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 stead, another sort of Bird he calls the _Condor_. I will give you his own words: _Sed ad Pygmæos_ (saith [A] _Ludolphus_) _revertamur; fabula de Geranomachia Pygmæorum seu pugna cum Gruibus etiam aliquid de vero trahere videtur, si pro Gruibus_ Condoras _intelligas, Aves in interiore_ Africa _maximas, ut fidem penè excedat; aiunt enim quod Ales ista vitulum Elephanti in Aerem extollere possit; ut infra docebimus. Cum his Pygmæos pugnare, ne pecora sua rapiant, incredibile non est. Error ex eo natus videtur, quod primus Relator, alio vocabulo destitutus, Grues pro Condoris nominârit, sicuti_ Plautus _Picos pro Gryphilus_, & Romani _Boves lucas pro Elephantis dixere_. [Footnote A: _Job Ludolphus Comment, in Historiam suam Æthiopic_. p. 73.] 'Tis true, if what _Juvenal_ only in ridicule mentions, was to be admitted as a thing really done, that the _Cranes_ could fly away with a _Pygmie_, as our _Kites_ can with a Chicken, there might be some pretence for _Ludovicus's Condor_ or _Cunctor_: For he mentions afterwards[A] out of _P. Joh. dos Santos_ the _Portuguese_, that 'twas observed that one of these _Condors_ once flew away with an Ape, Chain, Clog and all, about ten or twelve pounds weight, which he carried to a neighbouring Wood, and there devoured him. And _Garcilasso de la Vega_[B] relates that they will seize and fly away with a Child ten or twelve years old. But _Juvenal_[C] only mentions this in ridicule and merriment, where he saith, Adsubitas Thracum volucres, nubemque sonoram Pygmæos parvis currit Bellator in armis: Mox impar hosti, raptusque per aera curvis Unguibus à fævâ fertur Grue. [Footnote A: _Job Ludolphus ibid_. pag. 164.] [Footnote B: _Garcilasso de la Vega Royal Comment_, of Peru.] [Footnote C: _Juvenal Satyr_. 13 _vers_. 167.]