II.


The _raison d'être_ of Tyson's essay was to explain away the accounts of
the older writers relating to Pigmy races, on the ground that, as no such
races existed, an explanation of some kind was necessary in order to
account for so many and such detailed descriptions as were to be found in
their works. Having now seen not merely that there are such things as
Pigmy races, but that they have a wide distribution throughout the world,
it may be well to consider to which of the existing or extinct races, the
above-mentioned accounts may be supposed to have referred. In this task I
am much aided in several instances by the labours of De Quatrefages, and
as his book is easily accessible, it will be unnecessary for me to repeat
the arguments in favour of his decisions which he has there given.

Starting with Asia, we have in the first place the statement of Pliny,
that "immediately after the nation of the Prusians, in the mountains where
it is said are pigmies, is found the Indus." These Pigmies may be
identified with the Brahouis, now Dravidian, but still possessing the
habit, attributed to them by Pliny, of changing their dwellings twice a
year, in summer and winter, migrations rendered necessary by the search
for food for their flocks. The same author's allusion to the "Spithamæi
Pygmæi" of the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Ganges may apply to
the Santals or some allied tribe, though Pliny's stature for them of two
feet four inches is exaggeratedly diminutive, and he has confused them
with Homer's Pigmies, who were, as will be seen, a totally different
people.