BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 177 



already, (Book iv. 1 2 ; vi. 1 .) The thing itself would be thought 

 incredible, if we did not consider that in the very Middle of 

 the World, even in Sicily and Italy, there have been Nations of 

 such Monsters, as the Cyclopae and Lystrigonae : and also very 



sanias (in his " Atticks," quoted by Bishop Cumberland in his translation 

 of Sanchoniatho) says, that he saw in the Upper Lydia bones whose 

 figure would satisfy any man that they were men's bones, but their big- 

 ness was above the now known size of men. He also mentions the bones 

 of Asterius, in the neighbouring country of the Milesians ; giving the 

 dimensions of his body to be no less than ten cubits long, and that he 

 was the son of Anax ; a name singularly corresponding with a race men- 

 tioned by Moses, and the sight of whom terrified and humbled the Is- 

 raelitish spies. It is not a little strange, as Bishop Cumberland remarks, 

 quoting from Cicero " de Natura Deorum," that there is reason to believe, 

 one of the very ancient and gigantic persons known under the name of 

 Hercules had six fingers on each hand, as is also noticed of the last de- 

 scendants of this mighty race, in the second book of Samuel, c. xxi. The 

 tradition that such enormous people existed in the early ages of the 

 world is often referred to by Homer, and other ancient writers, who 

 drew from thence the erroneous conclusion, that the whole human race 

 had, since their day, become gradually weaker and more diminutive ; 

 whereas, in the only authentic history of these remote ages it is clearly 

 intimated, that this vast stature was limited to particular families or 

 nations, who even at that time were thought remarkable by all besides ; 

 and who were finally exterminated by their neighbours, perhaps as the 

 only resource against their violence. The Macrocephali, or long heads, 

 (mentioned b. vi. c. 4) may be supposed to have owed their peculiarity to 

 the habit of employing pressure to mould their heads in early infancy 

 into the compressed and elevated form, as is now practised by some tribes 

 on the continent of America ; and such as are mentioned with exceedingly 

 short necks may, perhaps, have been marked only with a personal de- 

 formity ; but the people with intensely black skin, to all of whom, how- 

 ever otherwise different, the ancients seem to have assigned indiscrimi- 

 nately the name of Ethiopians, are judged by Pliny to display a more 

 remarkable phenomenon than all the strange forms he has occasion to 

 notice ; as we also should probably do, if living instances had not ren- 

 dered it common. We may include in another section those singular 

 examples of the human race, which the author supposes to be comprised 

 in nations, but which are more probably reported as of rare or casual 

 occurrence, or perhaps nothing beyond an accidental monstrosity. Such 

 we know to be the case with the Albinoes, with white hair and tender 

 eyes ; and perhaps also the monoculous king, and the Arimaspians, who 

 are mentioned also by Herodotus, together with the other Cyclopaean 

 VOL. n. N 



