Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-05-12
THE GIANTS OF OLD
ANCIENT RACES MARveLs OF PHYS.
lCAL DEVELOPMENT.
The Seminar bnrinns OF One Thousand
Years Ago Were All Remarkably
ProDortfOned Men-The Giants of
Ancient Greece md Rome

Years Ago Were All Hcmar k n bly,
Proportioned Men-The Giants OF
Ancient Greece md Rome.
That the human race has degener.
atcd in size as well rs longevity Is a
fact well attested by various authorl-
ties. y prominent Washington physi.
elan WHO has made life study Of
brain and cerebral developments, says
that. on visiting the catacombs of Par
Is, what struck him most in those vast
repositories Of the contents of tho
city's ancient graveyards was the
great size of the skulls in comparison
with those OF more modern mankind.
This superiority Of development In the
men who lived 1000 years or more ago
the scientist attributes to the open air
life then In vogue and the physical
sports and exercises INDUCED In.
There are several races Of giants
mentioned in the Bible, and the Greek
md Roman historians have recorded
many examples which serve TO show
that these specimens of elongated hui
manity were by no mems rnre at one
period of the worlds history.
Thus 1t Is mentioned that the Empcr-
or AIaXimian was eight feet some inch
es high. The body of Orestes. accord
ing to the Greeks, was eleven and n
half feet In height, the giant GalborR,
brought from Arabia to Rome under
Cluulius Caesar, measured near ten
feet, and the bones of Secondllla and
Pusio, keepers Of tho gardens of Sal
lust. were but six inches shorter.
The probability is that outside Of cul-
tivnted Greece and Rome among the
semIharbar0us of the greater part Of
present day European nations physical
development reached often to moro
wondrons proportions.
The Chevalier Scory in his voyage to
the peak OF Tenerifc says that they
found In one Of the sepulchral caverns
Of that mountain the hend OF n
Guanche which had eighty teeth and
that the body was not less than fifteen
feet long. The giant Fcrrngus. slain
by Orlando. nephew Of Charlemagne,
was eighteen feet high.
Revland. n celebrated anatomlst who
wrote In lGIl, says that some years
before that time there was to be seen
III iut SubulbS VI 81. lud
tomb of the giant Isoret, who was
twenty feet high.
Al Rouen IN 1909. In digging In the
bitches near the DomnicaIno, there
was found Il stone tomb containing q
skeleton whose shin bone reached up
to The yir,llr Of the tnllest man there,
beng about four feet long. aud conse-
quGntly the body must have been sew.
entcen or eighteen feet high. Upon tho
tomb was plate Of copper upon which
was engraved. "In this tomb lies the
noble ana puissant lord. the Chevaller
Ruon de Eallemont. and his bones
There is. indeed. evidence in the pom.
derous armor and two handed swords
which remain To us In museums to
prove TINT the knight OF the ages Of
chivlary was II heroic specimen Of hu-
man architecture.
Platerlns. n famous physician, de-
elared that lie saw Mt Lucarne the true
human bones OF Il subject who must
have been nj least nineteen feet high.
Valance. III Dauphlne, boasts OF pos.
scssing tho bones Of the giant Bucart,
tyrant OF the Nivnrnls. who was slain
by an arrow by the Count de CahIllon,
his vassal. The pomincans had Il part
of his shin bone. with the articulation
of the knee. and his figure painted In
fresco, with an inscription showing
that this giant was twenty-five and
one-half feet high and that his bones
were found In 100 nenr the banks OF
the Moderi, little river at the foot OF
Tie mountain Of CrusOi. upon which
tradition says, the giant dwelt
On Jan. II, 1888. some masons dig
cling nenr the ruins OF castle In
Danphine, In n locality which had long
been known as the Giants field, at the
depth OF eighteen feet discovered a
brick tomb thirty feet long, twelve
feet wide and eight feet high. on which
was gray stone with the words
"Theotobochus Rex" cut thereon.
When the tomb was opened they found
! human skeleton, entire, twenty. five
and one-hnlf feet long, ton feet wide
across the shoulders and five feet deep
from the breastbone to the bnck. The
teeth were each about the size Of an
ox's foot, and his shin bone mea sured
four feet.
| Near Margarine. In Sicily, in 1915,
was found giant thirty feet high.
His head was the size Of hogshead,
! and each Of his teeth weighed Ave
ounces.
Near Palermo. in the valley OF Ma.
CARA. I'm Sicily, II skeleton of giant
thirty feet long was found IN the year
1913 and another thirty-three feet high
In 1850. Several of the gigantic bones
Of the latter subject are still preserved
by private persons in Italy.
The Athenians found thIrty-two IN.
nous skeletons. one thirtyfour and
another thirty-sl1 feet III height
| tx, nol, --o