56 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



fancy. In the generality of giants, the bones of the legs do 

 not enlarge in proportion : being unable, on this account, to 

 support the heavy weight of the body, the inferior extremities 

 become crooked and enfeebled*. It was thus that the legs of 

 the giant described by Haller were weak and mis-shapen ; and 

 those of our giant come under the same description. Not- 

 withstanding they are, comparatively speaking, small, his 

 feet may be brought in competition with those of Pedro Cano. 

 The total weight of his body is fourteen arrobas and a half, 

 or three hundred and sixty-two pounds. 



Basilio Huaylas, the Peruvian giant, is represented in Plate 

 III. As it would be difficult, from the singularity of his pro- 

 portions, to form any clear judgment of his size, without a 

 figure of comparison, a musician is introduced, holding a 

 harp, as pourtrayed in the original painting from which the 

 subje6ts are taken. 



One of the reasons which have been adduced, to throw 

 doubts on the existence of gigantic nations, is the want of the 

 produ6tions requisite to their support. To each individual an 

 apple would be a cherry, and a melon an apple. It would 

 therefore be necessary that they should possess the revenues 

 of the Emperor Maximinus, whose ordinary meal consisted of 

 forty pounds of meat, as many of bread, and thirty-six bottles 

 of wine ; and that the rest of the inhabitants of the earth 

 should be employed in administering to their insatiable appe- 

 tites, as happened to the countrymen of a certain glutton, 



* According to the calculation of Muschenbroeek, it is necessary that the growth 

 of the bones of a giant should be in a duplex ratio to the excess they have in length, 

 to preserve the same degree of force. See the introduction to the Natural History 

 of Man, by Daubenton. 



named 



