of Men in that Country of less Stature than ordinary.  And Dapper in his History of Africa, from whom Vossius takes this Account, describes such in the Kingdom of Mokoko, he calls Mimos, and tells us that they kill Elephants.  But I see no reason why Vossius should take these Men for the Pygmies of the Ancients, or think that they gave any occasion or ground for the inventing this Fable, is there was no other reason, this was sufficient, because they were able to kill the Elephants.  The Pygmies were scarce a Match for the Cranes; and for them to have encountered an Elephant, were as vain an Attempt, as the Pygmies were guilty of in Philostratus[B] ’who to revenge the Death of Antaeus, having found Hercules napping in Libya, mustered up all their Forces against him.  One Phalanx (he tells us) assaulted his left hand; but against his right hand, that being the stronger, two Phalanges were appointed.  The Archers and Slingers besieged his feet, admiring the hugeness of his Thighs:  But against his Head, as the Arsenal, they raised Batteries, the King himself taking his Post there.  They set fire to his Hair, put Reaping-hooks in his Eyes; and that he might not breath, clapp’d Doors to his Mouth and Nostrils; but all the Execution that they could do, was only to awake him, which when done, deriding their folly, he gather’d them all up in his Lion’s Skin, and carried them (Philostratus thinks) to Euristhenes.’  This Antaeus was as remarkable for his height, as the Pygmies were for their lowness of Stature:  For Plutarch[C] tells us, that Q.  Sterorius not being willing to trust Common Fame, when he came to Tingis (now Tangier) he caused Antaeus’s Sepulchre to be opened, and found his Corps full threescore Cubits long.  But Sterorius knew well enough how to impose upon the Credulity of the People, as is evident from the Story of his white Hind, which Plutarch likewise relates.

[Footnote A:  Job Ludolphus in Comment, in Historiam AEthiopicam, p.m. 71.]

[Footnote B:  Philostratus.  Icon. lib. 2. p.m. 817.]

[Footnote C:  Plutarch. in vita Q. Sertorij.]

But to return to our Pygmies; tho’ most of the great and learned Men would seem to decry this Story as a Fiction and mere Fable, yet there is something of Truth, they think, must have given the first rise to it, and that it was not wholly the product of Phancy, but had some real foundation, tho’ disguised, according to the different Imagination and Genius of the Relator:  ’Tis this that has incited them to give their several Conjectures about it. Job Ludolphus finding what has been offered at in Relation to the Pygmies, not to satisfie, he thinks he can better account for this Story, by leaving out the Cranes, and placing in their