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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"

]
But to return to our _Pygmies_; tho' most of the great and learned Men
would seem to decry this Story as a Fiction and mere Fable, yet there is
something of Truth, they think, must have given the first rise to it, and
that it was not wholly the product of Phancy, but had some real
foundation, tho' disguised, according to the different Imagination and
_Genius_ of the _Relator_: 'Tis this that has incited them to give their
several Conjectures about it. _Job Ludolphus_ finding what has been
offered at in Relation to the _Pygmies_, not to satisfie, he thinks he can
better account for this Story, by leaving out the _Cranes_, and placing in
their stead, another sort of Bird he calls the _Condor_. I will give you
his own words: _Sed ad Pygmaeos_ (saith [A] _Ludolphus_) _revertamur;
fabula de Geranomachia Pygmaeorum seu pugna cum Gruibus etiam aliquid de
vero trahere videtur, si pro Gruibus_ Condoras _intelligas, Aves in
interiore_ Africa _maximas, ut fidem pene excedat; aiunt enim quod Ales
ista vitulum Elephanti in Aerem extollere possit; ut infra docebimus.


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