The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-01-25
GIANTS OF THE EARLY DAYS.
Tradition May Be Correct, but Science
Doubts Their Existence,

1t is a thing worthy of some notice
that there is hardly any collection of
folk lore that does not contain some
reference to human beings of size far
above that of the ordinary man. These
giants were for the most part only
great in stature, their intellectual
characteristics being even below those
of the ordinary men who lived in the
dim fable land of prehistoric times.
In the worlds nursery tales the giant
often figures t0gether with fairies and
elfin sprites, and when those tales are
outgrown there is a general disposition
to class the giant with the other deni-
zens of fairyland as mere myth of the
| Imagination. companion of hobgob-
Inns and talking cats. The ogre van
ishes with Puss in Boots or Jack and
the Bean Stalk, as a scientific impossi-
bility, says the Cincinnati Commercial
| Gazette.
OF truth science has not as yet
given assent to any theory that there
once existed a race of giants on this
earth. Even the once despised dragon
and the scorned sea serpent have
found warmer niche in the scientific
heart than Cog and Magog. Scientific
agnosticism has no credence for the
stirring stories of giants, like those of
| Gaelic and Teutonic folk lore. Yet it
is quite possible that science is wrong
and that tradition is right. 1t can be
taken us fact that tradition often is
accepted as right when new discover
les bring to light the long-hidden rel
les of an obscure past.
Priam, Agamemnon, and other fig
ures of tradition have been accepted
as realities by modern history as
the result of the discoveries of this
century. In the main, tradition is
proving to be much more reliable than
it once seemed. Even on the giant
question some modern scientist may
be said to be "on the fence" as a con-
sequence of the discoveries of late
years. To the unscientitic, however,
there appears to be good reason for be-
lieving in a race of giants as a matter
of common sence.
When the world was first covered
with animals, those creatures were OF
great size. 1t is generally believed
that the early man was much longer
lived than his descendants, and in the
steady progress of growth it seems
strange, indeed, if he did not attain
greater size in his many years. More
than this, however, the prehistoric
creatures are known to have been OF
wondrous proportions. The hypsi-
prymnus was some thirty feet long,
and the modern kangaroo would seem
a dwarf beside him. The mosasaurus
was eighty feet long, while his modern
| descendants vary in size from the alli-
gator to the crocodile, rarely, if ever,
twenty feet long. The larlaps, a
jumping lizard, stood twenty-five feet
high, dwarfing the lizard of the present
day to insignificance.
In view of these facts it is unreason-
able to conjecture that amid that
world of monster creatures monster
men also stalked? Science, because it
has not as yet found as many skeletons
of giant men as of giant lizards, gives
no support to the traditions which up
hold the existence of such race o1
human beings; but as from time i'm
memorial mankind has kept its dead
in inaccessible places, the failure as
yet to discover mammoth men, in
view also of the fact that wild animals
were far more plentiful than prehis-
toric men, and that even of the
primeval animals but few remains
have been discovered, it is more than
unwise to conclude that in this matter
tradition is wholly at fault