Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-30

SEVERAL OF THE MOST NOTEWOR-
THY SPECIMENS.

The Prodisious strength of Polydamus.
Maximinu-, the Imperial Giant skelo-
ton of a Tall Frenchman- ireland
event the Whole Hog"
If there Is ono thing i'm the show bust
ness which can he depended on to draw, il
is II giant provided always that he be big
ynough
But giants existed long before this prof
table business was invented and the
names Of many Of them have been handed
down to pOsterity simply because they
were of huge proportions and combined
with their abnormal development n pro-
rortional amount of strength. Thus, it is
probable that had Goliath Of Gath, whose
height theologisnf place at over 10 feet
not been the strongest as well as the biggest
warrior among the philistincs, we should
never have heard of him. The same argu.
mcnt applies to Moab, king Of the Amor
ties, and Og, king of Bashan. Orcstcs,
too, was 4 . feet high, according TO the
Grccian legends, and he, together with
Ajax the Greater, had they not been gifted
with strength in proportion to their bulk,
would have been only ordinary soldiers Of
the Grecian army before Troy.
When history begins, howcvcr-that Is,
when Rome began 60 reach its highest
point of civilization in tho time Of Au-
gustus and learned men began to write
about tho times they lived in, instead Of
the times that had gone by long before they
were bOrn--we get authentic records Of
giants. In Augustus time, for instance,
there were, according TO the authority Of
Nalcrius two giants in Rome who were
over 10 feet high. Their names were Idusis
and ;-ocundilla, and they wore keepers Of
the gates Of the gardens Of -ullust Then
again wo have II record in Pliny of one
Polydamus, the son of Nicus. who was
over feet high and whose strength ri
vailed that Of Hercules himself. Poly
dHmuS used, in fact, to boast his superior
ity TO that Roman deity and perform his
special tricks. For example, he once slew
"A lion with u blow of his fist and scattered
its brains about the arena He could with
his hand stop the swiftcst chariot dead.
and ON one occasion seized "A bull by the
hoof in order to carry it away, but the
animal struggled 50 violently that the
hoof was left in his hand. In the end he
was killed by the falling in of cave.
When his companions noticed that the
roof was falling, they left, but Polydamus
was 50 vain about his strength that he
thought no could not ho killed. so he
stad and was finally crushed to death
Tho Emperor Nitollius sent to Darius
by way of IL pr sent "A jew named Elcazcr,
who was CULTS high-that is, reckoning
the cubit at IS inches, 10 feet 6 inches
and giant V no is mentioned by the his
tOrian IactuS was over feet. His name
was Corhulo, and he lived in NcroS time
and was u more than usually skilliul gem
oral and soldier, besides being an cnor-
muuSly strong man. An account Of the
ancient giant; would be incomplete with
ont mentioning MaXiminus, the imperial
giant of the third century. The most eX-
traordinary $ 1rics are told of this emperor
of Rome. His height was feet 10 inches,
he could draw unaided a loaded wagon
which six oxen could not move, while his
appetite was 50 great that his usual rations
for tho day consisted Of 40 pounds Of meat
and a whole amphora Of wine, besides
bread and dried and fresh fruits
Medieval giants are plentiful, but,
strange to say, the records of them are
not 50 authentic rs those of the times Of
the einperors. Funnian u Scottish giant
who hour.hed in 1897, seems to he the
most authentic of these. but as he is put
down as being over II feet high tho statc-
p.
still more startling, however, is tho fol
lowing, which is NouchCd for by monaS-
terry fun Of monks: In 1909 some work
men, digging near Rouen, came across a
cave in which were some human bones
and u copper plate, bearing the words,
"Hcrc lie the remains of the great an!
mighty Chcvalct Ricon de Nallemont. -
The skull was large enough to have held
a bushel Of wheat and the shinhone was
over feet long. 1t Uhe honc) was pre-
served by thcaLuYc mentioned monks and
it was estimated that the height Of the de
funct knight must have exceeded Is feet.
A stranger, though somewhat similar,
legend comes from Ireland but in this
case tho discoveries thought that They
would, TO use an expression popular 20 or
30 years ago, go "tho whole hog or none.
1t happened in zoos. Some men were dig
gng in Ireland when they came across a
brick tomb which contained human
skeleton no les, than l20 feet long. But
there is n ''raiSon d'etrc' for all these leg
ends. According to IA German professor,
these bones, which were supposed by ig
norant persons to- be those of human be
ings, were probably those Of mastodons OF
some other fossililcd remains, which tc
the unnitiatcd would look exactly like
those of "A man. London standard