Ctesias I find is the only Author that ever understood what Language 'twas that the Pygmies spake: For Herodotus[A] owns that they use a sort of Tongue like to no other, but screech like Bats. He saith, [Greek: Hoi Garamantes outoi tous troglodytas Aithiopas thaereuousi toisi tetrippoisi. Hoi gar Troglodytai aithiopes podas tachistoi anthropon panton eisi, ton hymeis peri logous apopheromenous akouomen. Siteontai de hoi Troglodytai ophis, kai Saurous, kai ta toiauta ton Herpeton. Glossan de oudemiaei allaei paromoiaen nenomikasi, alla tetrygasi kathaper hai nukterides;] i.e. These Garamantes hunt the Troglodyte Æthiopians in Chariots with four Horses. The Troglodyte Æthiopians are the swiftest of foot of all Men that ever he heard of by any Report. The Troglodytes eat Serpents and Lizards, and such sort of Reptiles. They use a Language like to no other Tongue, but screech like Bats.
[Footnote A: Herodot. in Melpomene. pag. 283.]
Now that the Pygmies are Troglodytes, or do live in Caves, is plain from Aristotle,[A] who saith, [Greek: Troglodytai de' eisi ton bion]. And so Philostratus,[B] [Greek: Tous de pygmaious oikein men hypogeious]. And methinks Le Compte's Relation concerning the wild or savage Man in Borneo, agrees so well with this, that I shall transcribe it: for he tells us,[C] That in Borneo this wild or savage Man is indued with extraordinary strength; and not withstanding he walks but upon two Legs, yet he is so swift of foot, that they have much ado to outrun him. People of Quality course him, as we do Stags here: and this sort of hunting is the King's usual divertisement. And Gassendus in the Life of Peiresky, tells us they commonly hunt them too in Angola in Africa, as I have already mentioned. So that very likely Herodotus's Troglodyte Æthiopians may be no other than our Orang-Outang or wild Man. And the rather, because I fancy their Language is much the same: for an Ape will chatter, and make a noise like a Bat, as his Troglodytes did: And they undergo to this day the same Fate of being hunted, as formerly the Troglodytes used to be by the Garamantes.
[Footnote A: Arist. Hist. Animal., lib. 8. cap. 15. p.m. 913.]
[Footnote B: Philostrat. in vita Appollon. Tyanæi, lib. 3. cap. 14. p.m. 152.]
[Footnote C: Lewis le Compte Memoirs and Observations on China, p.m. 510.]
Whether those [Greek: andras mikrous metrion elassonas andron] which the Nasamones met with (as Herodotus[A] relates) in their Travels to discover Libya, were the Pygmies; I will not determine: It seems that Nasamones neither understood their Language, nor they that of the Nasamones. However, they were so kind to the Nasamones as to be their Guides along the Lakes, and afterwards brought them to a City, [Greek: en taei pantas einai toisi agousi to megethos isous, chroma de melanas], i.e. in which all were of the same stature with the Guides, and black. Now since they were all little black Men, and their Language could not be understood, I do suspect they may be a Colony of the Pygmies: And that they were no farther Guides to the Nasamones, than that being frighted at the sight of them, they ran home, and the Nasamones followed them.
[Footnote A: Herodotus in Euterpe seu lib. 2. p.m. 102.]
I do not find therefore any good Authority, unless you will reckon Ctesias as such, that the Pygmies ever used a Language or Speech, any more than other Brutes of the same Species do among themselves, and that we know nothing of, whatever Democritus and Melampodes in Pliny,[A] or Apollonius Tyanæus in Porphyry[B] might formerly have done. Had the Pygmies ever spoke any Language intelligible by Mankind, this might have furnished our Historians with notable Subjects for their Novels; and no doubt but we should have had plenty of them.
[Footnote A: Plinij Nat. Hist. lib. 10. cap. 49.]