CURIOUS CREATURES. 33 



him. Take the Romances of Chivalry. Pacolet, and 

 all the dwarfs, were endowed with acute wits, and there 

 was very little they could not compass but the giants ! 

 their ultimate fate was always to be slain by some knight, 

 and their imprisoned knights and damsels set free. A 

 dwarf was a cleanly liver, but a giant was turbulent, 

 quarrelsome, lustful, and occasionally cannibal. Fe Fi 

 Fo Fum was the type of colossal man, and, as it is quite 

 a pleasure to whitewash their characters in these respects, 

 I hasten to do so before further discoursing on the sub- 

 ject of these great men. 



It is Olaus Magnus who thus tells us 



"Of the sobriety of Giants and Champions." 



" That most famous Writer of the Danish affairs, Saxo, 

 alleged before, and who shall be often alleged hereafter, 

 saith, that amongst other mighty strong men in the 

 North, who were as great as Giants, there was one 

 Starchaterus Thavestus, whose admirable and heroick 

 Vertues are so worthily extolled by him, that there were 



