[Footnote C:  Isaac Causabon Notae & Castigat. in lib. 1. Strabonis Geograph. p.m. 38.]

[Footnote D:  Adrian.  Spigelij de Corporis Humani fabrica, lib. 1. cap. 7. p.m. 15.]

I think my self therefore here obliged to make out, that there were such Creatures as Pygmies, before I determine what they were, since the very being of them is called in question, and utterly denied by so great Men, and by others too that might be here produced.  Now in the doing this, Aristotle’s Assertion of them is so very positive, that I think there needs not a greater or better Proof; and it is so remarkable a one, that I find the very Enemies to this Opinion at a loss, how to shift it off.  To lessen it’s Authority they have interpolated the Text, by foisting into the Translation what is not in the Original; or by not translating at all the most material passage, that makes against them; or by miserably glossing it, to make him speak what he never intended:  Such unfair dealings plainly argue, that at any rate they are willing to get rid of a Proof, that otherwise they can neither deny, or answer.

Aristotle’s Text is this, which I shall give with Theodorus Gaza’s Translation:  for discoursing of the Migration of Birds, according to the Season of the Year, from one Country to another, he saith:[A]

[Footnote A:  Aristotel.  Hist.  Animal. lib. 8. cap. 12.]

[Greek:  Meta men taen phthinoporinaen Isaemerian, ek tou Pontou kaiton psychron pheugonta ton epionta cheimona; meta de taen earinaen, ek ton therinon, eis tous topous tous psychrous, phoboumena ta kaumata; ta men, kai ek ton engus topon poioumena tas metabolas, ta de, kai ek ton eschaton hos eipein, hoion hai geranoi poiousi.  Metaballousi gar ek ton Skythikon eis ta helae ta ano taes Aigyptou, othen ho Neilos rhei.  Esti de ho topos outos peri on hoi pigmaioi katoikousin; ou gar esti touto mythos, all’ esti kata taen alaetheian.  Genos mikron men, hosper legetai, kai autoi kai hoi hippoi; Troglodytai d’ eisi ton bion.]

Tam ab Autumnali AEquinoctio ex Ponto, Locisque frigidis fugiunt Hyemem futuram.  A Verno autem ex tepida Regione ad frigidam sese conferunt, aestus metu futuri:  & alia de locis vicinis discedunt, alia de ultimis, prope dixerim, ut Grues faciunt, quae ex Scythicis Campis ad Paludes AEgypto superiores, unde Nilus profluit, veniunt, quo in loco pugnare cum Pygmaeis dicuntur.  Non enim id fabula est, sed certe, genus tum hominum, tum etiam Equorum pusillum (ut dicitur) est, deguntque in Cavernis, unde Nomen Troglodytae a subeundis Cavernis accepere.

In English ’tis thus:  ’At the Autumnal AEquinox they go out of Pontus and the cold Countreys to avoid the Winter that is coming on.  At the Vernal AEquinox they pass from hot Countreys into cold ones, for fear of the ensuing heat; some making their Migrations from nearer places; others from the most remote (as I may say) as the Cranes do:  for they come out of Scythia to the Lakes above AEgypt, whence the Nile do’s flow.  This is the place, whereabout the Pygmies dwell:  For this is no Fable, but a Truth.  Both they and the Horses, as ’tis said, are a small kind.  They are Troglodytes, or live in Caves.’