The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-11
GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS.
Enormous skulls Found In an Ancient
Yuoatan Cemeterv and Elsewhere.


occasionally appeared in various parts OF
the earth. and several nations possess
traditions Of gigantic people having at one
time inhabited their lands. Even the
Bible tells US something about giants.
But skulls OF unusual size as we'll as other
bones were really dug up at Pitcairn
Island by officers Of the expedition under
Capt Beechy, in the early part of this
century. The French traveller and writer
Jean de DespriauX, when residing in the
Canary Islands, was much pleased at pro
curing some mummies of the big Guanches
a man and two women, preserved as the
Egyptians used to preserve their dead.
The man was Of gigantic stature he
says, (which is in perfect conformity
with all tradition relating to the ancient
Atlanteans. The women had long black
hair, plated with straps of leather
painted red or green. Their dress was
plated in front; their breast covered
with a kind of short zarape." The straps
of their sandals were painted red and or
namented with small pieces of Obsidian
beautifully wrought. The dress of the
man consisted of a tunic and a MANTLE
tied up on the chest in a knot M. Des-
priauX was delighted later on to find that
in the high Andes of Peru the women
were attired just as his mummies had
been, and that their headgear and mode
of dressing the hair were identical.
The American continent seems TO have
been the place were big men abounded
for here are found many remains of hui
man beings much larger than any of its
present inhabitants, At Chancai, thirty
miles north of Lima PERU, very large
human skulls were dug up only a few
years ago by DR. lie Plongeon Others
have been unearthed on the Island of
Puma, in the Gulf of Guayaquil, at the
entrance of the Guayaquil river. A Jes-
uit father named Anilo Olivia wrote an
ancient history of Peru dictated by an
old archive keeper, Quippu CamayOc,
Peruvian. Oliva's work exists only in
manuscript, and is in the British Museum,
London; but the writer has n copy of it.
Olivia says that Puma, as well as the OppO-
site coast, was formerly peopled by giants
who had come from Central America In
the work of Zarate we read that they
were as bad as they were big, so that
they became terror to all the other in
habitants. Those tall fellows had their
strongholds particularly at the Island
Puma and at Point Santa Elena, Guaya
quill Some of their works can yet be
seen in those places in the shape of i'm
mense stone and adobe walls and more
especially in the great wells which they
dug to supply themselves with water.
The career of those bad big people was
probably brought to a close by some cleo
trical phenomena. for tradition says that
the gods destroyed them with fire from
heaven.
In the north part of Mexico, few years
ago, human remains were unearthed
from well-made stone tombs. The skele-
tons were nearly nine feet long. In South
ern Mexico the Yucatan peninsula seems
to have been at one time quite favorite
residence Of q race of people about nine
feet high. On our first visit to that coun-
try, before we had been twelve hours on
shore the inhabitants Of Progreso men
toned TO us that giants once lived there.
Don Fermin Domingo, one of the first
settlers in that town, respected and trust
worthy. accompanied us to an ancient
cemetery, whence he had procured stones
to fence in his property and build his
house. He pointed out the remains of
mound which on its west side, had had
stone steps leadingto the summit At the
foot of them, on each side, were four Sc
pulchres in a line, partly underground.
They consisted of two hard, limestone urns
about three feet square, placed mouth
to mouth and Joined with cement The
lower one had a hole in the bottom for the
escape of gases generated by decomposi-
ton Nothing, not even dust, remained
in them, which would show that those
stone collins were very ancient. To the
student their discovery Is deeply inter
esting for the reason that they were ex-
actly like some found at Mughier, in the
lower plains of Chaldea, the only diff
ferece being that at Mughier the collins
were made of clay instead of stone BY
the position of those at PrOgresO we infer
that the bodies were inferred in a
squatting posture. which was customary
in many parts of America. If they were
placed thus, and yet needed a height of
six feet, they were certainly very big
bodies,a In various parts of the same
cemetery Don Fermin and others dug up
a considerable number of terra-cotta Jars,
containing skulls which the old gentle
man assured us were twice as big as his
own head. We regretted that he had not
felt sufficiently interested to keep at least
one sample. We ourselves did a little
delving, and found pieces of large bones,
but they crumbled in our fingers.
While travelling in the interior of the
country, we were frequently told of places
where giants bones had been disinterred
The interesting ruins of AXE, twenty
seven miles east of Merida, might reason
ably be regarded as the work of very big
and uncouth people Each step In one
stairway is twenty inches high, by no
means convenient for persons of ordinary
stature. The stairway is 1856 feet wide.
In one part smaller stones have been add
ded, making two steps out of each, total
of thirty-six instead of eighteen, as if
people of medium size had lived there at
the same time or perhaps later, and ar
ranged the extra stones for their own
Round about the ancient
structures not only large skulls have been
dug from the ground, but also tibia and
other bones, all exceedingly large. From
the time of the Spanish conquest such re-
mains have now and then been brought to
light in the peninsula Father Cogolludo
and Diego de Landa, second Bishop of
Yucatan, wrote works about that country
and its people, and both testify to the dis
coVery of gigantic human bones. Cogollu-
do, whose work is the most complete, saws
that in 1547 on the high road of Campeche
a large sepulchre was opened. II was
formed of stone slabs placed one above
the other, and therein were ''human re-
mains Of formidable size" With these
they also found three large boxes of terra
Gotta supported on three hollow balls that
black stone "like jasper" The natives
were ordered to break the bones to frag-
ments, but they refused to lay finger on
anything in the grave declaring that it
was forbidden them to NEEDLE with such
things; and 50 the friar, Juan de Carrion,
himself DESTROYED the remains.
One of the superstitiOnS now existing
among the natives would seem TO be a
of the big people that for
merly dwelt in Yucatan. Uauapach is a
phantom giant supposed to haunt the
highways at nirht to Inherent belatad