3. In a few ages past when Popish ignorance did abound, there was no discourse more common (which yet is continued amongst the vulgar people) than of the apparition of certain Creatures which they called Fayries, that were of very little stature, and being seen would soon vanish and disappear. And these were generally believed to be some kind of Spirits or Demons, and Paracelsus held them to be a kind of middle Creatures, and called them non-Adamicks, as not being of the race of Adam; but there are Authors of great credit and veracity, that affirm, there have been Nations of such people called Pygmies. And though Doctor Brown hath learnedly and elegantly handled the question, “Whether there have been or are any such dwarfish race of mankind, as but of three spans, not considering them singly but nationally, or not, and hath brought the most probable arguments that well can be, to prove that there are not nor have been any such race of people called Pygmies, yet doth he moderately conclude in these words. There being thus (he saith) no sufficient confirmation of their verity, some doubt may arise concerning their possibility; wherein, since it is not defined in what dimensions the soul may exercise her faculties, we shall not conclude impossibility, or that there might not be a race of Pygmies, as there is sometimes of Giants, and so may take in the opinion of Austine, and his Commentator Ludovicus Vives. And though Kircherus with his wonted impudence do conclude in these words:” Fabulosa itaq; sunt omnia, quæ de hujusmodi Pygmæis veteres Geographi à simplici populo sola relatione descripta tradiderunt: Yet (I say) notwithstanding these negative arguments, I give the relation of others (that are of as great or greater credit) in the affirmative. And thus much is affirmed by that most sagacious and learned person Marcus Marci, a late Physician of no mean judgment, who saith thus: Quicquid tamen sit de his, Pygmæos & olim fuisse, & nunc esse affirmamus. And besides the testimony of Aristotle, Solinus, Pomponius Mela, and Ælian, he relateth these. “But those (he saith) that have in our age viewed the World, the same do testifie also, that there are yet Pygmies in the Island of Aruchet, one of the Moluccas, and in the Isle Cophi, and such Pigasetta affirmeth that he saw.” And though Doctor Brown seem to sleight it, yet (according to the Proverb) one eye-witness is more to be credited than ten that have it but by the ear. Odericus in his History of India doth report also, “that there are such people of about three spans high,” which also is confirmed by the later Odericus. And to these affirmative proofs we shall add that of the learned Philosopher and Physician Baptista Van Helmont, in English thus. “A Wine Merchant (he saith) of our Country, a very honest man, sailing sometimes to the Canaries or Fortunate Islands, being asked of me his serious opinion and judgment upon certain Creatures, which there the Children as oft as they would did bring home, and did name them Tudesquillos, or Germanulos, that is little men; (the Germans call them Eard-Manlins) for they were dead Carkases dried almost three foot long, which any one of the Boys did easily carry in one hand, and were of an human shape: But the whole dead Carkase was transparent like Parchment, and the bones were flexible as grisles. Also the bowels and intestines were to be seen, holden against the sun, which, when after I knew to be a certain truth, from the Spaniards born there, I considered, that in these days the off-spring of the Pygmies were there destroyed.”
From whence all understanding and unpartial judgments may clearly perceive, that these kind of Creatures have been really existent in the World and are and may be so still in Islands and Mountains that are uninhabited, and that they are no real Demons, or non-Adamick Creatures, that can appear and become invisible when they please, as Paracelsus thinketh. But that either they were truly of human race endowed with the use of reason and speech (which is most probable) or at least that they were some little kind of Apes or Satyres, that having their secret recesses and holes in the Mountains, could by their agility and nimbleness soon be in or out like Conies, Weazels, Squirrels, and the like.
Centur. 2.
Histor. 11. 169.
Hist. 6.
4. It hath been no less a mistake about those Fishes that are called Tritones, Syrenes, Meirmaids, or Marine, and Sea-Men, and Women, which have been by many supposed and taken to be Spirits, or Demons, and commonly Nymphs, when indeed and truth they are reall creatures, as these examples do make manifest. The first of which we shall recite from the faithful pen of that learned Anatomist Thomas Bartholinus, who was Physician to Frederick the third King of Denmark, in these Englished words: “Various things (he saith) of Meirmaids are extant delivered in the monuments of the Ancients, that are partly false, partly true. It is not far from a Fable that they held, that they did imitate the voices of Men and Women. But that there are beasts found in the Sea, with humane faces (he saith) I shall not deny. But I will not (he saith) sum up the accounts of the ancients. For they are full of the stories of Meirmaids. Amongst the later Authors, these have here and there handled this argument, Scaliger (in lib. 2. Histor. Anim. t. 108.) Rondoletius, Licetus (de Spont. vin. ort.), Marcus Marci (de Ideis) P. Boistuan (Histor. Gall. prod. T. 1. c. 18.) At Enchuysen in Holland (he saith) the shape of a certain Meirmaid is to be seen painted, that formerly had been cast upon the shore, by the force of the waters. It is (he saith) in the mouth of our common people, that a Meirmaid was taken in Denmark, that did speak, foretel things to come, and spin. A Father of the Society of Jesus returning forth of India to Rome, had seen a Sea-Man there adorned with an Episcopal Mitre, who did seem to have in the next corner, hardly born his captivity; but being let loose, and turned into the Sea, did seem to render thanks for his liberty, by bowing of his body before he went under water, which (he saith) the Jesuit was wont to tell to Corvinus the elder, as his Son (he saith) told me at Rome.” But this being but a story told to Bartholinus at the second hand, and but primarily from the mouth of a Jesuit (who doubtless had some design in it) I leave it to the judgment of the Wise and Prudent. But he proceeds thus. “It is (he saith) most certain that fishes are to be found in the Ocean, that represent Terrestrial Animals in shape: As the Sea-Fox, the Wolf, the Sea-Calf, the Dog, the Horse, &c. Therefore why should we deny humane shape to Sea-monsters? Certainly also in the earth there are Apes, which wanting reason, do express the external shape and gestures of Man. All Sea-monsters of this sort we referr (he saith) to the kind of Phocæ or Sea-Calves. There was (he saith) in the age we live in a Sea-Man taken by the Merchants of the West-India Company, and dissected at Leiden by Peter Pavius, John de Laet being present my friend (he saith) and while he lived, a great and most knowing person of the things of America and of Nature. The head and the breast even as far as the navil was of an humane shape, but from the navil even unto the extremities, it was deformed flesh, without the sign of a tail. But that I may not (he saith) seem to impose upon the Reader, the hands and ribs are to be found in my Study or Closet, which I owe to the kindness of the praised Latius. We have (he saith) annexed the Picture of both, as well of the Meirmaid erect, as of the image of it swimming, that we might satisfie the dubitation of all men. The hand doth consist of five fingers, as ours do, with as many articulations as ours, but that only is singular, that all the bones of the fingers are broader and compressed, and a membrane doth joyn them together in course, as in volatiles, as Geese, Ducks, &c. which do help to stretch forth the foot in the water. The extremity of the two middle fingers are broader, the extremities of the other two sharp. The radius and cubit are very short, for the commodiousness of swimming, scarce the length of four fingers breadth. Neither is the draught of the shoulder more ample. The ribs are long and thick, almost exceeding common humane ribs a third part.
“Of the ribs (he saith) are beads turned or thrown, a present remedy for the pain of the Hemorrhoides, which the praised Latius hath observed by experience. Also (he saith) that Bracelets being made of the bones of this kind of Phocas carried to Rome, applied to the wrist do appease the Hemicrany, and swimming of the head, which comes again, if they be laid away, as (he saith) the most illustrious Nobleman Cassianus à Puteo, (most worthy of Roman Purple) hath told me. The same Noble Puteus (he saith) hath shewed me the picture of a Meirmaid in his Closet, which not many years before, was driven to the shore of Malta. A certain Spaniard (he saith) told me, that Meirmaids were seen in India having the Genital members of Women, like those of humane kind, so that the Fishers do bind themselves with an Oath to the Magistrate, that they have no copulation with them. Bernardinus Ginnarus (lib. 1. c. 9. de Indico itinere, edit. Neap. 1641.) doth relate that Meirmaids are seen, in the vast River Cuama, near the head of Good-hope, which in the middle superior part are like to the form of men, that is, with round head, but immediately joyned to the breast, without a neck, with ears altogether like ours, and so their eyes, lips and teeth. And that their dugs being pressed do send forth most white milk.”
Therefore he concludeth: “There is (he saith) so great difference of the form of Meirmaids, with the Ancients and Moderns, that it is no wonder, that some do account them figments. We have (he saith) the hands to be seen with eyes, and we shew the Meirmaids to be such, as in truth they are seen to be. Neither do the hands and ribs deceive, whose Pictures we have given framed according to the truth of nature.”
Hist. 7.
Genial. dier. l. 3. c. 8. p. 134.