THE SMALL-MOUTHED MAN

(*Brachystomos*)

Some assert that this kind of human is found in the world: they have no use of speech except through signs. These people live by nods and gestures, hiding away amid the rugged and secluded crags of the mountains. Occasionally, they are captured by hunters and brought among men, where they eventually perish due to the change in their diet.

These individuals are encountered quite frequently; from an investigation of them, many feel there are great wonders to be found, as they seem not only to exist but even to signify something divine within them. This is because they not only possess a nature similar to humans, but can also utter words and use their tongues for outward expression. Consequently, people turn to these specific individuals to seek answers or other matters concerning their well-being, finding that they not only live but are endowed with a certain divine power.

In a similar vein, Aristotle adds those who have very small ears and eyes, and a face characterized by a small mouth, with a certain constriction at the corners of the mouth and nostrils; for this reason, they are properly called *Brachystomi*. Perhaps the name arises because their tongue is (perhaps) excessive for those whose mouth is so small.

Truly, regarding those who see at night with their eyes, we do not find such men recorded in his volumes. Instead, they present a race that arouses more suspicion, as people wonder how they exist among the number of the living—especially in an individual where the soul is not yet firmly rooted, neither truly alive nor behaving in ways that befit a human. Here we speak only of those who cannot exist without virtue and the guidance of reason.

We find this kind among others in the plains, and some also in locations near India. In the remote boundaries of this world, they seem to withdraw from human sight by hiding in mountain caves, from which they are sometimes snatched by hunters