Dwarfs.--The word "dwarf" is of Saxon origin (dwerg, dweorg) and
corresponds to the "pumilio" or "nanus" of the Romans. The Greeks
believed in the pygmy people of Thrace and Pliny speaks of the
Spithamiens. In the "Iliad" Homer writes of the pygmies and
Juvenal also describes them; but the fantasies of these poets
have given these creatures such diminutive stature that they have
deprived the traditions of credence. Herodotus relates that in
the deserts of Lybia there were people of extreme shortness of
stature. The Bible mentions that no dwarf can officiate at the
altar. Aristotle and Philostratus speak of pygmy people descended
from Pygmaeus, son of Dorus. In the seventeenth century van
Helmont supposed that there were pygmies in the Canary Islands,
and Abyssinia, Brazil, and Japan in the older times were
repeatedly said to contain pygmy races. Relics of what must have
been a pygmy race have been found in the Hebrides, and in this
country in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Dr. Schweinfurth, the distinguished African traveler, confirms
the statements of Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle that there was
a race of pygmies near the source of the Nile. Schweinfurth says
that they live south of the country occupied by the Niam-Niam,
and that their stature varies from 4 feet to 4 feet 10 inches.
Pages:
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636