of other Weapons, to the Nation of the Cynocephali, (a fort of Monkeys, as I shall shew) that live in those Countreys, but higher up in the Mountains:  But he makes no mention of any such Presents to the poor Pygmies; tho’ he assures us, that no less than three Thousand of these Pygmies are the Kings constant Guards:  But withal tells us, that they are excellent Archers, and so perhaps by dispatching their Enemies at a distance, they may have no need of such Weapons to lye dangling by their sides.  I may therefore be mistaken in rendering [Greek:  akida] a Sword; it may be any other sharp pointed Instrument or Weapon, and upon second Thoughts, shall suppose it a sort of Arrow these cunning Archers use in these Engagements.

[Footnote A:  Plinij.  Nat.  Hist. lib. 7. cap. 2. p. 13.]

[Footnote B:  Strabo Geograph. lib. 15. p. 489.]

[Footnote C:  Vide Photij.  Biblioth.]

These, and a hundred such ridiculous Fables, have the Historians invented of the Pygmies, that I can’t but be of Strabo’s mind,[A] [Greek:  Rhadion d’ an tis Haesiodio, kai Homaeroi pisteuseien haeroologousi, kai tois tragikois poiaetais, hae Ktaesiai te kai Haerodotoi, kai Hellanikoi, kai allois toioutois;] i.e. That one may sooner believe Hesiod, and Homer, and the Tragick Poets speaking of their Hero’s, than Ctesias and Herodotus and Hellanicus and such like.  So ill an Opinion had Strabo of the Indian Historians in general, that he censures them all as fabulous;[B] [Greek:  Hapantes men toinun hoi peri taes Indikaes grapsantes hos epi to poly pseudologoi gegonasi kath’ hyperbolaen de Daeimachos; ta de deutera legei Megasthenaes, Onaesikritos te kai Nearchos, kai alloi toioutoi;] i.e. All who have wrote of India for the most part, are fabulous, but in the highest degree Daimachus; then Megasthenes, Onesicritus, and Nearchus, and such like.  And as if it had been their greatest Ambition to excel herein, Strabo[C] brings in Theopompus, as bragging, [Greek:  Hoti kai mythous en tais Historiais erei kreitton, ae hos Haerodotos, kai Ktaesias, kai Hellanikos, kai hoi ta Hindika syngrapsantes;] That he could foist in Fables into History, better than Herodotus and Ctesias and Hellanicus, and all that have wrote of India.  The Satyrist therefore had reason to say,

-----Et quicquid Graecia mendax
Audet in Historia.[D]

[Footnote A:  Strabo Geograph. lib. 11. p.m. 350.]

[Footnote B:  Strabo ibid. lib. 2. p.m. 48.]

[Footnote C:  Strabo ibid. lib. 1 p.m. 29.]

[Footnote D:  Juvenal. Satyr. X. vers. 174.]