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 illustrate 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 assert 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 Græcians, to the great Noise of the Cranes, going to fight the Pygmies: he saith,[A]