And we may the less wonder to find that they call _Brutes Men_, since 'twas common for these _Historians_ to give the Title of _Men_, not only to _Brutes_, but they were grown so wanton in their Inventions, as to describe several Nations of _Monstrous Men_, that had never any Being, but in their own Imagination, as I have instanced in several. I therefore excuse _Strabo_, for denying the _Pygmies_, since he could not but be convinced, they could not be such _Men_, as these _Historians_ have described them. And the better to judge of the Reasons that some of the Moderns have given to prove the Being of _Men Pygmies_, I have laid down as _Postulata's_, that hereby we must not understand _Dwarfs_, nor yet a Nation of _Men_, tho' somewhat of a lesser size and stature than ordinary; but we must observe those two Characteristicks that _Homer_ gives of them, that they are _Cubitales_ and fight _Cranes_. Having premised this, I have taken into consideration _Caspar Bartholine Senior_ his _Opusculum_ _de Pygmæis_, and _Jo. Talentonius_'s Dissertation about them: and upon examination do find, that neither the Humane Authorities, nor Divine that they alledge, do any ways prove, as they pretend, the Being of _Men Pygmies_. St. _Austin_, who is likewise quoted on their side, is so far from favouring this Opinion, that he doubts whether any such Creatures exist, and if they do, concludes them to be _Apes_ or _Monkeys_; and censures those _Indian Historians_ for imposing such Beasts upon us, as distinct Races of _Men_. _Julius Cæsar Scaliger_, and _Isaac Casaubon_, and _Adrian Spigelius_ utterly deny the Being of _Pygmies_, and look upon them as a Figment only of the Ancients, because such little Men as they describe them to be, are no where to be met with in all the World. The Learned _Bochartus_ tho' he esteems the _Geranomachia_ to be a Fable, and slights it, yet thinks that what might give the occasion to the Story of the _Pygmies_, might be the _Nubæ_ or _Nobæ_; as _Isaac Vossius_ conjectures that it was those _Dwarfs_ beyond the Fountains of the _Nile_, that _Dapper_ calls the _Mimos_, and tells us, they kill _Elephants_ for to make a Traffick with their Teeth. But _Job Ludolphus_ alters the Scene, and instead of _Cranes_, substitutes his _Condors_, who do not fight the _Pygmies_, but fly away with them, and then devour them.