54 



thirty cubits high, mentioned by Philostratus and 

 other ancient writers ; as, for example, the ske- 

 leton of forty-six cubits, which, according to 

 Pliny, was found in the cavity of a mountain in 

 Crete, upon its overthrow by an earthquake ; the 

 skeleton, sixty cubits high, which Strabo says was 

 found near Tangis in Mauritania, and supposed 

 to be that of Antaeus ; the skeleton of Asterias, 

 son of Anastes ten cubits ; and also that of Or- 

 estes, seven cubits, dug up by special command 

 of the oracle. 



Against all these alleged proofs, however, of 

 the existence in former times of giants, it is suf- 

 ficient shortly to observe, that the Egyptian 

 mummies of three thousand years' standing, ex- 

 hibit no difference in stature from men of the 

 present day ; that most of the ancient sarcophagi 

 which have been preserved, are of the ordinary 

 size of modern coffins ; and, that we read that 

 the Emperor Augustus was considered by the 

 Romans as a person of middle stature, and his 

 height is recorded to have been five feet nine 

 inches of our measure. 



The testimony also of some modern authors on 

 this subject is altogether vague and unworthy of 

 credit. Demaillet speaks of a giant whose hand 

 was four feet long ; and a celebrated traveller 

 tells us that the guards at the gates of the city of 

 Pekin are fifteen feet in height ! but a being of 

 this height, and muscular in proportion,, would 

 require a world of density different from ours be- 

 fore his strength could be available, and it is very 



