan_[A] tells us he saw one carried about in a Parrot's Cage, that was but a Cubit high.

_Nicephorus_[B] tells us, that in _Theodosius_ the Emperour's time, there was one in _aegypt_ that was no bigger than a Partridge; yet what was to be admired, he was very Prudent, had a sweet clear Voice, and a generous Mind; and lived Twenty Years. So likewise a King of _Portugal_ sent to a Duke of _Savoy_, when he married his Daughter to him, an _aethiopian Dwarf_ but three Palms high.[C] And _Thevenot_[D] tells us of the Present made by the King of the _Abyssins_, to the _Grand Seignior_, of several _little black Slaves_ out of _Nubia_, and the Countries near _aethiopia_, which being made _Eunuchs_, were to guard the Ladies of the _Seraglio_. And a great many such like Relations there are. But these being only _Dwarfs_, they must not be esteemed the _Pygmies_ we are enquiring about, which are represented as a _Nation_, and the whole Race of them to be of the like stature. _Dari tamen integras Pumilionum Gentes, tam falsum est, quam quod falsissimum_, saith _Harduin_.[E]

[Footnote A: _Cardan de subtilitate_, lib. 11. p. 458.]

[Footnote B: _Nicephor. Histor. Ecclesiiast._ lib. 12. cap. 37.]

[Footnote C: _Happelius in Relat. curiosis_, No. 85. p. 677.]