A Philological Essay Concerning The Pygmies Of The Ancients Part 5

[Footnote B: _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 226.]

[Footnote C: Nansen, _ut supra_, p. 227.]

[Footnote D: Tylor, _ut supra_, i. 431.]

[Footnote E: Tylor, _ut supra_, ii. 80.]

It is impossible not to see a connection between such conceptions as these and the underground habitations of the little people entered by the green mound which covered the bones of the dead. But the underground world was not only a.s.sociated with the shades of the departed; it was in many parts of the world the place whence races had their origin, and here also we meet in at least one instance known to me with the conception of a little folk. A very widespread legend in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia, according to Dr. Nansen, tells how the underground or invisible people came into existence. "The Lord one day paid a visit to Eve as she was busy was.h.i.+ng her children. All those who were not yet washed she hurriedly hid in cellars and corners and under big vessels, and presented the others to the Visitor. The Lord asked if these were all, and she answered 'Yes;'

whereupon He replied, 'Then those which are _dulde_ (hidden) shall remain _hulde_ (concealed, invisible). And from them the huldre-folk are sprung."[A] There is also the widespread story of an origin underground, as amongst the Wasabe, a sub-gens of the Omahas, who believe that their ancestors were made under the earth and subsequently came to the surface.[B] There is a similar story amongst the Z[=u]nis of Western New Mexico. In journeying to their present place of habitation, they pa.s.sed through four worlds, all in the interior of this, the pa.s.sage way from darkness to light being through a large reed. From the inner world they were led by the two little war-G.o.ds, Ah-ai-[=u]-ta and M[=a]-[=a]-s[=e]-we, twin brothers, sons of the Sun, who were sent by the Sun to bring this people to his presence.[C] From these stories it would appear that the underground world, whether looked upon as the habitation of the dead or the place of origination of nations, is connected with the conception of little races and people. That it is thus responsible for some portion of the conception of fairies seems to me to be more than probable.

[Footnote A: Nansen, _ut supra_, p. 262.]

[Footnote B: Dorset, _Omaha Sociology. American Bureau of Ethnology_, iii.

211.]

[Footnote C: Stevenson, _Religious Life of Zuni Child. American Bureau of Ethnology_, v. 539.]

It is hardly necessary to allude to those spirits which animistic ideas have attached amongst other objects and places, to trees and wells. They are fully dealt with in Dr. Tylor's pages, and must not be forgotten in connection with the present question.

To sum up, then, it appears as if the idea, so widely diffused, of little, invisible, or only sometimes visible, people, is of the most complex nature. From the darkness which shrouds it, however, it is possible to discern some rays of light. That the souls of the departed, and the underground world which they inhabit, are largely responsible for it, is, I hope, rendered probable by the facts which I have brought forward. That animistic ideas have played an important part in the evolution of the idea of fairy peoples, is not open to doubt. That to these conceptions were superadded many features really derived from the actions of aboriginal races hiding before the destroying might of their invaders, and this not merely in these islands, but in many parts of the world, has been, I think, demonstrated by the labours of the gentleman whose theory I have so often alluded to. But the point upon which it is desired to lay stress is that the features derived from aboriginal races are only one amongst many sources. Possibly they play an important part, but scarcely, I think, one so important as Mr. MacRitchie would have us believe.

A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY

Concerning the PYGMIES, THE CYNOCEPHALI, THE SATYRS and SPHINGES OF THE ANCIENTS,

Wherein it will appear that they were all either APES or MONKEYS; and not MEN, as formerly pretended.

By Edward Tyson M.D.

A Philological Essay Concerning the PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS.

Having had the Opportunity of Dissecting this remarkable Creature, which not only in the _outward shape_ of the Body, but likewise in the structure of many of the Inward Parts, so nearly resembles a Man, as plainly appears by the _Anatomy_ I have here given of it, it suggested the Thought to me, whether this sort of _Animal_, might not give the Foundation to the Stories of the _Pygmies_ and afford an occasion not only to the _Poets_, but _Historians_ too, of inventing the many Fables and wonderful and merry Relations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them? I must confess, I could never before entertain any other Opinion about them, but that the whole was a _Fiction_: and as the first Account we have of them, was from a _Poet_, so that they were only a Creature of the Brain, produced by a warm and wanton Imagination, and that they never had any Existence or Habitation elsewhere.

In this Opinion I was the more confirmed, because the most diligent Enquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never discover any such _Puny_ diminutive _Race_ of _Mankind_. That they should be totally destroyed by the _Cranes_, their Enemies, and not a Straggler here and there left remaining, was a Fate, that even those _Animals_ that are constantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. Nothing therefore appeared to me more Fabulous and Romantick, than their _History_, and the Relations about them, that _Antiquity_ has delivered to us. And not only _Strabo_ of old, but our greatest Men of Learning of late, have wholly exploded them, as a mere _figment_; invented only to amuse, and divert the Reader with the Comical Narration of their Atchievements, believing that there were never any such Creatures in Nature.

This opinion had so fully obtained with me, that I never thought it worth the Enquiry, how they came to invent such Extravagant Stories: Nor should I now, but upon the Occasion of Dissecting this _Animal_: For observing that 'tis call'd even to this day in the _Indian_ or _Malabar_ Language, _Orang-Outang_, i.e. a _Man_ of the _Woods_, or _Wild-men_; and being brought from _Africa_, that part of the World, where the _Pygmies_ are said to inhabit; and it's present _Stature_ likewise tallying so well with that of the _Pygmies_ of the Ancients; these Considerations put me upon the search, to inform my self farther about them, and to examine, whether I could meet with any thing that might ill.u.s.trate their _History_. For I thought it strange, that if the whole was but a meer Fiction, that so many succeeding Generations should be so fond of preserving a _Story_, that had no Foundation at all in Nature; and that the _Ancients_ should trouble themselves so much about them. If therefore I can make out in this _Essay_, that there were such _Animals_ as _Pygmies_; and that they were not a _Race_ of _Men_, but _Apes_; and can discover the _Authors_, who have forged all, or most of the idle Stories concerning them; and shew how the Cheat in after Ages has been carried on, by embalming the Bodies of _Apes_, then exposing them for the _Men_ of the Country, from whence they brought them: If I can do this, I shall think my time not wholly lost, nor the trouble altogether useless, that I have had in this Enquiry.

My Design is not to justifie all the Relations that have been given of this _Animal_, even by Authors of reputed Credit; but, as far as I can, to distinguish Truth from Fable; and herein, if what I a.s.sert amounts to a Probability, 'tis all I pretend to. I shall accordingly endeavour to make it appear, that not only the _Pygmies_ of the Ancients, but also the _Cynocephali_, and _Satyrs_ and _Sphinges_ were only _Apes_ or _Monkeys_, not _Men_, as they have been represented. But the Story of the _Pygmies_ being the greatest Imposture, I shall chiefly concern my self about them, and shall be more concise on the others, since they will not need so strict an Examination.

We will begin with the Poet _Homer_, who is generally owned as the first Inventor of the Fable of the _Pygmies_, if it be a Fable, and not a true Story, as I believe will appear in the Account I shall give of them. Now _Homer_ only mentions them in a _Simile_, wherein he compares the Shouts that the _Trojans_ made, when they were going to joyn Battle with the _Graecians_, to the great Noise of the _Cranes_, going to fight the _Pygmies_: he saith,[A]

[Greek: Ai t' epei oun cheimona phygon, kai athesphaton ombron Klangae tai ge petontai ep' okeanoio rhoaon 'Andrasi pygmaioisi phonon kai kaera pherousai.] i.e.

_Quae simul ac fugere Imbres, Hyememque Nivalem c.u.m magno Oceani clangore ferantur ad undas Pygmaeis pugnamque Viris, caedesque ferentes._

[Footnote A: _Homer. Iliad_. lib. 3. ver. 4.]

Or as _Helius Eoba.n.u.s Hessus_ paraphrases the whole.[A]

_Postquam sub Ducibus digesta per agmina stabant Quaeque fuis, Equitum turmae, Peditumque Cohortes, Obvia torquentes Danais vestigia Troes Ibant, sublato Campum clamore replentes: Non secus ac cuneata Gruum sublime volantum Agmina, dum fugiunt Imbres, ac frigora Brumae, Per Coelum matutino clangore feruntur, Oceanumque petunt, mortem exitiumque cruentum Irrita Pigmaeis moturis arma ferentes._

[Footnote A: _Homeri Ilias Latino Carmine reddita ab Helio Eobano Hesso_.]

By [Greek: andrasi pygmaioisi] therefore, which is the Pa.s.sage upon which they have grounded all their fabulous Relations of the _Pygmies_, why may not _Homer_ mean only _Pygmies_ or _Apes_ like _Men_. Such an Expression is very allowable in a _Poet_, and is elegant and significant, especially since there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him to use it, as we have already seen, in the _Anatomy of the Orang-Outang_. Nor is a _Poet_ tied to that strictness of Expression, as an _Historian_ or _Philosopher_; he has the liberty of pleasing the Reader's Phancy, by Pictures and Representations of his own. If there be a becoming likeness, 'tis all that he is accountable for. I might therefore here make the same _Apology_ for him, as _Strabo_[A] do's on another account for his _Geography_, [Greek: ou gar kat' agnoian ton topikon legetai, all' haedonaes kai terpseos charin]. That he said it, not thro' Ignorance, but to please and delight: Or, as in another place he expresses himself,[B] [Greek: ou gar kat'

agnoian taes istorias hypolaepteon genesthai touto, alla traG.o.dias charin]. _Homer_ did not make this slip thro' Ignorance of the true _History_, but for the Beauty of his _Poem_. So that tho' he calls them _Men Pygmies_, yet he may mean no more by it, than that they were like _Men_. As to his Purpose, 'twill serve altogether as well, whether this b.l.o.o.d.y Battle be fought between the _Cranes_ and _Pygmaean Men_, or the _Cranes_ and _Apes_, which from their Stature he calls _Pygmies_, and from their shape _Men_; provided that when the _Cranes_ go to engage, they make a mighty terrible noise, and clang enough to fright these little _Wights_ their mortal Enemies. To have called them only _Apes_, had been flat and low, and lessened the grandieur of the Battle. But this _Periphrasis_ of them, [Greek: andres pygmaioi], raises the Reader's Phancy, and surprises him, and is more becoming the Language of an Heroic Poem.

[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 1. p.m. 25.]

[Footnote B: _Strabo_ ibid. p.m. 30.]

But how came the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_ to fall out? What may be the Cause of this Mortal Feud, and constant War between them? For _Brutes_, like _Men_, don't war upon one another, to raise and encrease their Glory, or to enlarge their Empire. Unless I can acquit my self herein, and a.s.sign some probable Cause hereof, I may incur the same Censure as _Strabo_[A]

pa.s.sed on several of the _Indian Historians_, [Greek: enekainisan de kai taen 'Omaerikaen ton Pygmaion geranomachin trispithameis eipontes], for reviewing the _Homerical_ Fight of the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_, which he looks upon only as a fiction of the Poet. But this had been very unbecoming _Homer_ to take a _Simile_ (which is designed for ill.u.s.tration) from what had no Foundation in Nature. His _Betrachomyomachia_, 'tis true, was a meer Invention, and never otherwise esteemed: But his _Geranomachia_ hath all the likelyhood of a true Story. And therefore I shall enquire now what may be the just Occasion of this Quarrel.

[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 2. p.m. 48.]

_Athenaeus_[A] out of _Philochorus_, and so likewise _aelian_[B], tell us a Story, That in the Nation of the _Pygmies_ the Male-line failing, one _Gerana_ was the Queen; a Woman of an admired Beauty, and whom the Citizens wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.ddess; but she became so vain and proud, as to prefer her own, before the Beauty of all the other G.o.ddesses, at which they grew enraged; and to punish her for her Insolence, Athenaeus tells us that it was _Diana_, but _aelian_ saith 'twas _Juno_ that transformed her into a _Crane_, and made her an Enemy to the _Pygmies_ that wors.h.i.+pped her before. But since they are not agreed which G.o.ddess 'twas, I shall let this pa.s.s.

[Footnote A: _Athenaei Deipnosoph_. lib. 9 p.m. 393.]

[Footnote B: _aelian. Hist. Animal_. lib. 15. cap. 29.]

_Pomponius Mela_ will have it, and I think some others, that these cruel Engagements use to happen, upon the _Cranes_ coming to devour the _Corn_ the _Pygmies_ had sowed; and that at last they became so victorious, as not only to destroy their Corn, but them also: For he tells us,[A] _Fuere interius Pygmaei, minutum genus, & quod pro satis frugibus contra Grues dimicando, defecit._ This may seem a reasonable Cause of a Quarrel; but it not being certain that the _Pygmies_ used to sow _Corn_, I will not insist on this neither.

[Footnote A: _Pomp. Mela de situ Orbis_, lib. 3. cap. 8.]

Now what seems most likely to me, is the account that _Pliny_ out of _Megasthenes_, and _Strabo_ from _Onesicritus_ give us; and, provided I be not obliged to believe or justifie _all_ that they say, I could rest satisfied in great part of their Relation: For _Pliny_[B] tells us, _Veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere, & Ova, Pullosque earum Alitum consumere_: That in the Spring-time the whole drove of the _Pygmies_ go down to the Sea side, to devour the _Cranes_ Eggs and their young Ones. So likewise _Onesicritus_,[B] [Greek: Pros de tous trispithamous polemon einai tais Geranois (hon kai Homaeron daeloun) kai tois Perdixin, ous chaenomegetheis einai; toutous d' eklegein auton ta oa, kai phtheirein; ekei gar ootokein tas Geranous; dioper maedamou maed' oa euriskesthai Geranon, maet' oun neottia;] i.e. _That there is a fight between the_ Pygmies _and the_ Cranes (_as_ Homer _relates_) _and the_ Partridges _which are as big as_ Geese; _for these_ Pygmies _gather up their Eggs, and destroy them; the_ Cranes _laying their Eggs there; and neither their Eggs, nor their Nests, being to be found any where else_. 'Tis plain therefore from them, that the Quarrel is not out of any _Antipathy_ the _Pygmies_ have to the _Cranes_, but out of love to their own Bellies. But the _Cranes_ finding their Nests to be robb'd, and their young Ones prey'd on by these Invaders, no wonder that they should so sharply engage them; and the least they could do, was to fight to the utmost so mortal an Enemy. Hence, no doubt, many a b.l.o.o.d.y Battle happens, with various success to the Combatants; sometimes with great slaughter of the _long-necked Squadron_; sometimes with great effusion of _Pygmaean_ blood. And this may well enough, in a _Poet's_ phancy, be magnified, and represented as a dreadful War; and no doubt of it, were one a _Spectator_ of it, 'twould be diverting enough.

[Footnote A: _Plinij. Hist. Nat._ lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 13.]

[Footnote B: _Strab. Geograph_. lib. 15. pag. 489.]

-----_Si videas hoc Gentibus in nostris, risu quatiere: sed illic, Quanquam eadem a.s.sidue spectantur Praelia, ridet Nemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno_.[A]

[Footnote A: _Juvenal. Satyr_. 13 vers. 170.]

This Account therefore of these Campaigns renewed every year on this Provocation between the _Cranes_ and the _Pygmies_, contains nothing but what a cautious Man may believe; and _Homer's Simile_ in likening the great shouts of the _Trojans_ to the Noise of the _Cranes_, and the Silence of the _Greeks_ to that of the _Pygmies_, is very admirable and delightful. For _Aristotle_[B] tells us, That the _Cranes_, to avoid the hards.h.i.+ps of the Winter, take a Flight out of _Scythia_ to the _Lakes_ about the _Nile_, where the _Pygmies_ live, and where 'tis very likely the _Cranes_ may lay their Eggs and breed, before they return. But these rude _Pygmies_ making too bold with them, what could the _Cranes_ do less for preserving their Off-spring than fight them; or at least by their mighty Noise, make a shew as if they would. This is but what we may observe in all other Birds. And thus far I think our _Geranomachia_ or _Pygmaeomachia_ looks like a true Story; and there is nothing in _Homer_ about it, but what is credible. He only expresses himself, as a _Poet_ should do; and if Readers will mistake his meaning, 'tis not his fault.

[Footnote B: _Aristotle. Hist. Animal_. lib. 8. cap. 15. Edit. Scalig.]

'Tis not therefore the _Poet_ that is to be blamed, tho' they would father it all on him; but the fabulous _Historians_ in after Ages, who have so odly drest up this Story by their fantastical Inventions, that there is no knowing the truth, till one hath pull'd off those Masks and Visages, wherewith they have disguised it. For tho' I can believe _Homer_, that there is a fight between the _Cranes_ and _Pygmies_, yet I think I am no ways obliged to imagine, that when the _Pygmies_ go to these Campaigns to fight the _Cranes_, that they ride upon _Partridges_, as _Athenaeas_ from _Basilis_ an _Indian Historian_ tells us; for, saith he,[A] [Greek: Basilis de en toi deuteroi ton Indikon, oi mikroi, phaesin, andres oi tais Geranois diapolemountes Perdixin ochaemati chrontai;]. For presently afterwards he tells us from _Menecles_, that the _Pygmies_ not only fight the _Cranes_, but the _Partridges_ too, [Greek: Meneklaes de en protae taes synagogaes oi pygmaioi, phaesi, tois perdixi, kai tais Geranois polemousi]. This I could more readily agree to, because _Onesicritus_, as I have quoted him already confirms it; and gives us the same reason for this as for fighting the _Cranes_, because they rob their Nests. But whether these _Partridges_ are as big as _Geese_, I leave as a _Quaere_.

[Footnote A: _Athenaei Deipnesoph_. lib. p. 9. m. 390.]