Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	battle_n	great_a	slaughter_n	1,027	5	9.5987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64096	Orang-outang, sive, Homo sylvestris, or, The anatomy of a pygmie compared with that of a monkey, an ape, and a man to which is added, A philological essay concerning the pygmies, the cynocephali, the satyrs and sphinges of the ancients : wherein it will appear that they are all either apes or monkeys, and not men, as formerly pretended / by Edward Tyson ...	Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708.; Gucht, Michael van der, 1660-1725.	1699 (1699)	Wing T3598; ESTC R185850	159,017	232

prey'd on by these Invaders no wonder that they should so sharply engage them and the least they could do was to fight to the utmost so mortal an Enemy Hence no doubt many a bloody Battle happens with various success to the Combatants sometimes with great slaughter of the long-necked Squadron sometimes with great effusion of Pygmaean blood And this may well enough in a Poet's phancy be magnified and represented as a dreadful War and no doubt of it were one a Spectator of it 't would be diverting enough Si videas hoc Gentibus in nostris risu quatiere sed illic Quanquam eadem assiduè spectantur Proelia ridet Nemo ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno This Account therefore of these Campaigns renewed every year on this Provocation between the Cranes and the Pygmies contains nothing but what a cautious Man may believe and Homer's Simile in likening the great shouts of the Trojans to the Noise of the Cranes and the Silence of the Greeks to that of the Pygmies is very admirable and delightful For Aristotle tell us That the Cranes to avoid the hardships of the Winter take a Flight out of Scythia to the Lakes about the Nile where the Pygmies live and where 't is very likely the Cranes may lay their Eggs and breed before they return But these rude Pygmies making too bold with them what could the Cranes do less for preserving their Off-spring than fight them or at least by their mighty Noise make a shew as if they would This is but what we may observe in all other Birds And thus far I think our Geranomachia or Pygmaeomachia looks like a true Story and there is nothing in Homer about it but what is credible He only expresses himself as a Poet should do and if Readers will mistake his meaning 't is not his fault 'T is not therefore the Poet that is to be blamed tho' they would father it all on him but the fabulous Historians in after Ages who have so odly drest up this Story by their fantastical Inventions that there is no knowing the truth till one hath pull'd off those Masks and Visages wherewith they have disguised it For tho' I can believe Homer that there is a fight between the Cranes and Pygmies yet I think I am no ways obliged to imagine that when the Pygmies go to these Campaigns to fight the Cranes that they ride upon Partridges as Athenaeus from Basilis an Indian Historian tells us for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For presently afterwards he tells us from Menecles that the Pygmies not only fight the Cranes but the Partridges too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I could more readily agree to because Onesicritus as I have quoted him already confirms it and gives us the same reason for this as for sighting the Cranes because they rob their Nests But whether these Partridges are as big as Geese I leave as a Quaere Megasthenes methinks in Pliny mounts the Pygmies for this Expedition much better for he sets them not on a Pegasus or Partridges but on Rams and Goats Fama est saith Pliny insedentes Arietum Caprarumque dorsis armatis sagittis veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere And Onesicritus in Strabo tells us That a Crane has been often observed to fly from those parts with a brass Sword fixt in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But whether the Pygmies do wear Swords may be doubted 'T is true Ctesias tells us That the King of India every fifth year sends fifty Thousand Swords besides abundance of other Weapons to the Nation of the Cynocephali a sort of Monkeys as I shall shew that live in those Countreys but higher up in the Mountains But he makes no mention of any such Presents to the poor Pygmies tho' he assures us that no less than three Thousand of these Pygmies are the King 's constant Guards But withal tells us that they are excellent Archers and so perhaps by dispatching their Enemies at a distance they may have no need of such Weapons to lye dangling by their sides I may therefore be mistaken in rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sword it may be any other sharp pointed Instrument or Weapon and upon second Thoughts shall suppose it a sort of Arrow these cunning Archers use in these Engagements These and a hundred such ridiculous Fables have the Historians invented of the Pygmies that I can't but be of Strabo's mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. That one may sooner believe Hesiod and Homer and the Tragick Poets speaking of their Hero's than Ctesias and Herodotus and Hellanicus and such like So ill an Opinion had Strabo of the Indian Historians in general that he censures them all as fabulous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. All who have wrote of India for the most part are fabulous but in the highest degree Daimachus then Megasthenes Onesicritus and Nearchus and such like And as if it had been their greatest Ambition to excel herein Strabo brings in Theopompus as bragging 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he could foist in Fables into History better than Herodotus and Ctesias and Hellanicus and all that have wrote of India The Satyrist therefore had reason to say Et quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in Historia Aristotle 't is true tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. That generally the Beasts are wilder in Asia stronger in Europe and of greater variety of shapes in Africa for as the Proverb saith Africa always produces something new Pliny indeed ascribes it to the Heat of the Climate Animalium Hominumque effigies monstriferas circa extremitates ejus gigni minimè mirum artifici ad formanda Corpora effigiesque caelandas mobilitate igneâ But Nature never formed a whole Species of Monsters and 't is not the heat of the Country but the warm and fertile Imagination of these Historians that has been more productive of them than Africa it self as will father appear by what I shall produce out of them and particularly from the Relation that Ctesias makes of the Pygmies I am the more willing to instance in Ctesias because he tells his Story roundly he no ways minces it his Invention is strong and fruitful and that you may not in the least mistrust him he pawns his word that all that he writes is certainly true And so successful he has been how Romantick soever his Stories may appear that they have been handed down to us by a great many other Authors and of Note too tho some at the same time have look'd upon them as meer Fables So that for the present till I am better informed and I am not over curious in it I shall make Ctesias and the other Indian Historians the Inventors of the extravagant Relations we at persent have of the Pygmies and not old Homer He calls them 't is true from something of Resemblance of their shape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

useless that I have had in this Enquiry My Design is not to justifie all the Relations that have been given of this Animal even by Authors of reputed Credit but as far as I can to distinguish Truth from Fable and herein if what I assert amounts to a Probability 't is all I pretend to I shall accordingly endeavour to make it appear that not only the Pygmies of the Ancients but also the Cynocephali and Satyrs and Sphinges were only Apes or Monkeys not Men as they have been represented But the Story of the Pygmies being the greatest Imposture I shall chiefly concern my self about them and shall be more concise on the others since they will not need so strict an Examination We will begin with the Poet Homer who is generally owned as the first Inventor of the Fable of the Pygmies if it be a Fable and not a true Story as I believe will appear in the Account I shall give of them Now Homer only mentions them in a Simile wherein he compares the Shouts that the Trojans made when they were going to joyn Battle with the Graecians to the great Noise of the Cranes going to fight the Pygmies he faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Quae simul ac fugere Imbres Hyememque Nivalem Cum magno Oceani clangore ferantur ad undas Pygmaeis pugnamque Viris caedesque ferentes Or as Helius Eobanus Hessus paraphrases the whole Postquam sub Ducibus digesta per agmina stabant Quaeque suis Equitum turmae Peditumque Cohortes Obvia torquentes Danais vestigia Troës Ibant sublato Campum clamore replentes Non secus ac cuneata Gruum sublime volantum Agmina dum fugiunt Imbres ac srigora Brumae Per Coelum matutino clangore feruntur Oceanumque petunt mortem exitiumque cruentum Irrita Pigmaeis moturis arma ferentes By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore which is the Passage upon which they have grounded all their fabulous Relations of the Pygmies why may not Homer mean only Pygmies or Apes like Men. Such an Expression is very allowable in a Poet and is elegant and significant especially since there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him to use it as we have already seen in the Anatomy of the Orang-Outang Nor is a Poet tied to that strictness of Expression as an Historian or Philosopher he has the liberty of pleasing the Reader 's Phancy by Pictures and Representations of his own If there be a becoming likeness 't is all that he is accountable for I might therefore here make the same Apology for him as Strabo do's on another account for his Geography 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he said it not thro' Ignorance but to please and delight Or as in another place he expresses himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer did not make this slip thro' Ignorance of the true History but for the Beauty of his Poem So that tho' he calls them Men Pygmies yet he may mean no more by it than that they were like Men. As to his Purpose 't will serve altogether as well whether this bloody Battle be fought between the Cranes and Pygmaean Men or the Cranes and Apes which from their Stature he calls Pygmies and from their shape Men provided that when the Cranes go to engage they make a mighty terrible noise and clang enough to fright these little Wights their mortal Enemies To have called them only Apes had been flat and low and lessened the grandieur of the Battle But this Periphrasis of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raises the Reader 's Phancy and surprises him and is more becoming the Language of an Heroic Poem But how came the Cranes and Pygmies to fall out What may be the Cause of this Mortal Feud and constant War between them For Brutes like Men don't war upon one another to raise and encrease their Glory or to enlarge their Empire Unless I can acquit my self herein and assign some probable Cause hereof I may incur the same Censure as Strabo passed on several of the Indian Historians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for reviewing the Homerical Fight of the Cranes and Pygmies which he looks upon only as a fiction of the Poet. But this had been very unbecoming Homer to take a Simile which is designed for illustration from what had no Foundation in Nature His Betrachomyomachia 't is true was a meer Invention and never otherwise esteemed But his Geranomachia hath all the likelyhood of a true Story And therefore I shall enquire now what may be the just Occasion of this Quarrel Athenaeus out of Philochorus and so likewise AElian tell us a Story That in the Nation of the Pygmies the Male-line failing one Gerana was their Queen a Woman of an admired Beauty and whom the Citizens worshipped as a Goddess but she became so vain and proud as to prefer her own before the Beauty of all the other Goddesses at which they grew enraged and to punish her for her Insolence Athenaeus tells us that 't was Diana but AElian saith 't was Juno that transformed her into a Crane and made her an Enemy to the Pygmies that worshipped her before But since they are not agreed which Goddess 't was I shall let this pass Pomponius Mela will have it and I think some others that these cruel Engagements use to happen upon the Cranes coming to devour the Corn the Pygmies had sowed and that at last they became so victorious as not only to destroy their Corn but them also For he tells us Fuere interiùs Pygmaei minutum genus quod pro satis frugibus contra Grues dimicando defecit This may seem a reasonable Cause of a Quarrel but it not being certain that the Pygmies used to sow Corn I will not insist on this neither Now what seems most likely to me is the account that Pliny out of Megastheues and Strabo from Onesicritus give us and provided I be not obliged to believe or justifie all that they say I could rest satisfied in great part of their Relation For Pliny tells us Veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere Ova Pullosque earum Alitum consumere That in the Spring-time the whole drove of the Pygmies go down to the Sea side to devour the Cranes Eggs and their young Ones So likewise Onesicritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. That there is a fight between the Pygmies and the Cranes as Homer relates and the Partridges which are as big as Geese for these Pygmies gather up their Eggs and destroy them the Cranes laying their Eggs there and neither their Eggs nor their Nests being to be found any where else 'T is plain therefore from them that the Quarrel is not out of any Antipathy the Pygmies have to the Cranes but out of love to their own Bellies But the Cranes finding their Nests to be robb'd and their young Ones