76 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, ( CEYLON BRANCH, ) 



doubtless extraordinary men, both in stature, valour 1 and 

 strength, like a Nimrod, a Nila, or a Porus. 2 That they 

 were great in stature we readily believe ; but that they 

 were three times taller than men are at present, to say the 

 least, has not been proved. That ct the mighty men of old" 

 were in stature greater than mankind of the present day, 

 may, moreover, be conceded on the ground that they were 

 also long-lived. But, when the average age of man came 

 down in round numbers to 100 years, that man generally re- 

 tained his abnormal stature cannot be easily credited. All 

 that can be safely predicated of such, is, that people of extra- 

 ordinary stature have appeared from time to time, like men 

 of extraordinary mental calibre. Not a single statement in 

 any book authorizes the conclusion that mankind were 

 altogether gigantic in stature after the date assigned to the 

 flood. If Goliath was ten feet seven inches high,3 Moses 

 was by no means of the extraordinary height which he 

 records. If, again, the ten warriors of Dutthagamini were 



1 Mahawanso calls them "warriors," p. 137. 



2 Arrian says that when Alexander saw Porus " he stopped his horse, 

 and was seized with admiration at his tallness, for he was above five 

 cubits." Five cubits are equal to about seven and half feet of our mea- 

 sure. Plutarch, p. 37, says, that, according to most authors, he was 

 reckoned to be four cubits and a hand's breadth ; but Raderus thinks that 

 his four cubits ought to be five ; because Eustathius in his notes to 

 Dionysius, ver. 1027, tells us, that many of the Indians were above, five 

 cubits .high. Curtius gives us no certain rule by which we may guess at 

 his stature, he only affirming, lib. viii., chap. 13, 7, "that Porus exceeded 

 the common height of men, and that his elephant as far surpassed the rest 

 of the elephants in bulk, as he did the rest of his army in strength and 

 stature." Diodorus, p. 559, adds, that "his body was so big, that his 

 breast-plate was twice the dimensions of the rest."— -See Arrian 's History 

 of Alexander, vol. ii,/>. 37. 



^3 1. Sam., xvii., 4. 



