Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-04
THE GIANTS OF OLD

THE GIANTS OF OLD
ANCIENT RACES MARvELs OF PHYS
lcAL DEVELOPMENT.
The Notwithstanding OF One Thousand
Years Ago Were All Remarkably
Proportioned Men The Giants of
Ancient Greece and Rome.
That the human race has degener-
ated In size as well as longevity is a
fact well attested by various authori-
ties. "A prominent washington physi-
clan 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 the
city's ancient grayeyards 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
Ute then In vogue and the physical
sports and exercises INDUCED in.
There are several races Of giants
mentioned In the Bible. and the Greek
and Roman historians have recorded
many examples which serve to show
that these specimens of elongated hu-
manly were by no means rare at one
period Of the worlds history.
Thus it is mentioned that the Emper-
or Maximian was eight feet some inch
es high. The body Of Orestes, accord
ing to the Greeks, was eleven and
half feet In height, the giant Galbora,
brought from Arabia to Rome under
Claudius Caesar, measured near ten
feet, and the bones Of Secondilla and
Pusio, keepers Of the gardens Of Sal
lust, were but six inches shorter.
The probability is that outside Of cul-
tivated Greece and Rome among the
semibarb OF the greater part Of
present day European nations physical
development reached often to more
wondrous proportions. HI @&Jyss ~
The Chevalier Scory In his voyage to
the peak Of Tenerife says that they
found In one of the sepulchral caverns
Of that mountain the head Of a
Guanche which had eighty teeth and
that the body was not less than fifteen
feet long. The giant Ferragus, slain
by Orlando, nephew of Charlemagne,
was eighteen feet high.
Revland, a celebrated anatomist who
wrote In 1914, says that some years
before that time there was to be seen
| In the suburbs Of ST. Germane the
tomb Of the giant Isoret, who was
twenty feet high. II,
At Rouen In 1909, in digging in the
bitches near the Dominicamo, there
was found stone tomb containing a
skeleton whose shin bone reached up
| to the girdle of the tallest man there,
| being about four feet long, and conse-
quently the body must have been sew
enteen or eighteen feet high. Upon the
tomb was plate Of copper upon which
| was engraved, Sin this tomb lies the
noble and puissant lord, the Chevalier
Ruon de Yallemont and his bones"
There Is, indeed, evidence In the pom
| derous armor and two handed swords
| which remain to us In museums to
prove that the knight of the ages of
chivlary was a heroic specimen Of hui
man architecture. 81. s. .&.s .ss..
| Patterns, famous physician, de-
clared that he saw at Lucarne the true
human bones Of q subject who must
have been at least nineteen feet high.
Valance, In Dauphine, boasts Of pos
sessing the bones Of the giant Bucart,
tyrant Of the Viyarais, who was slain
by an arrow by the Count de Cabillon,
his yassal. The Domtnicans had 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 17O5 near the banks OF
/ the Moderi, q little river at the foot Of
j the mountain Of Crnsol, upon which
tradition says the giant dwelt
On Jan. II, 1888, some masons dig
! cling near the ruins Of a castle in
Dauphine, in locality which had long
been known as the Giants field, at the
i depth Of eighteen feet discovered q
brick tomb thirty feet long, twelve
feet wide and eight feet high. on which
was a gray stone, with the words
i .aTheot obochus Rex cut thereon.
/ When the tomb was opened they found
/ q human skeleton, entire, twenty-five
/ and one-haif feet long, ten feet wide
across the shoulders and ave feet deep
! from the breastbone to the back. The
teeth were each about the size Of an
ox's foot, and his shin bone measured
four feet.
Near Margarine, In Sicily, ii 1915,
was found q giant thirty feet high.
His head was the size Of a hogshead,
and each Of his teeth weighed 1--WE
Il ounces.
Near Palermo, In the valley Of Ma
CARA, IN Sicily, skeleton Of giant
thirty feet long was found In the year
4 1648 and another THU three feet high
1 IN 1850 Several OF the gigantic bones
4 of the latter subject are still preserved
1 By private persons In Italy. 85s5.