is that Herodotus went as far as southwest Sahara. However, modern critical comment disputes the traveler in many significant points. On the whole Herodotus's idea about pygmies was old centuries before his time, but he presents it as original. The report is that there exists a race "from the elbow to the wrist" (height) or, this diminutive race is as tall as half the length of a Greek's arm. The Greek term "pygme" signifies a dwarf, 13 inches tall. Homer tells of men "no bigger than your fist," and describes their fights with cranes against which birds "they waged terrifying wars." When the cranes fly south to escape the winter, Homer pictures them on their way to fight the pygmies, "bearing slaughter and fate to pygmy men. Other writers, among them Herodotus, locate the pygmies along the Nile, where each spring cranes make war on the dwarfs and devour the little men greedily. The Greek legend has it that the pygmies cut down every corn ear with tiny axes; also that when Hercules fell asleep the pygmies climbed to his goblet, by means of fairy-like ladders and two whole armies fell, one on his right, the other on his left fist. The only way Hercules could save himself was by rolling the pygmies in his lion's skin. It is clear, now, where Swift found his inspiration for "Gulliver's Travels." In his search for Emin Pasha Stanley reported a race of pygmies, and we read of pygmies in the African explorations of Georg Schweinfurth (1864) and Paul Du Chaillu (d. 1903). Not only did Herodotus write of pygmies, 600 years after Homer, but Marco Polo (d. 1324), the famous Venetian traveler, tells of the peculiar ruse of shaving and stuffing monkeys to sell to traders who in turn would palm off the monkeys as dwarfs from the interior of far-off eastern islands; also, Greek legends of parallel significance informs us soberly of a race of Amazons, half-woman, half-horse, supposed to be living in northeast Asia Minor. Amazons spend their time hunting men and driving them away. In order to pull the bow with faculty, Amazons have their right breast cut off that the string of the bow will not come in contact. Note this remarkable point: Herodotus also It is not improbable that Herodotus also copied in part from official documents, and in this way unknowingly repeated grave errors; that he gave too much credit to unverified tales of travelers is beyond question. However, all the nomads of hills, seas and mountains peep out of his curious book. We are especially interested in Herodotus's "dumb traders" who live "beyond the Pillars of Hercules." The story tells a great deal in a few words concerning men's ways. Herodotus says: "There is a country in Libya, beyond the Pillars of Hercules which the Carthaginians are wont to visit, where they no sooner arrive than forthwith they unload their wares, and having deposited them in an orderly fashion along the beach, leave them and returning aboard their ships raise a great smoke. The natives when they see the smoke, come down to the shore and laying out to view so much gold as they think the worth of the wares, withdraw to a distance. The Carthaginians upon this come ashore and look. If the traders think the gold enough, they take it and go their way, but if it does not seem to them sufficient, they go aboard ship once more and wait patiently. Then, the others approach and add to the gold till the Carthaginians are content. Neither party deals unfairly by the other; for they themselves never touch the gold till it comes up to the worth of their goods, nor do the natives ever carry off the goods till the gold is taken away." Why did the natives act in this singular manner? They were, it seems, afraid of being kidnapped and sold in Carthage, as slaves. This had been the fate of their ancestors of an earlier day—and the lesson had not been forgotten. Thus, at every turn of social evolution in the ancient times, wherever we follow Herodotus we always come back sooner or later to one great historical fact: a servile population, a race of man-stealers and man-branders, among Greeks as among all other nations of Antiquity. And though the forms of the slavery vary, the social curse on the brow of labor was not to be removed for centuries after Greece had disappeared. CHAPTER XVII GREEK NOTIONS OF MEDICINE AND RELIGION Glimpses of Greek medical lore, as practiced Hesiod tells us that there were 30,000 gods in Greece; yet that none might be overlooked, there was also an annual feast to "unknown" gods. The 30,000 exercised all manner of influence, through sticks and stones, to break or mend your bones. Some 30,000 gods on earth we find Subjects of Zeus, and guardians of mankind. The cherry tree was sacred to Apollo,the cypress to Pluto, bees to the Moon, the oak to Jupiter, the myrtle to Venus. Bay leaves were a charm against lightning, and the withering of a bay tree meant a sign of death. 'Tis thought the king is dead. We'll not stay- writes Shakespeare, 2000 years after the origin of the Greek fable (Richard II, ii, 4). The basilisk, king of serpents, could "look you dead,' and the monster was also called a cockatrice because hatched by a serpent from a cock's egg. The world was full of marvels: the alectorian stone, found in the stomach of a cock, made the possessor rich and famous; as a philter, the stone had the power of preventing or assuaging thirst. Or, the alphabet was marked in a circle and over each letter a grain of corn was placed; the greedy cock picked up the corn, exposed the telltale letters which were then combined-in words of fate. An agate placed on a red-hot axe rolled in the direction of the guilty person. Labels were placed on arrows and the archer let fly; the message going the farthest way the decree of destiny. There were persons who had the power of darting noxious rays from their eyes (evil eye). Also, since souls of the dead lived again in animals, it was part of medical lore, in the hands of the priestclass, to determine which animals could be eaten without sacrilege. Those that the human soul had entered were unclean, or unfit for food. This idea came to Greece by way of Egypt and later reappeared in modified form in Moses' regulations in regard to hygiene. Much of this led to the so-called "temple sleep,' (Magnus, Superstition in Medicine, p. 50). The practice was to bring the blind, the lame and the halt to the temples; where pagan priests practiced medicine. Often patients had to remain there for weeks. The priests as necromancers endeavored to drive out the demons that were causing the patient to suffer. The "temple sleep,' one of the earliest Greek ideas in medical practice, is directly associated with evolutionary aspects of the renowned health temples of Aesclepieia, established at Rhodes, Cos, Cnidos and Pergamos. In spite of all you read here of grotesque Nor should we jump at the conclusion that the Ancient world lived in an age of miracles. To the Greek mind, Nature obeyed man's pygmy will. Regardless of what modern readers may think, reading carelessly, Greeks did not inhabit a supernatural world. This sounds like a paradox, but let us explain. True, the relations to Nature of our ancestors of Antiquity were peculiar; but that mental attitude continued for many centuries after the Greeks were no more, as a people. The fundamental mental deformity of the Ancient world was fear of Nature, just as the fundamental moral deformity of the modern world is hypocrisy. Among the Greeks, multitudinous incantations were resorted to in the hope of |