little,
invisible, or only sometimes visible, people, is of the most complex
nature. From the darkness which shrouds it, however, it is possible to
discern some rays of light. That the souls of the departed, and the
underground world which they inhabit, are largely responsible for it, is,
I hope, rendered probable by the facts which I have brought forward. That
animistic ideas have played an important part in the evolution of the idea
of fairy peoples, is not open to doubt. That to these conceptions were
superadded many features really derived from the actions of aboriginal
races hiding before the destroying might of their invaders, and this not
merely in these islands, but in many parts of the world, has been, I
think, demonstrated by the labours of the gentleman whose theory I have so
often alluded to. But the point upon which it is desired to lay stress is
that the features derived from aboriginal races are only one amongst many
sources. Possibly they play an important part, but scarcely, I think, one
so important as Mr. MacRitchie would have us believe.

A PHILOLOGICAL ESSAY

Concerning the PYGMIES, THE CYNOCEPHALI, THE SATYRS and SPHINGES OF THE
ANCIENTS,

Wherein it will appear that they were all either APES or MONKEYS; and not
MEN, as formerly pretended.

By Edward Tyson M.D.

A Philological Essay Concerning the PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS.

Having had the Opportunity of Dissecting this remarkable Creature, which
not only in the _outward shape_ of the Body, but likewise in the structure
of many of the Inward Parts, so nearly resembles a Man, as plainly appears
by the _Anatomy_ I have here given of it, it suggested the Thought to me,
whether this sort of _Animal_, might not give the Foundation to the
Stories of the _Pygmies_ and afford an occasion not only to the _Poets_,
but _Historians_ too, of inventing the many Fables and wonderful and merry
Relations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them? I must
confess, I could never before entertain any other Opinion about them, but
that the whole was a _Fiction_: and as the first Account we have of them,
was from a _Poet_, so that they were only a Creature of the Brain,
produced by a warm and wanton Imagination, and that they never had any
Existence or Habitation elsewhere.

In this Opinion I was the more confirmed, because the most diligent
Enquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never
discover any such _Puny_ dimin