The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-06-21
SOME GIANTS OF OLD.
eGvERAL or THE MOST NoTEWoR-
THY sssclMGNS.


Ths prodigious strength Of PoIydamus.
MsximiDus, tho Imperial oiant-sksis-
son of . Tall Frenohmsn--IfowI IrsIsnd
J "wsnt the Whole Hog"
IL there IN one thing I'm the show busi.
ness which can bo depended on "a draw, ID
IL "a giant, provided always that be be big
enough.
But giants existed hong before this prof
hablo business was invented, and tho
names Of many Of them have been handed
down " pOstority simply because they
were OF huge proportions and combined
with their abnormal development pro.
p0rtioDal amount Of strength. Thus, 1t Is
probable that had Goliath Of Gath, whose
height theologians place at over 10 fcet,
not been tho strongest as we'll as the biggest
warrior among the Philistines, we should
never have heard Of him. The same argu.
ment applies 10 Moab, king OF tho Amor.
ties, and Og, king Of Bashan. Orestcs,
too, was IL n feet high, according to the
Grccian legends, and he. together with
jax tho Greater, had they not been gifted
with strength In proportion To their bulk,
would have been only ordinary soldiers Of
the GrociaD army before Troy.
When history begins, howoyer--that IL,
when Rome began To reach It's highest
point Of civilization In tho time Of Au.
gustus and learned mon began 20 write
about tho times they lived In, instead Of
tho times that had gone by long before they
were born-wo get authentic records OF
giants. In Augustus time, for instance,
there were, according 10 the authority Of
Valcrius, two giants I'm Rome who were
over 10 feet high. Their names were Idusis
and Secundilla, and they were keepers Of
the gates Of tho gardens of Sallust. Then
again wo have record In Pliny Of one
'Polydamus, the son of Meas. who was
over feet high and whose strength RI
vailed that OF Hercules himself. Poly
darnus used, in fact, To boast his superior
ity to that Roman deity and perform his
special tricks. For example, no ones slew
lion with blow of his fist and scattered
Its brains about the arena. He could with
bis hand stop the swiftest chariot dead,
and on one occasion seized q bull by the
hoof In order TO carry IL away, but the
animal struggled 20 violently that the
hoof was left in his hand. In the end he
was killed BY tho falling In of a cave.
When his companions noticed that the
roof was falling, they left, but Polydamus
was 50 vain about his strength that he
thought he could not DO killed. So he
staid and was finally crushed to death.
The Emperor Vitellius sent to Darius
by way of a present q Jew named Eleazer,
who was oubits high--that is, reckoning
the cubit at 18 inches, 10 feet inches
and a giant who is mentioned by the his
torian Tacitus was over o feet. His name
was Corbulo and he lived in Nero's time
and was more than usually skillful gen
eral and soldier, besides being an enor
mously strong man. An account of th,
ahcient giants would be incomplete with.
out mentioning Maximinus, the imperial
giant Of the third century. The most ex.
traordinary stories are told of this emperor
of Rome. His height was 8 feet 10 inches,
he could draw unaided q loaded wagon
which six oxen could not move, while his
appetite was 40 great that his usual rations
for the day consisted of 40 pounds of meat
and q whole amphora Of wine, beside.
bread and dried and fresh fruits.
Medieval giants are plentiful. but
strange to say, the records of them art
not so authentic as those Of the times OF
the empesorA Funnian, Scottish giant
who fourished in 1897, seems to be the
MOST authentic Of these, bat az he is put
down as being over IL fest high the state
ment should not b criticised too closely.
Still more startling. however, Is tho fol
lowing, which Is vouched for by monas.
terry full OF monks: In 1909 some work
men, digging near Rouen, came across q
cave in which were some human bones
and copper plate, bearing the words,
Here lie the remains Of the great and
mighty Cheyalier Ricon dc Vallemont. u
The skull was large enough to have held
q busbel Of wheat and the shinbone was
over feet long. It (the bone) was pre-
served by theabove mentioned monks, and
1t was estimated that the height of the de-
funct knight must have exceeded 18 feet.
A stranger, Though somewhat similar,
legend comes from Ireland, but In this
case the discoverers thought that they
would, to use an expression popular go or
30 years ago, go "the whole hog or none. -
1t happened in 1908. Some men were dig
ging in Ireland when they came across a
brick tomb which contained human
skeleton no less than 120 feet long. But
there is "raison detre'' for all these leg
ends. According to a German professor,
these bones, which were supposed by ig
norant persons to be those of human be.
ings, were probably those of mastodons or
some other fossilized remains, which to
the uninitiated would look exactly like
those Of a man.-London Standard.