78 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



Roman camp at St. Alban's was only eight feet high. 1 

 A Swede, once in the Prussian army, was found eight and- 

 a-half feet high. Charles Byrne, or O'Brien, an Irishman, 

 whose skeleton is in the Museum of the College of 

 Surgeons, London, was eight feet four inches high when 

 alive. 2 



Now, there is no satisfactory evidence to shew that 

 Gotama exceeded in height, any of the above persons. 

 Nor, on the other hand, can we believe that he was of the 

 height of the " many" Indians, whom Arrian describes as 

 having been "little less than five cubits high;" for, he is 

 unquestionably represented in the Buddhist canonical 

 works, as we shall hereafter shew, as an ordinary man of 

 his age ; and Arrian himself records that "five cubits" was 

 such ati extraordinary stature, that Alexander the Great 

 " was seized with admiration" (amazement?) at the tallness 

 of Porus (for he was above five cubits high), as well as at 

 his beauty, and the justness of the proportion of his body." 



The maximum age to which people lived in the times of 

 Gotama was in round numbers one century ; 3 and it is the 

 same that is assigned in Buddhist works to men of the 

 present day. The fact is indeed undoubted, that he had not 

 attained the age of a Mathusela, or that of any other ante- 

 deluvian, or other ancient personage mentioned in Buddhist 

 works ; or much less the age of Henry Jenkins of Yorkshire, 

 who was 157 years old at his death in 1670. 4 For, Gotama 

 died in the " fulness of time," when he was only " four- 

 score " years of age; and it must be borne in mind that the 



1 Philosophical Trans.. No. 333. 



2 Penny Cyclopedia. 



3 See Parinibbdna Sutta, translated by Tumour in the Bengal Asiatic 

 Society's Journal. 



4 See Lardner's Annual Physics, p, 693. 



