We know little of the causes which occasion the excessive development or the' arrested growth on which the production of giants and dwarfs depends. Bishop Berke ley* is said to have attempted with considerable success to manufacture a giant. He took a poor orphan, named Magrath, and reared him on certain hygienic principles (Virey conjectures that he fed him with mucilaginous foods and drinks, but nothing seems known on this point), which were so far successful that, at the age of 16, he was 7 ft. in height, and that at the time of his death, which occurred, with all the symptoms of old age, at the age of 20, he was 7 ft. 8 hi. high. If food in this case did really pro duce a giant, why cannot our farmers be as successful as the bishop? They can only produce fatty monstrosities, not giants. f.
Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire devotes a special section of his book to " the causes of dwarf ism," but he only arrives at the general conclusion, that in these cases there is an obstacle to the proper nutrition and development of the foetus; that this obstacle may be due either to something wrong in the maternal organism, or more commonly to some disease affecting the foetus itself; and that this disease is usually radials or rickets.
Arythological Giants and Dwarfs.—Giants play a part in the mythologyof almost all nations of Aryan descent. The Greeks, who represented them as beings of monstrous size, with hideous countenances, and having the tails of dragons, placed their abode in volcanic districts, whither they were fabled to have been banished after their unsuccessful Lttempt upon heaven, when the gods, with the assistance of Hercules, imprisoned them under. 2Etna and other volcanoes. Their reputed origin, like the places of their abode, points to the idea of the mysterious electrical and volcanic convulsions of nature, which they obviously typify; • and, in accordance with this view, they are said to have been of mingled heavenly and earthly descent, and to have sprung from the blood that fell from the slain Ouranos upon the earth, Ge, which was their mother. In the cosmogony of the northern nations, giants occupy a far more important place than the Greeks assigned to them, for here the first created being was the giant Ymir, called also " Aurgelmir," or " the ancient Chaos," the progenitor of the frost-giants (Hrinithursar), among whom dwelt the All-Father before the creation of heaven and earth. The mode of origin of Ymir was as follows: In the beginning of time a world existed in the north, called Nifiheim, in which was a well, Hvergelmir, from whence issued a poisonous stream which hard ened into ice, the accumulation of which formed the northern part of Ginnung,agap, or abyss of abysses, whose southern extremity was radiant with the heat and light which emanated from another world, known as " Muspelheim." The meeting of heat and ice produced drops, which, through the agency of the same creative power (the All-Father) which had sent them forth, received life and a human form. This was Ymir, who was nourished from four streams of milk, which flowed from the cow Audhumla, or the nourishing-power, which had been created by Surt, the guardian watch of Nuspellieim. While Ymir slept, a man and woman grew from under his left arm, and a son was pro duced from his feet. In course of time, other beings were generated from the salt and frost-covered stones which the cow Audhumla licked, and from these were born three brothers, Odin, Vili, and Ve, who were gods, and who, having slain Ymir, and dragged. him out into the middle of Ginnungagap, formed from his blood the sea and all waters, and from his huge body heaven aner earth and all solid things in nature.
With Ymir perished all the frost-giants except Bergelmir, who, with his wile, escaped on a chest or drum, and became the father of the new giant dynasty of the J6tuns. The gods formed, however, of the eyebrows of Ymir, a wall of defense against these giants, who thenceforward dwelt in JOtunheim, beyond the boundaries of the ocean, which encircled Midgard, the future abode of the sons of men. The 2Esir or gods lived in
their own city, Asgard, themselves with works of industry till they were cor rupted by the gianteSs who came to them from Jotunheim, when the golden age ceased, and discord arose among the gods. At the instigation of the maidens from Ji5tunbeim, the gods created dwarfs and men; the former from the maggots generated within the body of Ymir, and the latter from trees; and from this time the giants gradually lost their power, under the united opposition of gods and men. In the popular belief, com mon in all countries, that through the agency of giants mountains and islands have arisen, and rocks and mountains have been hurled from their original sites, we trace the ideal personification of the forces of nature, which, after long periods of inert repose, exhibit sudden and uncontrollable outbursts of violence: thus giants were represented as good-humored and complacent when at rest, but implacable, savage, and treacherous when excited; while they were at all times impressed with a consciousness that, not withstanding their huge bulk, and the excess of heads and arms with which many of them were gifted, they were but stupid monsters, unable to cope with the ready wit and keen intelligence of divine or even human beings, to whom they believed it was the decree of fate that they must ultimately succumb. In this respect, the giants typify the heathen element in its conflict with Christianity, and northern sagas are rife with the histories of gigantic, wild, and cruel races, known as T Itursar (Goth. thaursjan, to thirst, or janar ; Anglo-Saxon etan, to eat), who ate and drank voraciously, and sub dued all things to their sway, until there came from the far east a people, who knew and worshiped the god of the universe under the name of the "All-Father," and who, by their greater skill, overcame the savage giants of the north, and compelled them to withdraw more and more into the recesses of the forests and mountains, whence they only emerged from time to time in the form of mountain trolls and giants.
The dwarfs who figure in the Edelas as cunning and crafty elves, skilled in magic and In the working of metals, are conjectured to have been a race of Oriental Lapps, who immigrated into Sweden and Norway later than the Finns, who were the descendants 'of the giants, and therefore the oldest of the races that now occupy the Scandinavian peninsula. When considered under the broadest signification of the term, dwarfs (Goth. dcairgs, which Grimm conjectures may be identical with the Greek theourgos, one who -does supernatural works) typify the transition from inorganic to organic nature, and thus personify the subordinate powers of nature; and under this idea they are represented as assisting men by combining the primary ores into new mineral bodies, and fostering the development of fruits and seeds. Considered from this point of view, they occupy -an intermediate position between giants and men; and while they fear both, they incline to serve the latter at the expense of the former, and thus appear under the form of beneficent elves (q.v.), fairies, and brownies (q.v.). During the latter part of the middle ages, when the traditionary folk-lore of western Europe was being supplanted by the literature of the monks, which consisted mainly of legends of saints, the devil and the fallen angels took the place, in the minds of the illiterate, that had hitherto been occu pied by giants and dwarfs; and the various supernatural feats of strength which had in earlier ages been ascribed to these imaginary beings, were attributed to Satan and his attendant spirits, or iu some cases to the saints of the church.—See Grimm's Deutsche Mythologic, Thorpe's Northern Mythology, Grundtvig's Nordens Mythologic, and Peter sen's Nordisk Mythologic.