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.]).