~. Giants! 
Giants de- 
scribed in 
sacred writ. 
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260 ‘ 
under the same latitude, has decreased in any respect 
since the days of our original parents. ' 
Perliaps the discordant opinions on this subject are 
not’so irreconcileable as at first sight may appear ; and 
y carefully analysing all that has been recorded in his- 
‘tory, we shall find that individuals of gigantic stature 
‘have existed at different eras; and that at the present 
day, there are one or two tribés of South Americans, 
whose sizé considerably surpasses the dimensions 'com- 
monly‘allotted to mankind. But it is essential to be- 
ware of the exaggerations to which men have ever been 
prone; and not to allow our credulity to be imposed 
upon by what is utterly beyond bélief, from whatever 
source the narrative shall be received. 
In scripture it is related, at a period apparently con- 
temporary with Noah, or immediately antecedent to the 
flood,-«« that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, 
that they were fair, and they took them wives of all 
which they chose.” - Further, “ there were giants in 
the earth in those days, and also after that, when the 
sons of God came in unto the daughters of men: and 
‘they bare children to them, the same became mighty 
men which were of old, and, men of renown.” These 
passages, it is true, contain some obscurities ; but we do 
not conceive that they warrant the conclusion which 
certain critics have deduced, of this gigantic race being 
the offspring of divinities and human females. At He- 
bron, in Judea, there was a celebrated tribe of giants, 
the sons of Anak; and the spies sent out by Moses to 
reconnoitre the country, seem to have made. their ‘re- 
port in these words: “ And there we saw the giants, 
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we 
were in our own sight as grashoppers, and so we were 
in their sight.” Although only three individuals, Ahi- 
man, Sheshai, and ‘Talmai, are previously named as the 
children of Anak, it is elsewhere said,‘ it is a land 
which eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the peo- 
ple that are in-it ate’men of great stature.” Thus the 
context proves the correctness of the translation of this 
part of scripture ; and that the appellation giants is not 
the proper name of a particular tribe, or nation, or ty- 
rants, or evil doers, as commentators have inferred: 
Further, their history is continued, and Og, King of 
Bashan, in the same regions, is spécifically described; 
somewhat later, as the last of the race; as also; “ Ba- 
shan which was called the land of giants.” This king 
was encountered ‘and slain by Moses at the head of the 
Israelites, apparently at the gates of his own city ; and it 
is said, “for only Og, King of Bashan, remained of the 
yemnant of giants: behold his bedstead was a bedstead of 
iron: is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? 
nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the 
breadth of it, after the cubit of aman.” This extra: 
ordinary bedstead, therefore, must have been between 
14 and 16 feet long, and about 7 in breadth, aecording 
as the cubit'is taken, at 18 or 20 inches. ‘ The next 
giant of whom we read in scripture was Goliath; but 
before leaving the gigantic king of Bashan, we may re- 
mark, that a spacious cavern is said to have been found 
near Jerusalem some thousand years after his death, 
containing a grave or tomb, with an inseription in Chal. 
daic, Here lies the giant Og. A tooth weighing four 
pounds anda quarter was found in the tomb; ‘which, 
“being sent from Constantinople, was offered to the em- 
peror of Germany as a curiosity for 2000 rixdollars, in 
1678. ‘The emperor, however, being doubtfutrof the 
fact, ordered the tooth to be returned. . The stature of 
Goliath must have been considerably inferior to that of 
Og; but his corporeal strength is undoubted, on consi~ 
GiAaers. THD 
dering his weapons and armour. Cor ors con- 
clude that six cubits and a span, described to :be his ~ 
height, make about eleven feet, though we should be | 
iniclitien +6 reduce it to about ten at the utmost. He — 
was a professed warrior, and a champion of the Philis- 
tines ; “the staff of his spear was likea weaver’s beam, 
and his spear’s head weighed 600 shekels of iron.” « He 
was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the 
coat was 5000 shekels of brass.” No profane historyis ~*~ 
-equally explicit as scripture regarding a distinct race of 
giants of extraordinary size; and we have united the ; 
‘passages to be found concerning them, previous to de 
scending to a later date. © Toul) st estat 
_ The ancients considered persons whose stature ex+ G: 
ceeded seven feet as gigantic. | Living giants have cer- mai 
tainly 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 testi- 
mony 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 cubits in length, 
found near a city in Africa now called Tangier ; and 
without bestowing due.reflection on the im ility 
of the fact, it is ascribed to Anteus, a reputed 
‘sovereign of Mauritania, whose very existence is still 
more problematical, The same observation will apply 
to another skeleton 46 cubits in length, alluded to — 
Pliny, which was exposed by the overthrow of a moun- 
tain in Crete by an earthquake. \In the year 758, du- 
ring the darker ages, we are 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, thie 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 ra+ 
ther than to a part of it... Simon’ Majolus relates, that 
in the year 1171, a skeleton 50 feet long was discover- 
ed in England in consequence of a breach made by a 
river ; but we are not aware that his account, which is 
in these words, has ‘any corroborative testimony. Lon 
ge ante Fulgost seculum,annis plus lrecentis; vanno scilin 
cet 1171, in Anglia, illuvione fluminis rétectee sunt humati 
olim hominis ossa, adhuc ordine’ composita. Longitudo 
in ily. 
totius corporis inventa est longa ad $ 
In the aad 1516, the sialtkon Saint 30 
is reported to have: been found near ino i 
The skull was as’ large as RL EEL and each of 
teeth weighed five ounces, whi rio be remarked _ 
in passing, is not a tenth as hea “as the reputed 4 
tooth of the gigantic ‘king of Bashan. Ta 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 entire skeletons, however, it is infinitely more 
probable that they were only detached fragments of 
bones, mre conjecture enlarged the wanting parts to- 
the size which is ascribed to the whole bodys.) ¢) 
Florus, the, Roman: historian, in narrating a battle 
between Marius and the Teutones, at the foot of the 
Alps, describes the king of that people as of. € 
‘stature. Certe rex ipse Theitobochus, guatertios, se= + 
wet equos transire ae viz. unum quum fugerit, as- 
cendit: proximoque in saltu comprehensus insigne specta- 
culum triumphi hii, quippe vir proceritatis eximiee super 
trophwa ipsa eminebat.« ‘The first part of the sentence 
-is obscure, but the historian’ in 'the rest apparently in~ _ 
