The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-14

comparison mere taradiddles. We some
times ind the skeleton Of man nine feet
high, and make quite fuss about IT,
whereas. when Lucius Flaccus. the Le-
gate-think Of that. not an obscure archae~
ologist. but the Legate-and Metellus
Cxnown 10 all of us) beheld in Crete "a
very proper locality the carcass Of
man thirty and three cubits." or nearly
fOTty-two feet long. They had doubted
OF the fact. but now saw that which upon
hearsay they had imagined TO be a IA
BILE" Two witnesses Of greater respecta-
bility could hardly have been secured
This Is pretty good for giants, but as wei
a S uagnifers The ancients used micro
scopes. I'm the time Of TheOdOrus there
was seen in Egypt a pigmy so small OF
body that he resembled a partridge" The
chronicler might more appropriately have
said blackbird, for this duodecimo crea-
ture, he tells us. sang divinely-" II we
come tc pedestrianism, the record OF Phil
lippides, who was sent by the Athenians
10 implore the assistance of Sparta against
the Persians, is hard to beat. Pliny tells
us-and Pliny is an honorable man-that
this young person in the space or two days
ran l70is miles. The half Is delightful
This is nearly four miles an hour. includ-
ing stoppages for refreshments; sleep he
seems not to have INDUCED in, or perhaps
he walked in it. The ancients did not do
so much in the swimming way, but on the
other hand they had no hackers in boats
e, administer beef tea and bovril.
For many generations the narrators Of
prodigies seem to have slowed down;
they probably found they had overdone
it, and that readers only said: ''Yahw or
recommended them TO address the horse
marines. But in the sixteenth century
there was sort of renaissance of lying
on a large scale that surpassed the old
masters. Ferdinand Lopez, historic
grapher to the King of Portugal, (what
could you have better than that2, had
q man brought before MIN in the Indies
who by good proof and sufficient testi-
mony had lived $40 years" He had grown
young again four times, changing his
white hair for black. and getting new
teeth. He had about 700 wives in his
time Cor times), whereof some (as one
may well imagine) were dead and others
put away" The King Of Portugal receiv-
ed yearly news Of him by the fleet from
the Indies, but the poor man only lived
thirty years-a mere span after his dis
covery. At Rome, about the same time
Q53D, there lived a man only 100 years
old, II Is true, but he too had grown
young again-had changed his skin like
a snake, and was most engaging to look
upon. Unfortunately, after fifty years
of this second youth 'he suddenly became
very old indeed. and seemed as if he was
made OF the bark Of trees" which must
have been far from attractive. What are
our giants, and dwarfs, and pedest TRANS,
and centenarians compared with these
old world prodigies? Stone eaters we
have, indeed, but which Of them can vie
with Francis Battalia, who lived on
stones? He was born with two in one
hand and one in the other. which "by the
physicians advice" dhink Of i) he took
for his first nourishment; afterwards just
three to four pebbles IN a spoon once in
twenty-four hours" What a prescription
for the digestion! But the ancients could
swallow anything. and every opportunity
was afforded them to do so.