The ancients considered persons whose stature exceeded seven feet as gigantic. Living giants have certainly been seen who were somewhat taller ; but the existence of those who greatly surpassed it, or were double the height, has been inferred only from remains discovered in the earth, and not from the ocular testimony of credible witnesses. Were we to admit what has been reported on the subject, there would be no bounds to the dimensions of giants ; the earth would seem unsuitable for them to tread upon. Thus. Strabo speaks of the skeleton of a giant 60 cubics in length, found near a city in Africa now called Tangier ; and with out bestowing due reflection on the improbability of the fact, it is ascribed to Antxus, a reputed gigantic sovereign of Mauritania, whose lay existence is still more problema tical. The same observation will apply to another skele ton 46 cubits in length, alluded to by Pliny, which was ex posed by the overthrow of a mountain in Crete by an earth quake. In the year 758, during the darker ages, we arc told, that at a place called Totu in Bohemia, a skeleton was found whose head could scarcely be compassed by the arms of two men, and whose legs, which are said to have been kept a long time in the castle, were 26 feet long. Possibly this last measurement belongs to the entire skeleton rather than to a part of it. Simon Majolus relates, that in the year 1171, a skeleton 50 feet long was discovered in Eng land in consequence of a breach made by a river ; hut we arc not aware that his account, which is in these words, has any corroborative testimony. Longe ante Fulgosi secu turn, annis plus trecentis, anno scilicit 1 1 7 1 , in Anglia, illu vione fluminis rctectie aunt humati alma hominis ossa, adhuc ordine composita. Longitudo totius corporia inventa eat lorzga ad pcdes yuinquaginta. In the year 1516, the skele ton of a giant 30 feet high is reported to have been found near Mazarino in Sicily. The skull was as large as a hog shead, and each of the teeth weighed five ounces, which it may be remarked in passing, is not a tenth part as heavy as the reputed tooth of the gigantic king of Baslan. In the same island, other remains of a giant 30 feet high were dis covered in 1548, and two years afterwards, those of a third, whose height attained 33 feet. Instead of these being en tire skeletons, however, it is infinitely more probable that they were only detached fragments of bones, while conjec ture enlarged the wanting parts to the size which is ascribed to the whole body.
Florus, the Roman historian, in narrating a battle be tween Marius and the Teutones, at the foot of the Alps, describes the king of that people as of wonderful stature. Certe rex ipse Theutobochus, quaternos, senosque equos transire solitus, viz. union yuum fugerit, ascendit : proxi moque in saltu comprehensus insigne spectaculum triuntphi fuit,quippe vir proceritatis eximiic super trophrea ipsa enzine bat. The first part of the sentence is obscure, but the his torian in the rest apparently infers, that the stature of the captive king was such, that he could overlook the trophies exhibited at the triumph of the consul. In the year 1613, the French journals relate, that while some workmen were digging near the ruins of a castle in Dauphiny, in a field which had long bore the name of the Giant's Field, they discovered, at the depth of 18 feet, a brick sepulchre, 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, and eight deep, whereon was a grey stone, inscribed Theutobochus Rex. On opening the tomb,
a skeleton appeared, 25} feet long, 10 feet broad across the shoulders, and five feet deep from back to breast. Each of the teeth was the size of an ox's hoof, and the leg bones were four feet long. These bones continued to be exhibi ted for some time as the identical remains of the Teutonic king mentioned by Florus, and carried under that name through Flanders into England. A convent of Dominicans at Valence, in Dauphiny, lately had part of a human leg hone, and articulation of the knee, found near the banks of the stream Morderi, which they affirmed belonged to a cer tain tyrannical giant, Bucant, 22 feet high. He lived on a mountain, and was slain by one of his own vassals, the Count de Chatillon ; but to perpetuate his immense stature, the monks preserved a painting of him in Fresco. Rioland, a celebrated anatomist, is said to have written a specific ac count, in 1614, of the discovery of a tomb in the suburbs of St Germains at Paris, which contained the remains of Isoret, a giant, 20 feet in height. But we have understood that the same physician called in question the identity of the bones as being of a human subject, which were exhibited for those of the Teutonic king. It is recorded, that in the course of digging a ditch at Rouen, near the Dominican convent, in the year 1519, a tomb was found, with a plate of copper inscribed : « In this tomb lies the noble and puis sal,t lord, the Chevalier Ricon de Vallemont and his bones." The tomb contained a skeleton whose skull held a bushel of corn, and whose leg hone, about four feet long, reached up to the girdle of the tallest man in company. Platerus, a physician, declares, that at Lucerne he saw real human bones of a person who must have been 19 feet high ; and it is calculated, that in the preceding instance, the Cheva lier can have been scarce more than a foot shorter. A voyager to the Canary Islands speaks of the body of one of the ancient Guanchcss, in a cavern in the Peak of 'Pelle rifle, as being 15 feet long, and having a head of enormous dimensions. Several navigators to the Straits of Magel lan, both foreigners and Englishmen, affirm, that on ex amining graves at Port Desire, they found human skeletons ten or eleven feet in length, and on passing somewhat far ther to the westward, as appears, other bones, in no respect inferior, were discovered. We shall say nothing of the giants referred to by Olaus Magnus, who, independent of men, says that a woman was found who had been killed by a wound in the head, clothed in a purple cloak, 50 cubits in length, and four in breadth between the shoulders : Re perta est paella, in capite vulnerata, morta, induta chlanzyde puTpurea lorzgitudinis cubitorum quinquaginta, latitudinis inter humeros quatuor. But if we are to confide in his tory, here are examples of gigantic human remains, pro gressively decreasing from 60 cubits to 10 feet as the height of the living being. Whether the historians were competent judges of the fact they relate, is a different en quiry ; few, however, will hesitate to reject the gigantic skeleton spoken of by Strabo, ascribed to Antxus ; or that supposed to be the body of Orion, exposed by the disloca tion of the Cretan mountain. The existence of enormous giants is conjectured from nothing but their remains, and it is extremely doubtful if there be authentic accounts of any living giant having been seen, whose size exceeds the lowest term of the remains we have quoted.