Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1892-05-14
GIANTS ON TIE EARTH.
A GOOD DEAL Or FICTION WRITTEN
ABOUT THEM.


Hy"-so,od Big Mem Whose Stature
Iraa Ueen Recorded by Actual OBJ
servers.
'rIio idea conveyed by the word giant
~ classical mythology is that of beings
murs or less mau-lille, but enormous in
size and strength. Figures like the Titan5
and the Giants, whose birth from heaven
and earth is sung by Hesiod in the The
| oKuony, such as heap up mountains to
scale the sky, and war beside or against
tie gods must he treated with other like
mou,trpus figures of the wonder tales of
the world as belonging altogether to tho
realms of mythology.
Besides the conception of giants as
Cr.cial races distinct from mankind, it
was common opinion of the ancIent1
that the human race had itself degenera-
ted. t men of primeval ages having
been OF so far greater stature and strength
rs to be in fact gigantic. Yet so far as
! can be Judged by actual remains it does
not appear that giants, in the sense OF
tribes of altogether superhuman stature,
ever existed, or that the men of ancient
| time were. on the whole, taller than those
now living. 1t is now usual to apply tho
word giant" to beings not superhuman
in their height, but merely the tallest
:nen and women of our nations.
Until the beginning of the present CEN
tury, it was universally believed that
| giants, of a size far exceeding those
which are exhibited in our times, form
crly existed, either as nations OF as indi-
viiual specimens. This belief was based.
first. on the asserted discovery of colossal
human bones; second, on supposed scrip
! tural evidence; third, on the evidence of
various ancient and medieval authors.
A reference to the first volume of Gull
-cr's easements Fossles" will show that
the bones of elephants, rhinosceroses,
mastodons, ETC., have been exhibited and
accepted as evidence of prehistoric
giants. Even so good a naturalist as
Button fell into this popular delusion
aud figured the bones of an elephant as
the remains Of human giants. Saint
| lIilaire, in his Historic DIES Anomalies
de Reorganization, " notices several of the
most famous of these cases. A gigantic
skeleton which was found at Trapani, in
Sicily, in the fourteenth century, was at
|
cal giant, Polyphemns, and his height
was calculated at 800 feet. 1t was
pointed out that the bones differed in
form as well as in size from those
Of a man, but this objection was easily
met by the question, Why, if his
height was sixty times as great as that
of an ordinary man, should not his form
also be different? Many less celebrated
giants were subsequently, exumed in
Sicily, and the existence of the Gaseous
Canerus" described by De Quatrefages in
his "Rambles of Naturalist" fully ac-
count for such discoveries at an epoch
when few could recognize the differences
in form between the bones of an elephant
and those of man.
| Nor have our own Countrymen been
less credulous than their neighbors. In
| 1712 DR.. Increase AIather, in the "Philo-
sophical Transactions" announced the
discovery of enormous bones and teeth.
which had been found in the State of
| New York, aud which he regarded as af
fording evidence of the existence of gil
ants of enormous size in ancient times.
The bones We're in reality those of mas
toIon.
The Scripture evidence, when carefully
/ examined, does not amount to much.
The Hebrew words nephirim and gibo-
rim, which occur several times in the
book of Genesis, and which are trans
lated giants, might as we'll be trans
lated bearded" "cruel" or "violent
men," The height of Og, King of Ba-
shan, is not given-we are only told the
length of his bed And including his
helmet, which was probably taken into
account in the recorded measurement,
Goliath at most did not exceed eight feet
and half in stature and consequently
WAS not taller than some giants of mod
3rn days.
The classical evidence is abundant, but
obviously Enthusiastically. Thus, PDutarch
relates that Serboeins had the grave of
Antalus, in the city of Tungis, opened
md, "inding there his body full go cubits
long was infinitely astonished, ordered
the tomb to be closed, gave his contirma-
lion to the story and added new honors
% the memory of the giant" Pliny
gives to one, Gabharas, an Arabian, the
'tature of nine feet nine inches, Gaping
| HIS W Illl lile IilellJlOll VI OSlO duu DC
eundilly, who were half foot higher.
Pliny reports also that an earthquake
IN Crete disclosed the bones of giant
forty-six cubits in length, who was held
by Dorne to be Orion and by others Otus.
What exaggeration can do in this way
may be judged from the fact that the
Patagonians, whose average height is five
feet eleven inches, are described in Piga-
fetta's Voyage Round the World" as so
monstrous that the Spaniards' heads
hardly reached their waists Descending
20 more certain evidence, there can be no
loubt that height of eight and nine
,eet, and probably of more than nine
feet, has been attained. There is skel-
rton in the museum of Trinity College,
Dublin, eight feet six inches in height;
that of O'Brien Tor Byrne) in the museum
If the College of Surgeons of England is
eight feet two inches, and that Of a giant
N the museum at Bonn is eight feet, and
he actual body. with the soft parts at
cached, was probably two or three inches
longer than the skeleton. For example.
we find it recorded that O'Brien measured
eight feet four inches after his death.