ing Normans. It is
of Greek derivation, "gigas", or the Latin, "gigas." The Hebrew
parallel is "nophel," or plural, "nephilim."

Ancient Giants.--We are told in the Bible a that the bedstead of Og,
King of Basham, was 9 cubits long, which in English measure is 16 1/2
feet. Goliath of Gath, who was slain by David, stood 6 cubits and a
span tall--about 11 feet. The body of Orestes, according to the Greeks,
was 11 1/2 feet long. The mythical Titans, 45 in number, were a race of
Giants who warred against the Gods, and their descendants were the
Gigantes. The height attributed to these creatures was fabulous, and
they were supposed to heap up mountains to scale the sky and to help
them to wage their battles. Hercules, a man of incredible strength, but
who is said to have been not over 7 feet high, was dispatched against
the Gigantes.

Pliny describes Gabbaras, who was brought to Rome by Claudius Caesar
from Arabia and was between 9 and 10 feet in height, and adds that the
remains of Posio and Secundilla, found in the reign of Augustus Caesar
in the Sallustian Gardens, of which they were supposed to be the
guardians, measured 10 feet 3 inches each. In common with Augustine,
Pliny believed that the stature of man has degenerated, but from the
remains of the ancients so far discovered it would appear that the
modern stature is about the same as the ancient. The beautiful
alabaster sarcophagus discovered near Thebes in 1817 and now in Sir
John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London measures 9 feet 4
inches long. This unique example, the finest extant, is well worth
inspection by visitors in London.

Herodotus says the shoes of Perseus measured an equivalent of about 3
feet, English standard. Josephus tells of Eleazar, a Jew, among the
hostages sent by the King of Persia to Rome, who was nearly 11 feet
high. Saxo, the grammarian, mentions a giant 13 1/2 feet high and says
he had 12 companions who were double his height. Ferragus, the monster
supposed to have been slain by Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, was
said to have been nearly 11 feet high. It was said that there was a
giant living in the twelfth century under the rule of King Eugene II of
Scotland who was 11 1/2 feet high.

There are fabulous stories told of the Emperor Maximilian. Some
accounts say that he was between 8 1/2 and 9 feet high, and used his
wife's bracelet for a finger-ring, and that he ate 40 pounds of flesh a
day and drank six gallons of w