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Pygʹmies (2 syl.)

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A nation of dwarfs on the banks of the Upper Nile. Every spring the cranes made war upon them and devoured them. They cut down every corn-ear with an axe. When Hercules went to the country they climbed up his goblet by ladders to drink from it; and while he was asleep two whole armies of them fell upon his right hand, and two upon his left; but Hercules rolled them all in his lion’s skin. It is easy to see how Swift has availed himself of this Grecian legend in his Gulliver’s Travels. Stanley met with a race of Pygmies in his search for Emin Pasha.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Puseyite
Puss
Puss in Boots [Le Chat Botté]
Put
Put the Cart before the Horse
Put up the Shutters (To)
Putney and Mortlake Race
Putting on Frills (American)
Putting on Side
Pygmalion
Pygmies
Pylades and Orestes
Pyramid
Pyramus
Pyrocles and Musidorus
Pyrodes
Pyrrha
Pyrrhic Dance
Pyrrhic Victory (A)
Pyrrho
Pyrrhonian School (The)

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Pigmy

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Pygmies