Naturalis historia 7.26

7.26

super hos extrema in parte montium Trispithami Pygmaeique narrantur, ternas spithamas longitudine, hoc est ternos dodrantes, non excedentes , salubri caelo semperque vernante montibus ab aquilone oppositis, quos a gruibus infestari Homerus quoque prodidit. fama est insidentes arietum caprarumque dorsis armatos sagittis veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere et ova pullosque earum alitum consumere; ternis expeditionem eam mensibus confici; aliter futuris gregibus non resisti. casas eorum luto pinnisque et ovorum putaminibus construi.

Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami and the Pygmies are said to exist; two races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty-seven inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, and a perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the northern blasts; it is these people that Homer has mentioned as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said, that they are in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those birds; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves; but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other writers. Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live to their four hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the same is the case also with the Æthiopian Macrobii, the Seræ, and the inhabitants of Mount Athos. In the case of these last, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which they use as food; in consequence of which, they are free also from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their garments.