Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-04-29
A few really Great Men.

who tell us we err in believing there is Scrip
tural authority for the fact that men have de-
generated greatly in size since the days before
the flood, we do not here inquire but we must
needs begin little talk concerning giants, with
the popular belief that Adam and Eve and all
the first men who inhabited the earth were OF
gigantic stature We read in Camerarius GER
tain exact facts about their size. The first men
were so tall, that when they stood upright on
the earth their heads brushed against the stars,
and they were called the Emephimi. After many
years they were followed by second race, that
of Phataimi, whose heads only reached to the
clouds. After these came the men called by the
Egyptians Cygins, who were the giants proper,
and whose race lasted until the time of Noah.-
Of the giants named in Scripture, the one about
whom the greatest number Of marvels have been
told by the Rabbinical writers is Og, king of
Bassan. His legs, the Rabbis taught were three
miles long. More modest by far is the commen-
tary of German divine, named Lange, who,
reading in the fifth book Of Moses, that Og had
an iron bed, nine cubits.in length and four in
breadth, suggests that such breadth and width
do not correspond to the harmonious proportions
of man. Probably, therefore, Ogs bed was
made longer and wider than himself,for the con-
venience of his turning about when he lay in it +;
and that it may not have been made of iron be-
cause of its weight but as protection against
vermin. Some thousand years after Og's death,
there was said to have been found, near Jerus-
alem, mighty cavern, inscribed in Catholic let
tiers, "Here lies Giant Og." Nothing was found
in it however, except one of his teeth, whereof
the weight was four pounds and quarter. 1t
was offered to the Emperor of Germany, as
favor, at two thousand dollars but he had his
doubts, and did not close with the bargain.
Homer regrets the dwindling of the bodies of
men from their pristine heroical proportions
The heather poets fabled also of a race of Titans
that made war against their gods, and piled
mountains on each other, meaning to storm
heaven. Then there were also Homer's enor-
nous one-eyed cannibals, the Cyclopes.
Solinus and Pomponius Mea tells of an Indian
people among whom the men were so tall that
they leaped and sat astride upon the backs of
elephants, as readily as others leap upon the
backs of horses These men capered about up
on their elephants, having them bitted and br-
died, and obedient as horses to their hands
Diodorus Siculus, however, tells of a nation OF
much more remarkable giants, which inhabited
some Southern isle. They were said to be taller
by four ellis than other men, and to have soft
bones that bent throughout their whole bodies
us TCuQlly u ICuuOu. 1HOD Ihu uoO OiSio eOhS"SS3
or rather two tongues in each mouth, and with
the two tongues they could talk at the same time
in two different languages.
In northern Europe the great barrows have
favored the idea that they were large men who
reonired such grave-mounds; and the Romans
were not slow to magnify their own achieve
ments by magnifying of the size of the bar
barians with whom they fought; though Florus
puts the case with modesty in saying that "Ihe
more enormous were the bodies of the Germans,
the more easily were they to be struck with
sword and spear"
The dark fancies of the north clinging about
the giants, made new race of them in the le-
gends of the middle ages. They were fearful,
brutal, goddess, cannibal beings, who tore even
unborn children from their mothers, as the dan-
tiest of meat who did not respect their own
kin, but lived upon the rule Of might is right a.
mong themselves A giant with a charming
daughter, if he did not wish her to be stolen by
his friends set bears and other savage creatures
at her chamber-Goor. These giants were so
wicked and so dangerous, that it became the
duty of all honest men to assist in their extirpa-
ton and because they were too tall for ordn-
ary methods of attack, the usual way of fighting
with them was to batter them about the shins
with heavy clubs, until, having their legs broken,
they fell, and could be struck in more vital
part. The efforts to exterminate these giants,
made when Jack k-the- Giant Killer was the type
of q philanthropist, very much thinned their
race, and caused the survivors to betake them
selves to Businesses, and live on islands, by sea-
coasts and water courses in great deserts or up
on steep mountains. Thence they made sallies
against the hostile race OF men, whenever they
perceived that they could catch victim or two
unawares.
In later times, much was said of the discovery
of giants in America. Antonio Pgafeta, IN
speaking of the Spaniards with whom he went
to the Straits of Magellan, says that his country
mems crowns reached only to the hips OF the
people living by the Bay of Saint Julian. Leon
ard de Argensola. writing of the capture of the
Moluccas, says that Magelen took away from
the straits named after him, men ten or eleven
feet high, who died upon the voyage for want
of their accustomed food. Another writer says,
that q Dutch boats crew once fought IN this
part of the world with giants, who pulled up
whole trees for use as shields against the bullets
Of the Patagonians, whom the Spanlards named
because of their stature, from the word Tor q
large measure Patagon meaning IN Spanish
great foot,) it is enough to say, that every one
now knows them to be no giants, though un-
doubtedly tall race of men, generally hve feet
ten inches, or six feet high, and exceeding. six
feet oftener than Europeans do. Some OF them
are occasionally to be seen who have attained
the height of six feet FIVE inches, or six feet seven
inches.
Americus Vespu cius is answerable for another
tale of giants, found upon an island not far from
the mainland of America. Nine Spaniards went
into its interior, having already observed ggan
tic footsteps and found in q valley five huge
huts, in which were two huge women and three
daughters, by whom food was set before the
strangers. Presently there arrived ix-and-thlr-
ty men, of greater stature than the women, who
stood at o distance, making no attack, but pres
emily followed the Europeans to their boat, and
swan after them shooting at them with bows
and arrows while they swan. They were put
to fight by q discharge or two of cannon. An
other story of this sort reported that there was
q cannibal race of perfectly white giants, the
Guamures, in Brazil, carrying huge bows and
arrows. The Guaimures were never known to
fpbt in bands, but always made their attack
sipely. proving like the tiger upon any victim
they could seize. These beings, it was said, ate
their own children.
So much for giant races. Single giants that
have been discovered here and there one may
believe in. when the story of them is content to
nreserye reasonable bounds. Strabo tells of the
skeleton of giant sixty cubits-ninety or more
feet-long that was found near the city of Tan
pier. It was said to be the skeleton of Ant@us,
an old king of Mauritania. Plny tells how, on
tho island Of Crete, a mountain was split by an
EARTHQUAKE. and there was disclosed, standing
erect in the midst of it. the body of giant seven
ty feet high, who was supposed by some to be
At Trapani, in Sicily, there was, if we believe
the record found in a cavern the skeleton of a
mon three hundred feet high 1t was in sit
ting posture, and leant with the left hand upon
a staff taller than any firtree. When the discov-
. S'N ~ ~ II hitants of tho distr;nt Hod