The Newtown bee., 1879-07-02
GIANTS.
some of the Tan People of H,.torv

some of the Tall People of History
 The existence. of race of giants far exceeding those exhibited in modern times was fully believed in up to the commencement of the eighteenth cen- tury Fms belief was founded partly upon the Old Testament, partly upon the discovery of huge bones supposed to be those of human beings, and partly upon the accounts handed down by medieval writers. The Old Testament says: There were giants in those days" and giant is applied to several races of men, as the Anakim, Rephaim, Emim, the Zonyenim and others. There are several instances in the Old Testament of indi- vidual giants, such as Og (who slept on a bedstead of iron) and Goliath. The height of Og is not mentioned, but Go Hath, at most, did not exceed eight and half feet in stature. Other historians (sometimes called profane) also mention giants, but some of their accounts are not worthy of belief. Plutarch states that when the grave of Antaus was opened by Serbonius the body was found to be sixty cubits long. Pliny also re- lates that at an earthquake in Crete the bones of giant forty-six cubits in length were disclosed. Giants play part in the mythology of almost all nations of
 
 presented them as being of monstrous size, with hideous countenances, and having the tails of dragons, placed their abode in volcanic districts. whether they were fabled to have been banished after three unsuccessful attempts upon heaven. when the gods, with the assistance of Hercules, imprisoned them under Etna and other volcanoes. The body of Ores tees, according to Greek history, was eleven and half feet high. The giant Galbara, brought from Arabia to Rome under Claudius Cesar, was about ten feet, and the bones of Secendilla and Pufo, keepers of the gardens of Saliust, were but six inches shorter. We read that the giant Ferragus, slaid by Orlando, nephew of the celebrated Charlemagne was eighteen feet high. Funnum, a | Scotchman, who lived at the time of Eugene IT,, King of Scotland, measured eleven and a half feet; and La Mare, in his voyage to the Straits of Magellan, reports that on De- cember 18th he found at Port Desire several graves covered with stones, and, having the curiosity to remove them, he | found human skeletons ten and eleven | feet long. Coming to more reliable evil dence, it seems certain that height of even more than nine feet has been at tained. In the museum of Trinity Col Iege, Dublin, there is skeleton eight feet six inches in height. In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Eng land is another eight feet two inches in height. and another in the museum at | Bonn eight feet. The giant who was shown in Rouen in 1885 measured eight feet four and a half inches. The Elm peror of MaXimin was one inch shorter. | Skenkins and Platerus, physicians of the last century, saw several of that stature, and Goropins saw girl nineteen years of age who was ten feet high. In 1913 the remains of a supposed giant were found on the Rhone. It was stated that the skeleton had been in q tomb thirty feet long, bearing the inscription '' Ieat-
 tobOchus Req" The Parisians crowded to see the bones of the King Teueto- the remains were not those of a man. but of mastodon. Dr. Mather, in I7l2 announced the discovery of the bones and teeth of giant in the province oi | New York. The statement was pub- lished in the Philosophical Transac- tions;" but it was subsequently, ascer- tained that the bones in this case also were those of mastodon. It appears that attempts have been made to manu- facture giants. According to Godfrey Saint Hilaire, Bishop Berkeley attempted to manufacture one. He reared an or phan boy named Magrath on certain hygienic principles, and succeeded so far that at the age of seventeen years he was seven feet in height. He died with all the symptoms of old age when he had completed his twentieth year, at which time he was seven feet eight inches high. Great diversity as to height prevails among the human race. Men rarely ex- ceed six feet. In northern attitudes men are below the ordinary standard In temperate climates the height varies from four and half to six feet.