A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients | Page 9

of a
stature similar to our own. The diverse proto-historic populations,
Gauls, Franks, Burgundians, and Merovingians, considered together,
present a stature slightly superior to that of the French of the present
day, but not so much so as the accounts of the historians would have
led us to believe.
[Footnote A: _Recherches sur les Ossements Humaines, Anciens et
Préhistonques. Mém. de la Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris_, Sér, ii. tom. iv.
403.]
It remains now to deal with two races whose physical characters are of
considerable importance in connection with certain points which will
be dealt with in subsequent pages, I mean the Lapps and the Innuit or
Eskimo.
The Lapps, according to Karonzine,[A] one of their most recent
describers, are divisible into two groups, Scandinavian and Russian, the
former being purer than the latter race. The average male stature is five
feet, a figure which corresponds closely with that obtained by
Mantegazza and quoted by Topinard. The extremes obtained by this
observer amongst men were, on the one hand, five feet eight inches,
and on the other four feet four inches. As, however, in a matter of this
kind we have to deal with averages and not with extremes, we must
conclude that the Lapps, though a stunted race, are not pigmies, in the
sense in which the word is scientifically employed.

[Footnote A: _L'Anthropologie_, ii. 80.]
The Innuit or Eskimo were called by the original Norse explorers
"Skraelingjar," or dwarfs, a name now converted by the Innuit into
"karalit," which is the nearest approach that they are able to make
phonetically to the former term. They are certainly, on the average, a
people of less than middle stature, yet they can in no sense be described
as Pigmies. Their mean height is five feet three inches. Nansen[A] says
of them, "It is a common error amongst us in Europe to think of the
Eskimo as a diminutive race. Though no doubt smaller than the
Scandinavian peoples, they must be reckoned amongst the middle-sized
races, and I even found amongst those of purest breeding men of nearly
six feet in height."
[Footnote A: _Eskimo Life_, p. 20.]

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.
Ctesias[A] tells us that "Middle India has black men, who are called
Pygmies, using the same language as the other Indians; they are,
however, very little; that the greatest do not exceed the height of two
cubits, and the most part only of one cubit and a half. But they nourish
the longest hair, hanging down unto the knees, and even below;
moreover, they carry a beard more at length than any other men; but,
what is more, after this promised beard is risen to them, they never after
use any clothing, but send down, truly, the hairs from the back much
below the knees, but draw the beard before down to the feet; afterward,
when they have covered the whole body with hairs, they bind
themselves, using those in the place of a vestment. They are, moreover,
apes and deformed. Of these Pygmies, the king of the Indians has three
thousand in his train; for they are very skilful archers." No doubt the
actual stature