So that for the present,
till I am better informed, and I am not over curious in it, I shall make
_Ctesias_, and the other _Indian Historians_, the _Inventors_ of the
extravagant Relations we at present have of the _Pygmies_, and not old
_Homer_. He calls them, 'tis true, from something of Resemblance of their
shape, [Greek: andres]: But these _Historians_ make them to speak the
_Indian Language_; to use the same _Laws_; and to be so considerable a
Nation, and so valiant, as that the _King_ of _India_ makes choice of them
for his _Corps de Guards_; which utterly spoils _Homer's Simile_, in
making them so little, as only to fight _Cranes_.
_Ctesias_'s Account therefore of the _Pygmies_ (as I find it in
_Photius_'s _Bibliotheca_,[A] and at the latter end of some Editions of
_Herodotus_) is this:
[Footnote A: _Photij. Bibliothec. Cod._ 72. p.m. 145.]
[Greek: Hoti en mesae tae Indikae anthropoi eisi melanes, kai kalountai
pygmaioi, tois allois homoglossoi Indois. mikroi de eisi lian; hoi
makrotatoi auton paecheon duo, hoi de pleistoi, henos haemiseos paecheos,
komaen de echousi makrotataen, mechri kai hepi ta gonata, kai eti
katoteron, kai pogona megiston panton anthropon; epeidan oun ton pogona
mega physosin, ouketi amphiennyntai ouden emation: alla tas trichas, tas
men ek taes kephalaes, opisthen kathientai poly kato ton gonaton; tas de
ek tou po gonos, emprosthen mechri podon elkomenas.
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