Had Albertus only asserted, that the Pygmies were a sort of Apes, his Opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he could have produced some Body that had heard them talk.  But Ulysses Aldrovandus[A] is so far from believing his Ape Pygmies ever spoke, that he utterly denies, that there were ever any such Creatures in being, as the Pygmies, at all; or that they ever fought the Cranes. Cum itaque Pygmaeos (saith he) dari negemus, Grues etiam cum iis Bellum gerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne jurantibus credemus.

[Footnote A:  Ulys.  Aldrovandi Ornitholog. lib. 20. p.m. 344.]

I find a great many very Learned Men are of this Opinion:  And in the first place, Strabo[A] is very positive; [Greek:  Heorakos men gar oudeis exaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. No Man worthy of belief did ever see them.  And upon all occasions he declares the same.  So Julius Caesar Scaliger[B] makes them to be only a Fiction of the Ancients, At haec omnia (saith he) Antiquorum figmenta & merae Nugae, si exstarent, reperirentur.  At cum universus Orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi haec Naturae Excrementa reperiri certissimum est. And Isaac Casaubon[C] ridicules such as pretend to justifie them:  Sic nostra aetate (saith he) non desunt, qui eandem de Pygmaeis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam e Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere.  Legi etiam Bergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret.  At non ego credulus illi, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo. I shall add one Authority more, and that is of Adrian Spigelius, who produces a Witness that had examined the very place, where the Pygmies were said to be; yet upon a diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of them.[D] Spigelius therefore tells us, Hoc loco de Pygmaeis dicendum erat, qui [Greek:  para pygonos] dicti a statura, quae ulnam non excedunt.  Verum ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen Aristoteles minime haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam. 8.  Hist.  Animal. 12. asseverat.  Ego quo minus hoc statuam, tum Authoritate primum Doctissimi Strabonis I. Geograph. coactus sum, tum potissimum nunc moveor, quod nostro tempore, quo nulla Mundi pars est, quam Nautarum Industria non perlustrarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum.  Accedit quod Franciscus Alvarez Lusitanus, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit, circa quae Aristoteles Pygmaeos esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam Gentem a se conspectam tradidit, sed Populum esse Mediocris staturae, & AEthiopes tradit.

[Footnote A:  Strabo Geograph. lib. 17. p.m. 565.]

[Footnote B:  Jul.  Caes.  Scaliger.  Comment. in Arist.  Hist.  Animal. lib. 8. sec. 126. p.m. 914.]