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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"

Certum quippe est ultra_ Nili _fontes multos
reperiri_ Nanos, _qui tamen non cum Gruibus, sed cum Elephantis perpetuum
gerant bellum. Praecipuum quippe Eboris commercium in regno magni_ Macoki
_per istos transigitur Homunciones; habitant in Sylvis, & mira dexteritate
Elephantos sagittis conficiunt. Carnibus vescuntur, Dentes vero_ Jagis
_divendunt, illi autem_ Congentibus & Lusitanis.
[Footnote A: _Isaac Vossius ibid_.]
_Job Ludolphus_[A] in his _Commentary_ on his _AEthiopick History_ remarks,
That there was never known a Nation all of Dwarfs. _Nani quippe_ (saith
_Ludolphus_) _Naturae quodam errore ex aliis justae staturae hominibus
generantur. Qualis vero ea Gens sit, ex qua ista Naturae Ludibria tanta
copia proveniant, Vossium docere oportelat, quia Pumiliones Pumiles alios
non gignunt, sed plerunque steriles sunt, experientia teste; ut plane non
opus habuerunt Doctores Talmudici Nanorum matrimonia prohibere, ne
Digitales ex iis nascerentur. Ludolphus_ it may be is a little too strict
with _Vossius_ for calling them _Nani_; he may only mean a sort of Men in
that Country of less Stature than ordinary.


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