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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"


And that the _Pygmies_ were really _Brutes_, I think I have plainly proved
out of _Herodotus_ and _Philostratus_, who reckon them amongst the _wild
Beasts_ that breed in those Countries: For tho' by _Herodotus_ they are
call'd [Greek: andres agrioi], and _Philostratus_ calls them [Greek:
anthropous melanas], yet both make them [Greek: theria] or _wild Beasts_.
And I might here add what _Pausanias_[A] relates from _Euphemus Car_, who
by contrary Winds was driven upon some Islands, where he tells us, [Greek:
en de tautais oikein andras agrious], but when he comes to describe them,
tells us that they had no Speech; that they had Tails on their Rumps; and
were very lascivious toward the Women in the Ship. But of these more, when
we come to discourse of _Satyrs_.
[Footnote A: _Pausanias in Atticis_, p.m. 21.]
And we may the less wonder to find that they call _Brutes Men_, since
'twas common for these _Historians_ to give the Title of _Men_, not only
to _Brutes_, but they were grown so wanton in their Inventions, as to
describe several Nations of _Monstrous Men_, that had never any Being, but
in their own Imagination, as I have instanced in several.


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