Naviganti a Pharsa Nonoso, & ad extremam usque insularum delato, tale quid occurrit, vel ipso auditu admirandum.  Incidit enim in quosdam forma quidem & figura humana, sed brevissimos, & cutem nigros, totumque pilosos corpus.  Sequebantur viros aequales foeminae, & pueri adhuc breviores.  Nudi omnes agunt, pelle tantum brevi adultiores verenda tecti, viri pariter ac foeminae:  agreste nihil, neque efferum quid prae se ferentes.  Quin & vox illis humana, sed omnibus, etiam accolis, prorsus ignota lingua, multoque amplius Nonosi sociis.  Vivunt marinis ostreis, & piscibus e mari ad insulam projectis.  Audaces minime sunt, ut nostris conspectis hominibus, quemadmodum nos visa ingenti fera, metu perculsi fuerint.

’That Nonnosus sailing from Pharsa, when he came to the farthermost of the Islands, a thing, very strange to be heard of, happened to him; for he lighted on some (Animals) in shape and appearance like Men, but little of stature, and of a black colour, and thick covered with hair all over their Bodies.  The Women, who were of the same stature, followed the Men:  They were all naked, only the Elder of them, both Men and Women, covered their Privy Parts with a small Skin.  They seemed not at all fierce or wild; they had a Humane Voice, but their Dialect was altogether unknown to every Body that lived about them; much more to those that were with Nonnosus.  They liv’d upon Sea Oysters, and Fish that were cast out of the Sea, upon the Island.  They had no Courage; for seeing our Men, they were frighted, as we are at the sight of the greatest wild Beast.’

[Greek:  phonaen eichon men anthropinaen] I render here, they had a Humane Voice, not Speech:  for had they spoke any Language, tho’ their Dialect might be somewhat different, yet no doubt but some of the Neighbourhood would have understood something of it, and not have been such utter Strangers to it.  Now ’twas observed of the Orang-Outang, that it’s Voice was like the Humane, and it would make a Noise like a Child, but never was observed to speak, tho’ it had the Organs of Speech exactly formed as they are in Man; and no Account that ever has been given of this Animal do’s pretend that ever it did.  I should rather agree to what Pliny[A] mentions, Quibusdam pro Sermone nutus motusque Membrorum est; and that they had no more a Speech than Ctesias his Cynocephali which could only bark, as the same Pliny[B] remarks; where he saith, In multis autem Montibus Genus Hominum Capitibus Caninis, ferarum pellibus velari, pro voce latratum edere, unguibus armatum venatu & Aucupio vesci, horum supra Centum viginti Millia fuisse prodente se Ctesias scribit. But in Photius I find, that Ctesias’s Cynocephali did speak the Indian Language as well as the Pygmies.  Those therefore in Nonnosus since they did not speak the Indian, I doubt, spoke no Language at all; or at least, no more than other Brutes do.