The Hickman courier., 1869-07-31
some Giants.

q
Henrion endeavored to show a great de-
crease in the height of men between The
periods of the Creation and thesC hrs-
tan era Adam, he says, was - ieet
9 inches high: Eve, 11S feet 8 pches;
Noah % feet; Abraham 20 feet loses
13 feet. The alles3tion made.a bout
Adam is moderate compared witl that
made by early Rabbinieal writer's who
affirm that his head overtopped tie at
mosphere and that he touched thea rctic
Pole with one hand and the Antarctic
with the other. Traditionaiy nleporials
of the primeval giant still exist inP Pales-
tine in the forms of graves of enormous
dimensions; as the grave of ABB near
Damascus, which is thirty feet foag; that
of Seth about the same size; andthat of
| Noat. IN Lebanon which is sevenu yards
in isagtfA
Phny says that by an earthquake in
CreHe mountain was opened and IN it
was discovered skeletonstanding up-
right, 45 cubics long, which was spppos-
ed to be Orion. The same author relates
that in the time of Claudius Easar
there was man named Gabaras, bought
by that Emperor from Arabia to Rome.
who was. 9 feet inches hieln< g -.
est man rnau nas zeen seen in our tfmes.
But this Giant was not so tall as Posio
and Secuudilla, in Il reign of Angus
tus Caesar, whose bods were preserved
as curiosities in a museum in the Salu-
sian Gardens, and each of whom meas
ured in length ten feet three inches.
The Emperor Maximus very much
of map) was nine feet high, and was
in the habit of using his wife's bracelet
for a thumb ring. His shoes was foot
longer than that of any other man, and
his strength so great that he could draw
acarriage which two oxen could not move.
He generally ate forty pounds weight of
flesh and drank six gallons of wine each
day. Not at all desirable or profitable
guest for the st 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 hos
tages whom the King of Persia sent to
Rome after peace. This giant was over
ten feet high But these are pigmies
compared with him Of whom kireher
writes (though this is what a Yankee
philosopher would denominate a whop-
per.) The skeleton of this giant was
dug out of stone sepulcher near Rome,
in the reign of the Emperor Henry II,
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
man 400 feet high
In times more modern (1613), some
masons digging near the ruins of a cas-
tie in Daphne, in field which by tradi-
ton had long been called The Giants
Field, at the depth of lS feet discover
ed a tomb so feet long, Il feet wide and
s feet high, on which was gray stone
with the words g Theutoboceus lex"
cut thereon. When the tomb was open
I'D they found a human skeletoa entire
feet long, 10 feet wide acfoss the
houlders, and feet deep frem. the
E size of an OK 5 foot, and his shinbone
Measured feet in length.
Plot. in his = Oxfordshire, 1876. says
that a skeleton seventeen feet long SFas
then to be seen in the town hs1l of Lu-
eerne. 1t had been found under an oak
in Willisau, near the village or Boydon.
He instances numerous gigantic bones
which had been dug up in England, and
adds . 1t remains that (uotwithstand
ing their extravagant magnitude they
must have been the bones of men and
women; nor does anything hinder but
they may have been SO, provided it may
be clearly made out there have been men
and women OF proportiouable stature in
all ages of the world, even down to our
own days"
Old Cotton Mathew held the belief
that there had been in the antediuvian
world men of very prodigious stature, in
consequence of the finding of bones and
teeth Of great size, which he judged to be
human, in Albany. He describes one
particular grinder weighing u pounds,
and broad, fat, foretooth four fingers
in breadth also bone, supposed to be a
thigh bone, II feet long, which, with the
others, crumbled to pieces as soon as it
was exposed to the air-Harper's Nag.