I am the more willing to instance in _Ctesias_, because he tells his Story roundly; he no ways minces it; his Invention is strong and fruitful; and that you may not in the least mistrust him, he pawns his word, that all that he writes, is certainly true: And so successful he has been, how Romantick soever his Stories may appear, that they have been handed down to us by a great many other Authors, and of Note too; tho' some at the same time have looked upon them as mere Fables. So that for the present, till I am better informed, and I am not over curious in it, I shall make _Ctesias_, and the other _Indian Historians_, the _Inventors_ of the extravagant Relations we at present have of the _Pygmies_, and not old _Homer_. He calls them, 'tis true, from something of Resemblance of their shape, [Greek: andres]: But these _Historians_ make them to speak the _Indian Language_; to use the same _Laws_; and to be so considerable a Nation, and so valiant, as that the _King_ of _India_ makes choice of them for his _Corps de Guards_; which utterly spoils _Homer's Simile_, in making them so little, as only to fight _Cranes_. _Ctesias_'s Account therefore of the _Pygmies_ (as I find it in _Photius_'s _Bibliotheca_,[A] and at the latter end of some Editions of _Herodotus_) is this: [Footnote A: _Photij. Bibliothec. Cod._ 72. p.m. 145.] [Greek: Hoti en mesae tae Indikae anthropoi eisi melanes, kai kalountai pygmaioi, tois allois homoglossoi Indois. mikroi de eisi lian; hoi makrotatoi auton paecheon duo, hoi de pleistoi, henos haemiseos paecheos, komaen de echousi makrotataen, mechri kai hepi ta gonata, kai eti katoteron, kai pogona megiston panton anthropon; epeidan oun ton pogona mega physosin, ouketi amphiennyntai ouden emation: alla tas trichas, tas men ek taes kephalaes, opisthen kathientai poly kato ton gonaton; tas de ek tou po gonos, emprosthen mechri podon elkomenas. Hepeita peripykasamenoi tas trichas peri apan to soma, zonnyntai, chromenoi autais anti himatiou, aidoion de mega echousin, hoste psauein ton sphyron auton, kai pachy. autoite simoi te kai aischroi. ta de probata auton, hos andres. kai hai boes kai hoi onoi, schedon hoson krioi? kai hoi hippoi auton kai hoi aemionoi, kai ta alla panta zoa, ouden maezo krion; hepontai de toi basilei ton Indon, touton ton pygmaion andres trischilioi. sphodra gar eisi toxotai; dikaiotatoi de eisi kai nomoisi chrontai osper kai hoi Indoi. Dagoous te kai alopekas thaereuousin, ou tois kysin, alla koraxi kai iktisi kai koronais kai aetois.]