q8 *fhe Statural Hi jlory 



vorer of the ftorics of Giants, yet tells us of one that lived a- 

 bout 150 years fince at Burdeaux in Aquitan, commonly called the 

 Giant of Burdeaux, whom Francis the firft, King of France, paf- 

 fing that way, beheld with admiration, and gave efpecial com- 

 mand that he (hould be of his Guard : but he being a Peafant of 

 a narrow foul, and not pleafed with a Courtiers life, quitted his 

 Halbard, and got away by Health to the place whence he came : 

 Of whom the laid Cajfanio was avTured by an Honorable Perfon, 

 who had feenhim Archer of the Guard, that he was of fo great 

 a height, that a Man of an ordinary ftature might go upright 

 between his legs when he did ftride. And Thuanm f treating of 

 an Invafion made by the Tartars upon the Polanders, in the Year 

 1575. tells us of a Tartar flain by one Jacobus Niezabilovius a 

 Polander, whofe fore-head was 24 inches broad, and his body 

 of fo prodigious a bulk, that as he lay dead on the ground, his 

 carcafs reached to the navel of a perfon (landing by him. 



172. Geropw Becanus g , Phyfitian to the Lady Mary, lifter to 

 the Emperor Charles the Fifth, Queen of Hungary and Regent 

 of the Netherlands, aifuresus, That there dwelt a perfon within 

 five miles of him ten foot high, and that himfelf faw a Woman 

 of the fame height. The talleft that I have yet feen in our days, 

 was alfo a Woman of a Dutch extraction, (hewn publickly here at 

 Oxford, feven foot and a half high, with all her Limbs propor- 

 tionable : when (he ftretch'd forth her arm, Men of ordinary fta- 

 ture might walk under it ; and her hand, from the carpus or wrift 

 where it is joined to the radius of the arm, to the end of the 

 middle finger, was full ten inches long. A ftature, 'tis true, 

 much fhortof any of the afore-mentioned, and indeed I believe 

 it will be hard to meet with their fellows in thefe parts of the 

 World, where Luxury has crept in, together with Civility : Yet 

 if we look abroad amongft the prefent barbarous Nations of both 

 Indies, where they live ftill according to Nature, and do not 

 debauch her with the fenfual Delights of the more civilized 

 World, we (hall find (if the Relations either of Fnglijh or Ho!-, 

 landers be of any credit) that there are now men and women ad- 

 equate to them in ftature ; feveral having been feen, efpccially a- 

 boutthe Straights of Magellan, of ten : and one near the River 

 of Plateby Tho. Turner, 12 foot high. 



I Joe. KAug. Thuani Hift. Tom. 3. lib. 61 . 1 De Gigantomwkt*. 



173. whence 



