[Footnote B: Porphyrius de Abstinentia, lib. 3. pag. m. 103.]
But Albertus Magnus, who was so lucky as to guess that the Pygmies were a sort of Apes; that he should afterwards make these Apes to speak, was very unfortunate, and spoiled all; and he do's it, methinks, so very awkwardly, that it is as difficult almost to understand his Language as his Apes; if the Reader has a mind to attempt it, he will find it in the Margin.[A]
[Footnote A: Si qui Homines sunt Silvestres, sicut Pygmeus, non secundum unam rationem nobiscum dicti sunt Homines, sed aliquod habent Hominis in quadam deliberatione & Loquela, &c. A little after adds, Voces quædam (sc. Animalia) formant ad diversos conceptus quos habent, sicut Homo & Pygmæus; & quædam non faciunt hoc, sicut multitudo fere tota aliorum Animalium. Adhuc autem eorum quæ ex ratione cogitativa formant voces, quædam sunt succumbentia, quædam autem non succumbentia. Dico autem succumbentia, à conceptu Animæ cadentia & mota ad Naturæ Instinctum, sicut Pygmeus, qui non, sequitur rationem Loquelæ sed Naturæ Instinctum; Homo autem non succumbit sed sequitur rationem. Albert. Magn. de Animal. lib. 1. cap. 3. p.m. 3.]
Had Albertus only asserted, that the Pygmies were a sort of Apes, his Opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he could have produced some Body that had heard them talk. But Ulysses Aldrovandus[A] is so far from believing his Ape Pygmies ever spoke, that he utterly denies, that there were ever any such Creatures in being, as the Pygmies, at all; or that they ever fought the Cranes. Cum itaque Pygmæos (saith he) dari negemus, Grues etiam cum iis Bellum gerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne jurantibus credemus.
[Footnote A: Ulys. Aldrovandi Ornitholog. lib. 20. p.m. 344.]
I find a great many very Learned Men are of this Opinion: And in the first place, Strabo[A] is very positive; [Greek: Heorakos men gar oudeis exaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. No Man worthy of belief did ever see them. And upon all occasions he declares the same. So Julius Cæsar Scaliger[B] makes them to be only a Fiction of the Ancients, At hæc omnia (saith he) Antiquorum figmenta & meræ Nugæ, si exstarent, reperirentur. At cum universus Orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi hæc Naturæ Excrementa reperiri certissimum est. And Isaac Casaubon[C] ridicules such as pretend to justifie them: Sic nostra ætate (saith he) non desunt, qui eandem de Pygmæis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam è Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. Legi etiam Bergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. At non ego credulus illi, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo. I shall add one Authority more, and that is of Adrian Spigelius, who produces a Witness that had examined the very place, where the Pygmies were said to be; yet upon a diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of them.[D] Spigelius therefore tells us, Hoc loco de Pygmæis dicendum erat, qui [Greek: para pygonos] dicti à statura, quæ ulnam non excedunt. Verùm ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen Aristoteles minimè haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam. 8. Hist. Animal. 12. asseverat. Ego quo minùs hoc statuam, tum Authoritate primùm Doctissimi Strabonis I. Geograph. coactus sum, tum potissimùm nunc moveor, quod nostro tempore, quo nulla Mundi pars est, quam Nautarum Industria non perlustrarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum. Accedit quod Franciscus Alvarez Lusitanus, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit, circa quæ Aristoteles Pygmæos esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam Gentem à se conspectam tradidit, sed Populum esse Mediocris staturæ, & Æthiopes tradit.
[Footnote A: Strabo Geograph. lib. 17. p.m. 565.]
[Footnote B: Jul. Cæs. Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal. lib. 8. § 126. p.m. 914.]
[Footnote C: Isaac Causabon Notæ & Castigat. in lib. 1. Strabonis
Geograph. p.m. 38.]
[Footnote D: Adrian. Spigelij de Corporis Humani fabrica, lib. 1. cap. 7. p.m. 15.]