The broad ax., 1897-07-24

endure IOr udyB
but freaks, particularly big freaks, will
endure for ever; for, as Trinculo very
Justly remarks Of the public, When
they will not give a doit to relieve q
blind beggar. they will lay out ten to
see a dead Indian" That this Is true,
says the London Standard, may be
seen by the way the public fiocked to
see the recent Egyptian giant, by the
way they fiocked to see his predecessor,
Winkelmeyer, and by the way they
have. almost without exception, gone
in crowds to see the latest giant out,
ever since a genius conceived the idea
OF exhibiting for filthy lucre abnorm-
ally developed specimens of the genus
homo. But giants existed long before
this profitable business was invented,
and the names Of many Of them have
Teen handed down to posterity, simply
because they were OF huge proportions,
and combined with their abnormal de-
velopment a proportional amount of
strength. Thus, II is probable that, had
Goliath OF Gath, whose height theo-
logians place at over ten feet, not been
the strongest as we'll as the biggest
warrior among the Philistines, we
should never have heard OF him. The
same argument applies to Moab. king
Of the Amorites, and Og. king Of Bas-
han. orestes. too. was eleven and a
half feet high, according to the Gre
clan legends, and he, together with
Ajax the Greater, had they not been
gifted with strength in proportion to
their bulk. would have been only or
binary soldiers OF the Grecian army
before Troy.
When history begins, however-that
Is, when Rome began to reach it's high
est point Of civilization in the time
Of Augustus. and learned men began to
write about the times they lived in, in
stead OF the times that went by long
before they were born-we get authen-
tic records Of giants. In Augustus
time, for instance, there were, accord
ing to the authority of Valerius. two
giants In Rome who were over ten feet
high. Their names were Idusis and Sc
cundilla, and they were keepers OF the
gates OF the gardens of Sallust. Then
again We have a record In Pliny Of one
Polydamus. the son of Meas. who was
over nine feet nigh, and whose strength
rivalled that Of Hercules himself.
Polydamus used. In fact, to boast his
superiority to that Roman deity, and
perform his special tricks. For ex-
ample, he once slew a lion with a blow
Of his fist, and scattered its brains
about the arena. He could with his
hand stop the swiftest chariot dead,
and on one occasion seized a bull by
the hoof in order to carry II away. but
the animal struggled so violently that
the hoof was left in his hand. In the
end he was killed by the falling in OF
a cave. When his companions noticed
that the roof was falling they left. but
Polydsmus was so vain about. his
strength that he thought he could not
be killed. So he stayed and was finally
crushed to DEAN.
The Emperor Vitellius sent To Dari-
us. by way Of present, a Jew named
Eleazer, who was seven cubIts high
that is, reckoning the cubit at eighteen
inches-ten feet six inches-and a
giant who Is mentioned by the histor-
ian Tacitus was over nine feet. His
name was Corbulo. and he lived in |
Nero's time, and was a more than
usually skillful general and soldier.
besides being an enormously strong |
man. An account Of the ancient giants
would be incomplete without mention
ing Maximinus, the imperial giant of |
the third century. The most extraordi-
nary stories are told of this emperor OF |
Rome. His height was eight feet ten
inches; he could draw unaided a loaded
wagon which six oxen could not move
while his appetite was so great that hIs |
usual rations for the day consisted of |
forty pounds Of meat and a whole am
phora Of wine. besides bread and dried
and fresh fruits.
Medieval giants are plentiful, but
strange to say, the records OF them are
not so authentic as those OF the times
Of the emperors. Funnian, a Scottish
giant, who nourished In 827, seems to
be the most authentic Of these, but as
he is put down as being over eleven
feet high. the statement should not be
criticised too closely. Still more start
ling, however, is the following, which
Is youched for by a monastery full Of
monks: In 1909 some workmen, digg-
ing near Rouen came across q cave in
which were some human bones and a
copper plate, bearing the words: Here
lies the remains Of the great and
mighty Chevalier Ricon de Vallemont"
The skull was large enough to have
held bushel Of wheat and the shin
bone was over four feet long. It Cthe
bone) was preserved by the above-men-
tened monks. and # Is estimated that
The height Of the defunct knight must
have exceeded eighteen feet. A strang-
er though somewhat similar legend