The Portland daily press., 1884-09-08
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DwarPs of O1den Times.


The most famous dwarf of olden times was
Philetaf, who lived in Egypt 300 years before
Christ. When a grown man he was so
small and light that he dared not go out Of
doors without having lead weights in his
pockets lest he should be blown away. And
yet he was a great poet, and so wise and
learned and trustworthy that he was chosen
by the king, Ptolemy Softer, to direct the
studies of his son Philadelphus, the heir to
the throne. How queer it must have seemed
tothe young prince to have such mite for
teacherIl
Writers of that long-ago time say that
there was once whole tribe of dwarfs liV-
log in India; and that they rode about on
sheep and goats, and cut down the corn
with axes, as if the corn field were a great
forest Every winter whole foeks of cranes
used to fly to India from colder lands, and
the dwarfs were fond of picking up the
birds feathers, and what was worse, of
stealing their eggs. This made the cranes
very angry, so that they attacked the rob-
bers, aud as the dwarfs would not run away
there was terrible battle, where, as Add
son says,
i1lgn IN Ln6 ulQSIs the cn1ettAln dwarf was
Full twenty inches tall he strobe along.a
But he was killed, and 80 were all his little
soldiers, and that was the end of the dwarf
nation.
This sounds rather like a fairy tails, and
perhaps it is not all true, but at the same
time it is not impossible that q very small
race of people lived long ago, indeed their
bones have been found buried in the ground
in many different countries.
Whnla oupa aE .rtA IN ha f.k1 =
nessee are thought to have been the buryng-
| grounds Of pigmy race that must have
'ives4 before the red I0dIan. 1t Is said that
t6out fifty years ago some one accidentally
| discovered there hundreds of little skeletons
under the ground, the largest not more than
nineteen inches long, and people knew by
the shape of the teeth that these were skele-
tons of grown-up persons. The collins were
made of four rough, fiat stones, and wore
all placed in regular rows, about two feet
down IN the earth, the little people lying on
their backs, their arms crossed on their
breasts, and each one holding sort of small
stone jug; one of these skeletons wore
necklace made of ninety-four pearllbeadsland
at a short distance from the burial place
were found the ruins Of what seemed to
have been very old town. Whether this
account Is authentic, cannot say. Dwarf
graves have also been found in Central
Asia; and on an island near Scotland,
called the Isle of Pigmies, is an old ruined
chapel,
In whose small vaults pgmy folk is found,
Whose bones the deliver with his spade upthrows
In the time of the Roman Empire It was
the custom for rich people to buy dwarfs and
keep them for rets. Julia, the niece of Cae-
sar Augustus, had a little faVorite named
ConOpas, and hand-maideu, Andromeda,
each of whom was only "two feet and hand
breath high" Augustus himself was very
fond of dwarfs, and used to send to all parts
of the world for them; but he would not
have any excepting those who were we'll
shaped handsome and lively. he and his
little pets used to play together in the pal
ace; while listening TO their pretty prattllng
the great emperor forgot his worldly cares.
The Romans had a cruel practice of making
dwarfs by keeping young babies In wooden
boxes to prevent their growing; and by the
time the poor little creatures were q few
years old they we're worth great deal Of
mouey.
In Egypt and Persia and Turkey, pet
dwarfs had been kept from the very earliest
times, and from those countries the fashion
spread 10 Europe. In the city of Mantua in
Italy there is in the dukes palace a suite OF
| six very small rooms with ceilings so low
that tall man cannot stand up under them;
Two tiny staircases lead to these rooms,
which are said to have been built for the
dukes dwarf' to live in. William, Duke OF
Normandy, the conqueror of England, had
dwarf-pages, and it was the fashion among
his mobiles to have as many of these little
creatures as they could get, to wait on them
and lead their horses in grand professions.