I do not here find _Aristotle_ asserting or confirming any thing of the fabulous Narrations that had been made about the _Pygmies_. He does not say that they were [Greek: andres], or [Greek: anthropoi mikroi], or [Greek: melanes]; he only calls them [Greek: pygmaioi]. And discoursing of the _Pygmies_ in a place, where he is only treating about _Brutes_, 'tis reasonable to think, that he looked upon them only as such. _This is the place where the_ Pygmies _are; this is no fable,_ saith Aristotle, as 'tis that they are a Dwarfish Race of Men; that they speak the _Indian_ Language; that they are excellent Archers; that they are very Just; and abundance of other Things that are fabulously reported of them; and because he thought them _Fables_, he does not take the least notice of them, but only saith, _This is no Fable, but a Truth, that about the Lakes of_ Nile such _Animals_, as are called _Pygmies_, do live. And, as if he had foreseen, that the abundance of Fables that _Ctesias_ (whom he saith is not to be believed) and the _Indian Historians_ had invented about them, would make the whole Story to appear as a Figment, and render it doubtful, whether there were ever such Creatures as _Pygmies_ in Nature; he more zealously asserts the _Being_ of them, and assures us, That _this is no Fable, but a Truth_. I shall therefore now enquire what sort of Creatures these _Pygmies_ were; and hope so to manage the Matter, as in a great measure, to abate the Passion these Great Men have had against them: for, no doubt, what has incensed them the most, was, the fabulous _Historians_ making them a part of _Mankind_, and then inventing a hundred ridiculous Stories about them, which they would impose upon the World as real Truths. If therefore they have Satisfaction given them in these two Points, I do not see, but that the Business may be accommodated very fairly; and that they may be allowed to be _Pygmies_, tho' we do not make them _Men_. For I am not of _Gesner_'s mind, _Sed veterum nullus_ (saith he[A]) _aliter de Pygmæis scripsit, quàm Homunciones esse_. Had they been a Race of _Men_, no doubt but _Aristotle_ would have informed himself farther about them. Such a Curiosity could not but have excited his Inquisitive _Genius_, to a stricter Enquiry and Examination; and we might easily have expected from him a larger Account of them. But finding them, it may be, a sort of _Apes_, he only tells us, that in such a place these _Pygmies_ live. [Footnote A: _Gesner. Histor. Quadruped._ p.m. 885.]