Note 130 The fable of the pigmies is as old as Homer (Iliad, iii. 6). The pigmies of India and Ethiopia were (trispithami) twenty-seven inches high. Every spring their cavalry (mounted on rams and goats) marched in battle array to destroy the cranes eggs, aliter (says Pliny) futuris gregibus non resisti. Their houses were built of mud, feathers, and egg-shells. See Pliny (vi. 35, vii. 2) and Strabo (1. ii. p. 121 [p. 70, ed. Casaub.]).

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 25