The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-06-25
C1ms Giants.

Gu hEuEAVu EullLNu4G4 10 eAlN
great decrease il the height of me
between the periods of the Creatiot
and the Christian Era. Adam, b
says, was l23 feet 9 inches high; Eve
Ills feet 9 inches; Noah, % feet
I Abraham, 20 feet; Moses 13feet. Tn
allegation about Adam is moderat,
compared with that made by early
Rabbinical writers, who affirm tha
his head overtOpped the atmosphere
and that he touched the Arctic Pole
with one hand and the AntaTetis with
the other. TraditiOnary memorial.
of the primeval giants still exist in
Palestine in the form of graves Of
enormous Dimensions; as the grave Of
Abel near Damascus, which is 80 feet
long; that Of Seth about thesam size;
and that Of Noah, in Lebanon, Rhich
is 20 yards in length.
Pliny says that by an earthquake
in Crete a mountain was opened, and
in it was discovered 4 skeleton stand
ing upright, 46 eubits long, which was
supp posed to be that Of Orion or 0tus.
The same author relates that in the
time of Claudius Ceasar there was a
man, named Gabbaras, brought by
that Emperor from Arabia to Rome,
who was 9 feet inches high, "the tall
est man that has been seen in our
times" But this giant was not so
tall as Posio and Secuudilla, in the
reign of Augustus Ceasar, whose bod
les were preserved as euriosities in
a museum in the Sallustian Gardens,
and each of whom measured in length
10 feet 3 inches.
The Emperor Maximus very much
of mani was . feet high. and was in
the habit of using his wife's bracelet
for thumb ring. His shoe was a
foot longer than that of any other man,
and his strength SO great that he
could draw a carriage which fwo OK
en- could not move. He generally ate
forty pounds weight of flesh and
drank six gallons Of wine every day.
Not at ali a desirable or profitable
guest for the est Nicholas" even at
the current price of board, though
not so tall as one of whom Josephus
tells, viz: Eleazar, Jew who was one
of the hostages whom the King of
Persia sent to Rome after peace.
This giant was over 10 feet high.
But these are pigmies compared with
of whom Kircher writes Though this
is what a Yankee philosopher would
denominate a whopper). The skele-
ton of this giant was dug out of
stone sepulchre near Rome, in the
reign of the Emperor Henry IL, and
which, by an inscription attached to
it, was known to be that Of Pallas,
who was slain by Turnus, and was
higher than the walls of the city.
The same author tells US that another
skeleton was found near Palermo that
must have belonged to a man 400 feet
high.
In times more modern (1613),
some masons were digging near the
ruins ola castle in Dauphine, in a field
which by tradition had long been
called "The Giants Field" at the
depth of IS feet discovered brick
tomb 80 feet long, IL feet wide, and
8 feet high, on which was gray stone
with the words "Theutoboehus Req
cat thereon. When the tomb was op-
ened they found q human skeleton
entire 251 feet long, 10 feet wide
across the shoulders. end 5 feet deep
from the breast to the back. His
teeth were about the size of an ox's
foot, asd his shin bone measured 4
feet in length.
Plot, in his "0xfordshire," 1876,
says that skeleton 16 feet high was
then to be seen in lhe town>hall in
Lucrne. 1t had been found under an
oak in Willisau, near the village Of
Reyden. He instances numeaOus gi-
gantie bones which had been dug up
in England, and adds: at remains
that Notwithstanding their extrava-
CANT magnitudes) they must have been
the bones Of men or woman; nor does
hinder but they may have
been so, provided it be clearly made
1ut that there have been men and
women of prOportionable stature in
Ill ages of the world, down even to
BAR own days"
Old Cotton Mather held the belief
hat there had been in the antedilu-
lian world men Of very prodigiOus |
stature, in consequence of the finding
If bones and teeth ofgreat size, which /
ne Judged to be human, in Albany. |
he describes one particular grinder
At pounds, and broad, fat
ore-tooth four finger in breadth;
llso bone, supposed to be a thigh
zone, II feet long, which, with the
,thers, crumbled to pieces as soon as
t was exposed to the air.-W. A.
;EAvER, in Ha:Per's Magazine for
TalU.