... they descanted with great Prolixity ... of the Troglodytes, the Himantopodes or Crump-footed Nation, the Blaemiae People who wear their Heads in the middle of their Breasts, the Pygmies, the Cannibals, the Hyperborei ... the Aegipans with their Goat's-feet, and the Devill and all the others: every individual word of it by Hear-say.
I am much mistaken if I do not see among them Herodotus, Pliny, Solinus, Berosus, Philostratus, Pomponious Mela, Strabo, and God knows how many other Antiquaries.
And so inquisitive they are [the French], that they will be stark staring mad at those who come out of strange countries, unless they bring a whole budget full of strange stories, calling them dolts, blockheads, ninnyhammers, and silly oufs. - Rabelais