36 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



Legends About Giants. 



As illustrating the difficulties which students of 

 science had to contend with, I may here refer to 

 another curious but deeply-rooted notion that long 

 prevailed regarding certain fossils. Accepting as 

 certain the ordinary interpretation of the Hebrew 

 word nephilim, D''*>' > Q5< in Genesis, vi, 4, as mean- 

 ing giants, or persons of extraordinary stature, and 

 taking as literal the mythical or exaggerated ac- 

 counts of giants who were reputed to. have lived 

 in the early ages of the world, the discoverers of 

 large fossil bones had no hesitation in pronouncing 

 them the remains of some one or other great giant 

 of legendary lore. 



Greek and Roman authors, no less than German, 

 French and English writers at a much later period, 

 give us very detailed descriptions of the remains of 

 giants discovered in various quarters of the earth. 

 The bones found in one place, were, it was asserted, 

 those of Antaeus or Orestes, those in another, of 

 the giant Og, King of Bashan, while those of still 

 another locality were identified as the skeleton of 

 the famous Teutobocchus, king of the Teutons and 

 Cimbri, who was defeated by the Roman general, 

 Marius. According to the accounts which have 

 come down to us, the teeth of these giants each 

 weighed several pounds and were in some instances 

 as much as a foot long, while the estimated stature 

 of others of the giants whose remains are described 

 was no less than sixty cubits. Later investigators, 

 however, had no difficulty in showing that the sup- 

 posed teeth of giants were nothing other than the 



