Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-16
MEMPHIS TENN. THURSDAY EVENING. JANUARY 49, 1873

great stature England says that the
great Emperor was seven Of his own
feet " in hight; from which we must infer
either that he had very small foot en-
tirely out Of proportion 10 his size, or
that he was very tall man. The old
writers would have us believe, too,
that Roland, the hero OF Ronces-
valles, was also OF gigantic stature
and strength. Happily we have
some direct evidence on this
point. Hakewill, quoting Camerarus,
says; Francis l., King of France,
who reigned about hundred years
since, desirous TO know the truth of those
things which were commonly spread
touching the strength and stature Of
Rouland, nephew to ,Charlemagne,
caused his sepulcher 10 be opened,
wherein his bones and bow were found
rotten, but his armour sound, though
covered with rust, which the King, com.
manding to be secured off, and quitting
it upon his own body, found il so ct for
him, as thereby il appeared that Rouland
exceeded him littlo in bigness and
stature of body, though himselfe were
not excessive tall or big" We have
similar evidence in relation to the body
of William the Conqueror, which was
reported to have been dug up, four hun
dred years after burial, and found to be
eight feet in length; for Stowe says that,
when the English took Cannes, in 1862,
some soldiers broke into the monument
in search Of booty, and found nothing
remarkable about the bones.
Were it possible to get at the truth |
concerning the giants OF Antiquity, there |
is little doubt but that half of them |
could be showuto be pure myths, and |
that ninetenths of the remainder could |
be reduced in size very materially.
Pliny's assertion, that mankind is grad
ually degenerating, is wholly gratuitous,
and has no foundation in fact. Indeed,
vast deal of proof can be adduced
tending to show that the men of to-day
are equal, and probably superior, in
stature TO the ancients. The Greeks
and Romans were undoubtedly of small
size. The helmets and sword hilts that
have come down to us from the heroic
ages could not be used by the majority
Of soldiers Of the present European ma
tions. Ancient rings also are generally
WV iOi nuBtTb. |
But the classic writers give testimony
enough on this point. Caesar, speaking
of the Gauls, says: "Our shortness Of
stature, in comparison with the great
size of their bodies, is generally sub
ject of much contempt to the men of
Gaul. Tacitus also describes the Ger
mans as of robust form and of great
stature; and Strabo says that he had
seen Britons at Rome who were a half
foot taller than the tallest Italians. Yet
there is no proof that the men OF these
nations were any larger in ancient times
than they are now. On the contrary,
the graves and barrows tell a different
stery. The remains are usually under
The average hight of men Of the present
day. 1t is the same with the Egyptian
According to Atheneus,
man of four cubits, or six feet, in hight.
was considered of Gigantic size in
Egypt. $500 ttfi VVof"t'-r
Apollodorus, the grammarian Of Ath-
ems, gives the hight of the Gigantic
Hercules as four cubits; and Phya, the
who was selected to personate
Minerva, at Athens, in the time of Pisis-
,ratus, ON account of her great hight,
which was considered wonderful did not
exceed in stature four cubits less by three
ingers, or only about five feet ten.
Numerous other examples might be
siven, but the facts cited are sufficient
o prove that mankind at the present
lay, if no greater, is certainly no less in
light and in size than in the days of old;
md that fully as many instances OF ab.
formal stature have occurred in com
,aratively modern times as when there
we're giants in the earth" s1taJ