Thing's blog: "Life is I am People are..."

Indiana Giants 1879, some Indiana archaeologists dug into an ancient burial mound at Brewersville, Indiana, and unearthed a human skeleton that measured nine feet eight inches in length. A mica necklace still hung around the giant's neck. The bones, which were stored in a grain mill, were swept away in the 1937 flood.26 In 1925, several amateurs digging in an Indian mound at Walkerton, Indiana, uncovered the skeletons of eight very ancient humans measuring in height from eight to almost nine feet. All eight giants had been buried in “substantial copper armor.” (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Karankawas (See Mississippi and Texas Giants) Lompock Rancho Giant (See Graveyards of the Giants) Melius, Angelina Angelina Melius, a good-looking American giantess almost seven feet tall, arrived in England about 1821. On her exhibition tour there she was accompanied by her two-foot-two-inch page, Senor Don Santiago de los Santos of Manilla.27 (See Chang Woo Gow; Giants and Dwarfs) Mexico's Giants About 1542, within months of De Soto's and Coronado's expeditions, five-year-old Fray Diego Duran moved with his family to Mexico. He thus grew up among the central Mexican Indians and later served as a missionary to them. While living here, he several times came in contact with giant Indians. Of these encounters, he later wrote: "It cannot be denied that there have been giants in this country. I can affirm this as an eyewitness, for I have met men of monstrous stature here. I believe that there are many in Mexico who will remember, as I do, a giant Indian who appeared in a procession of the feast of Corpus Christi. He appeared dressed in yellow silk and a halberd at his shoulder and a helmet on his head. And he was all of three feet taller than the others."28 Spending his childhood in Texcoco gave Duran a unique opportunity to learn firsthand a great deal about the Aztecs and to become acquainted with early Mexican culture. Fortunately for us, he made the most of it. Because of his long and close association with these Indians, he became a recognized authority on their language, customs, and preColumbian history. For that reason, most scholars regard Duran's work as of "extraordinary importance." In his seventy-eight chapters, he details the history of Mexico from its origins down to the conquest and complete subjection of the country by the Spaniards. In gathering his information, Duran used a great number of pre-Hispanic, picture-writing manuscripts, which had to be explained to him by Indians well-trained in interpreting native hieroglyphics. During his thirty-two years among the Aztecs, he also interviewed many old Indians knowledgeable in the ancient ways and traditions of their people. From all these sources he learned about the giants. Bernardino de Sahagun and Joseph de Acosta, two other notable historians of about the same period, also knew about a tribe of giants who once occupied central Mexico, but Duran's book offers us the best and most complete account. Duran writes that, according to the Aztecs, the giants and a bestial people of average size once had this land all to themselves. Then, in A.D. 902, six tribes of people from Teocolhuacan (also called Aztlan, i.e., "Land of Herons"), which "is found toward the north and near the region of La Florida," began arriving in Mexico. They soon took possession of the country. These six kindred tribes included the Xochimilca, the Chalca, the Tecpanec, the Colhua, the Tlalhuica, and the Tlaxcalans. A seventh tribe, the Aztecs, were brothers to these people, but they "came to live here three hundred and one years after the arrival of the others." When these six tribes had settled, Duran continues, "they recorded in their painted books the type of land and kind of people they found here. These books show two types of people, one from the west of the snow-covered mountains toward Mexico, and the other on the east, where Puebla and Cholula are found. Those from the first region were Chichimecs and the people from Puebla and Cholula were 'The Giants,' the Quiname, which means 'men of great stature.' "The few Chichimecs on the side of Mexico were brutal, savage men, and they were called Chichimecs because they were hunters. They lived among the peaks and in the harshest places of the mountain where they led a bestial existence. They had no human organization but hunted food like the beasts of the same mountain, and went stark naked without any covering on their private parts.... When the new nations came, these savage people showed no resistance or anger, but rather awe. They fled towards the hills, hiding themselves there.... The newly arrived people seeing, then, that the land was left unoccupied, chose at will the best places to live in. "The other people who were found in Tlaxcala and Cholula and Huexotzinco are said to have been 'Giants.' These were enraged at the coming of the invaders and tried to defend their land. I do not have a very true account of this, and therefore will not attempt to tell the story that the natives told me even though it was long and worth hearing, of the battles that the Cholultecs fought with the Giants until they killed them or drove them from the country. "These Giants lived no less bestially than the Chichimecs, as they had abominable customs and ate raw meat from the hunt. In certain places of that region enormous bones of the Giants have been found, which I myself have seen dug up at the foot of cliffs many times. These Giants flung themselves from precipices while fleeing from the Cholultecs and were killed. The Cholultecs had been extremely cruel to the Giants, harassing them, pursuing them from hill to hill, from valley to valley, until they were destroyed. "Even if we detain the reader a little, I should like to tell the manner in which the people of Cholula and Tlaxcala annihilated that evil nation. This was done by treason and deceit. They pretended to want peace with the Giants, and after having assured them of their good will they invited them to a great banquet. An ambush was then prepared. Some men slyly robbed the guests of their shields, clubs, and swords. The Cholultecs then appeared and attacked. The Giants tried to defend themselves, and, as they could not find their weapons, it is said that they tore branches from the trees with the same ease as one cuts a turnip, and in this way defended themselves valiantly. But finally all were killed."29 Bernardino de Sahagun, who arrived in the Americas in 1523 and became the foremost authority in his time on the pre-conquest Aztec culture, mentions in his twelve-volume history on central Mexico that the "giants" of Quinametin were Toltecs and that they built both Teotihuacan and Cholula.30 In his History of the Indies, Joseph de Acosta tells a story of the giants very similar to Duran's, but he also adds this eyewitness account: "When I was in Mexico, in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred eighty six, they found one of those giants buried in one of our farms, which we call Jesus del Monte, of whom they brought a tooth to be seen, which (without augmenting) was as big as the fist of a man; and, according to this, all the rest was proportionable, which I saw and admired at his deformed greatness."31 (See Barranc de Cobre Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants; also see Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants) Mississippi and Texas Giants In 1519, a year before Magellan discovered the Patagonians, Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda encountered some giants on the banks of the Mississippi River, not far from where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Sent to search for a strait across Florida, Pineda came first upon the northern gulf coast, reconnoitered it, then sailed south, coasting the western shore of Florida until he reached its southern tip. Finding the peninsula offered no strait, he then retraced his course. Landing at strategic places along the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and even down to Tampico in Mexico, Pineda made maps and notes of the rivers and bays, established landmarks, and took possession of all these lands in his king's name. That done, he sailed back to the mouth of the Mississippi River. There he "found a large town, and on both sides of its banks, for a distance of six leagues up its course, some forty native villages." These Indians proved friendly, so he remained here forty days while his crew careened their four ships and made necessary repairs. In his report on the country, Pineda noted that it provided the natives with an abundance of food, that many of its rivers contained so much gold that they commonly wore it as ornaments in their ears and noses, around their necks, and over other parts of the body, and that there lived on the banks of this river "a race of giants from ten to eleven palms in height."32 On his return from Tampico to the Mississippi, Pineda also, unknowingly, sailed right past a tribe of equally huge Texas Indians. For historian Woodbury Lowery, along with several others, places "the giant Karankawas" nation around Matagorda Bay at that time.33 In a report on the Karankawas, John R. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, describes the men as being "very tall and well formed.... Their hair was unusually coarse, and worn so long by many of the men that it reached to the waist. Agriculture was not practised by these Indians, their food supply being obtained from the waters, the chase, and wild plants, and, to a limited extent, human flesh; for, like most of the tribes of the Texas coast, they were cannibals. Travel among them was almost wholly by the canoe, or dugout, for they seldom left the coast. Head-flattening and tattooing were practised to a considerable extent. Little is known in regard to their tribal government, further than that they had civil and war chiefs, the former being hereditary in the male line."34 The first positive notice of them, adds Swanton, is found in the accounts of La Salle's disastrous visit to this area.35 They also later engaged in a fierce battle with Lafitte and his band of pirates, who had abducted one of their women. But the Karankawas proved no match for the buccaneers, who, having superior arms and firepower, inflicted heavy casualties upon them and forced them to retreat. When Stephen Austin built his settlement on the Brazos in 1823, the tribe began to decline. "Conflicts between the settlers and the Indians were frequent," says the ethnologist, "and finally a battle was fought in which about half the tribe were slain, the other portion fleeing for refuge to La Bahia." By 1840, the Karankawas had been reduced to about one hundred souls living on Lavaca Bay.36 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Corona-do's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Montana's Giants In 1903, on an archaeological outing at Fish Creek, Montana, Professor S. Farr and his group of Princeton University students came across several burial mounds. Choosing one to dig in, they unearthed the skeleton of a man about nine feet long. Next to him lay the bones of a woman, who had been almost as tall.37 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Narvaez and the Giants (See Florida Giants) Ohio Giants Nature, in its December 17,1891, issue, reported that at a depth of fourteen feet in a large Ohio burial mound excavators found the skeleton of a massive man in copper armor. He wore a copper cap, while copper moldings encased his jaws. Copper armor also protected his arms, chest, and stomach. A necklace made of bear's teeth and inlaid with pearls decorated his neck. At his side lay the skeleton of a woman, probably his wife.38 In the 1860s, some excavators digging in a hill in Marion, Ohio, uncovered thirty skeletons who also ranged in height from seven to eight feet.39 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) San Francisco Giants When Sir Francis Drake dropped anchor in a small bay just north of modern San Francisco, the Indian natives, who had never seen a white man before, took the Englishmen to be gods. Francis Fletcher, Drake's chronicler of the voyage, says the king, "a man of large body and good aspect," even set his own crown--a headdress of feathers--on Drake's head and pleaded with him to exercise dominion over the land. He also describes these Indians as a tall people with herculean strength. "Yet are the men commonly so strong of body," he writes, "that that which two or three of our men could hardly bear, one of them would take upon his back, and without grudging carry it easily away, up hill and down hill an English mile together."40 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; Sen Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Patagonia's "Big-feet" Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) When Sir Francis Drake dropped anchor in a small bay just north of modern San Francisco, the Indian natives, who had never seen a white man before, took the Englishmen to be gods. Francis Fletcher, Drake's chronicler of the voyage, says the king, "a man of large body and good aspect," even set his own crown--a headdress of feathers--on Drake's head and pleaded with him to exercise dominion over the land. He also describes these Indians as a tall people with herculean strength. "Yet are the men commonly so strong of body," he writes, "that that which two or three of our men could hardly bear, one of them would take upon his back, and without grudging carry it easily away, up hill and down hill an English mile together."41 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; Sen Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Patagonia's "Big-feet" Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Seri Giants When his army reached the province of Senora, Coronado dispatched some men to the coast to search for the supply ships. The party sighted no ships, but they did return with a friendly Indian who stood so tall as to astonish the Spaniards. In his history, Pedro de Castaneda, a member of the expedition, mentions this event in these words: "Don Rodrigo Maldonado, who was captain of those who went in search of the ships, did not find them, but he brought back with him an Indian so large and tall that the best man in the army reached only to his chest. It was said that other Indians were even taller on the coast."42 This giant evidently belonged to the Seri, a great tribe of Indians who occupied the island of Tiburon and the adjacent Sonora coast on the Gulf of California. (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) South Carolina Giantess The after-classes moonlighting of a young South Carolina giantess attending an English boarding school caught the attention of the British press. In the September 5, 1826, issue of the Public Ledger, a reporter gave this account of her: "We yesterday visited the tall young lady, who is now exhibiting as a giantess, at Bourke's dancing rooms, Change-alley, Cornhill. She stands about seven feet high without her shoes; but with the aid of them, and a most lofty plume of feathers, her visitors would imagine her to be at least eight feet high. She is not only pleasing in her countenance, but extremely well made and proportioned. She is only 18 years of age; and, having all the advantages of a fine person, would be no bad match for the celebrated Monsieur Louis, the French giant.... Her manners are extremely pleasing, and indeed her whole demeanour, instead of embarrassing, commands respect in the spectator. She is a native of South Carolina, and has been for the last four years at a boarding-school in England. From the number of black servants that are continually running about her, persons passing through King's Arms-passage imagine her to be a native of India. She is, indeed, well worth being seen."43 (See Frenz, Louis) Swan, Anna Haining Born at Mill Brook, Nova Scotia, in 1846, Anna Haining Swan joined P. T. Barnum's gallery of wonders in the early 1860s and became the best known giantess of her day. Barnum proclaimed that his four male giants stood above eight feet and advertised Miss Swan's height as seven feet eleven inches. However, according to Dr. A. P. Beach, her physician when she lived at Seville, she only measured seven feet nine inches. One of thirteen children born to Scottish immigrants Alexander and Ann Swan, Anna grew so rapidly that at age six she already stood as tall as her mother. By age sixteen she towered seven feet high and had many curious people following her through the streets. Barnum, in his autobiography, recounts that he "first heard of her through a Quaker who came into my office one day and told me of a wonderful girl, 17 years of age, who resided near him at Pictou, Nova Scotia, and who was probably the tallest girl in the world. "I asked him to obtain her exact height. He did and sent it to me, and I at once sent an agent who in due time came back with Anna Swan. "She was an intelligent and by no means ill-looking girl, and during the long period she was in my employe she was visited by thousands of persons."44 In February, 1864, Barnum took his American Museum to New York where crowds flocked to see the curiosities. But on July 13, 1865, fire broke out in the museum and spread so quickly that the giantess barely escaped. Rescuers found Miss Swan at the top of the stairway "in a swooning condition from the smoke." Because of her great size, it took eighteen men using a block and tackle to remove her from the burning building. The blaze reportedly cost her every-thing she owned except the clothes on her back. Her trunk, which the fire destroyed, contained $1,200 in gold plus a sizable amount of "greenbacks." Anna Swan towers over her sister Maggie, who visited the Bates at their farm near Medina, Ohio (Courtesy Medina County Historical Society) In 1870, Miss Swan met Captain Martin Van Buren Bates from Letcher County, Kentucky, when the two giants joined Judge H. P. Ingalls' company for a tour of Europe. The next year, following their presentation to Queen Victoria, they were married in London's historic St-Martin-in-the-Fields church. After a grand tour of England and Scotland, the couple returned to the States and bought a farm near Seville, Ohio. The giantess gave birth to two "abnormally large" children, but both soon died. In 1888, tuberculosis claimed her own life. In its obituary, the Seville Times described Anna Swan as a learned woman who "at an early age developed an inquiring mind" and a thirst for knowledge. "Even when independent of the resources of her native home," the newspaper added, "she continued her habits of study; she had thus acquired a breadth of information and a facility of expression which made her very interesting as a companion and conversationalist.... Her knowledge of the world was wide and varied, a fact which in no small degree added to her ability to entertain and instruct." (See Bates, Captain Martin Van Buren; also see McAskill, Angus, another famous giant from Nova Scotia) Tennessee Giants (See Graveyards of the Giants) Texas Giants The long-haired "giant Karankawas," who occupied a large territory around Matagorda Bay on the Texas gulf coast, engraved their bodies with many tattoos and occasionally ate human flesh. The tribe thrived until Stephen Austin built his settlement on the Brazos in 1823. Conflicts between the settlers and the Indians then became frequent, writes John R. Swanton, "and finally a battle was fought in which about half the tribe were slain, the other portion fleeing for refuge to La Bahia."45 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Tlaxcala's Giants Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who served in the army of Hernan Cortes during his conquest of Mexico and later wrote an "exceptionally accurate and reliable" narrative of that brilliant campaign, recounts that in 1519, after the Spaniards defeated the Mexican city-state of Tlaxcala, the Tlaxcatecs became Cortes' most faithfulally. While relating to the Latins something about their history, the Tlaxcatecs mentioned that a race of enormous size had once inhabited their land. "They said their ancestors had told them that very tall men and women with huge bones had once dwelt among them," continues Diaz, "but because they were a very bad people with wicked customs they had fought against them and killed them, and those of them who remained had died off. And to show us how big these giants had been they brought us the leg-bone of one, which was very thick and the height of an ordinary-sized man, and that was a leg-bone from the hip to the knee. I measured myself against it, and it was as tall as I am, though I am of a reasonable height. They brought other pieces of bone of the same kind, but they were all rotten and eaten away by the soil. We were all astonished by the sight of these bones and felt certain there must have been giants in that land."46 (See Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; also see Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Serf Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants) Tuscaloosa On his march through Alabama, De Soto courteously detained the giant cacique Tuscaloosa--as a precaution against attack. As suzerain over many caciques, Tuscaloosa ruled a wide territory that included most of modern Alabama and Mississippi. According to Garcilaso de la Vega, who accompanied De Soto, the chief stood a half-yard taller than his tallest men. Accompanied by the haughty chief and his equally gigantic eighteen-year-old son, as hostages, De Soto's party crossed the state with the loss of only two men. But at Mobile the Castilians were surprised by a well-planned ambush--which ended in disaster for Tuscaloosa's braves. (See Arizona Giant; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) West Giantess In 1833, a seven-foot giantess from North America appeared in Crockett's show at London's Bartholomew Fair under the name of Miss West.47 Yuman Giants Upon reaching the mouth of the Colorado River, Hernando de Alarcon's three ships dropped anchor, while his exploratory party launched two boats against the river's furious current. On this historic first voyage up the Colorado River the Europeans came across the giant-like Yuman peoples who lived along its banks. Pedro de Castaneda, who accompanied Coronado on this expedition and wrote the most complete and factual history of it, described them as "large and well formed, without being corpulent. Some have their noses pierced, and from them hang pendants, while others wear shells. . . . All of them, big and little, wear a multi-colored sash about the waist; and tied in the middle, a round bundle of feathers hanging down like a tail.... Their bodies are branded by fire; their hair is banged in front, but in the back it hangs to the waist."48 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) References 1 Roy Norvill, Giants: The Vanished Race of Mighty Men (Welling-borough, Northamptonshire: The Aquarian Press, 1979), p. 82. 2 Norvill, Giants: The Vanished Race, p. 84. 3 Captain Bates' actual height is uncertain. Some claim that for show purposes he added a couple of inches. 4 Guinness Book of World Records (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1990), p. 344 5 Lanier, A Book of Giants, p. 307. 6 Lee Cavin, There Were Giants on the Earth (Seville, OH: Seville Chronicle, publisher, 1959), p. 11. 7 Frank Edwards, Stranger Than Science (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1959), p. 129. 8 Castaneda, "Expedition of Coronado," p. 301. 9 Ibid. 10 Herbert Eugene Bolton, Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains (New York and Albuquerque: McGraw-Hill Co., and The University of New Mexico Press, 1949), p. 157. 11 No reference given. 12 Miguel Albornoz, Hernando De Soto: Knight of the Americas (New York: Franklin Watts, 1986), p. 289. 13 Ibid., p. 295. 14 Alvaro Fernandez, "Expedition of Hernando De Soto," in Spanish Explorers, ed. Hodge and Lewis (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1959), p. 186. Though Fernandez does not say so, Tuscaloosa's son evidently made this eloquent speech before De Soto in Indian sign language 15 Garcilaso de la Vega, The Florida of the Inca, ed. John and Jeanette Varner (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1951), p. 349. 16 Fernandez, "Expedition of Hernando De Soto," p. 188. 17 Modern Mobile is not located exactly on the same site. 18 Some historians believe the territory referred to here comprised the northern part of Leon and Jefferson counties, a land of many lakes. They think Apalachen was located on Lake Miccosukee. 19 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, "Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca," Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1959), pp. 28-29. 20 Ibid., pp. 31-32. 21 Information Sheet No. 3, Hunterian Museum, London. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, pp. 222-223. 25 These were located about two inches above the eyebrows. 26 Mysteries of the Unexplained (Pleasantville, NY: The Reader's Digest Association, 1983), p. 40. 27 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 209. 28 Fray Diego Duran, The Aztecs (New York: Orion Press, 1964), pp. 5-6. The manuscript lay for nearly three centuries in the National Library of Madrid. The first of three volumes from it was first published in 1867, under the title History of New Spain. Mexico's Giants 29 Ibid., pp. 9-12. 30 Ibid., note, p. 332. Also see "Mexico and Central America" in the Nar-rative and Critical History of America, Vol. I, Justin Winsor, editor (New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1889), p. 39, note, p. 141. 31 Joseph de Acosta, History of the Indies, Vol. II, translated by Edward Grimston (New York: Burt Franklin, publisher, 1970), pp. 453-454. 32 Woodbury Lowery, The Spanish Settlements (New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1959), pp. 149-150. Webster's Dictionary defines a palm used as a unit of measurement to range from seven to ten inches. 33 Ibid., p. 64. Matagorda Bay is located about one hundred miles below modern-day Galveston. 34 Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1, edited by Frederick Webb Hodge (New York: Rowan & Littlefield, publishers, 1971), pp. 657-658. 35 The Clamcoets, who massacred all but five of the people LaSalle left at the fort he built on Matagorda Bay, are identified with the Karankawa. The massacre took place in 1687. 36 Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1, p. 657. 37 Norvill, Giants: The Vanished Race, pp. 82-83. 38 Mysteries of the Unexplained (Pleasantville, NY: The Reader's Digest Association, 1983), p. 40. 39 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 230. 40 Francis Fletcher, The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1966), p. 72. 41 Ibid. 42 Castaneda, "Expedition of Coronado," p. 301. 43 Ibid., pp. 215-216. 44 Cavin, Giants on the Earth, p. 6. 45 Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1, pp. 657-658. 46 Wood, Giants and Dwarfs, p. 220. 47 Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain, translated by J. M. Cohen (New York: Penguin Books, 1963), p. 181. 48 Bolton, Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains, pp. 158-159.

Alvarez and the Giants (See Mississippi and Texas Giants) Arizona Giant In 1891, at Crittenden, Arizona, some workers digging the foundation for a new building struck at a depth of eight feet a huge stone sarcophagus. When they were able to open the lid, they saw inside the remains of a nine-foot giant which time had reduced mostly to a pile of dust.1 Barranc de Cobre Giants While searching a cave near the great canyon of Barranc de Cobre in northern Mexico in the early 1930s, explorer Paxton Hayes came across thirty-four mummified men and women. All had blond hair. All once rose to heights between seven and eight feet.2 (See Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants; also see Arizona Giant; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Sen Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants) Bates, Captain Martin Van Buren When the War Between the States broke out, Martin Van Buren Bates left Emma Henry College in Virginia to enlist as a private in the Fifth Kentucky Infantry. Although only sixteen at the time, he already stood a little above six-feet tall. Apparently the youngster conducted himself well on the battlefield, for over the next couple years he received several promotions, the last as a captain in the Seventh Confederate Cavalry. CAPTAIN MARTIN BATES and ANNA SWAN, the world's tallest couple of record, posed for this picture with friend Lei McFarland. (Courtesy Medina County Historical Society)4 But all through the war, and for several years afterward, Captain Bates kept growing. By his own account, he finally stopped in his twenty-eighth year, after having reached a height of seven feet and eight inches and a weight of four hundred and seventy pounds.3 After the war, the Whitesburg, Kentucky, giant earned his living by exhibiting himself in the United States and Canada. In 1870, Judge H. P. Ingalls, a well-known promoter, asked him to come to Elizabeth, New Jersey, and join a company he was organizing to tour Europe. There his eyes beheld Anna Haining Swan, a seven-foot, eleven-inch Scottish lass from Nova Scotia, and a courtship began. In April, 1871, Judge Ingalls' company sailed for England. The two enormous sweethearts became an instant hit with the British public, and on June 2, Queen Victoria commanded their appearance at Buckingham Palace. Two weeks later, on June 17, the former Confederate captain and his fiancee, attired in her white satin gown with orange blossoms, spoke their vows before a large crowd in London's historic St.-Martin-in-the-Fields church. Wedding presents from Queen Victoria included a cluster diamond ring for the bride and a watch and chain for the groom. The wedding made world headlines and put the Bates in the record books as history's tallest known married couple.5 After a brief honeymoon, the couple returned to London where they gave a private reception for the Prince of Wales, who invited them to be his guests at Marlborough House. They appeared a second time before the Queen, at Windsor, then set out on a tour of the provincial towns in England and Scotland. Upon their return to the States, the Bates decided to take a vacation tour of the West and Midwest, then buy a farm and settle down. While in Ohio, they passed through Seville. That country appealed to them, so Captain Bates purchased one hundred and thirty acres of good farm land near the town and drew plans for a house big enough to accommodate giants. "The house he built on that farm... astounded visitors of ordinary size for 70 years," writes Lee Cavin. "It had 14-foot ceilings in the principal wing. The doors were 8 feet high. The furniture was built to order. Captain Bates delighted in seeing normal-size people dwarfed in his house, saying, 'Seeing our guests make use of it recalls most forcibly the good Dean Swift's traveler in the land of Brobdingnag.6 "In 1878,1879, and 1880," continues Cavin, "the giant couple returned to the road as members of the W. W. Cole Circus. This circus, founded in 1871, was noted because it was the first to play many western towns. Its special train was close on the heels of railroad construction throughout the area. The reasons for the return to the road of the couple should be familiar ones to anyone who has built a new home. According to Seville contemporaries, the cost of the giant house exceeded expectations." Mrs. Bates bore the Captain two children. During the second year of their British tour, an eighteen-pound daughter died at birth. In the winter of 1879, after a difficult delivery, she gave birth to a twenty-three pound boy that measured thirty inches in length. How-ever, the child died the next day. In 1888, after years of declining health, Anna Swan Bates also died. The Seville Times devoted three columns to her obituary. About a dozen years later, Captain Bates married Lavonne Weatherby, a daughter of the pastor of the Seville Baptist Church, which he and his first wife had long attended. The new Mrs. Bates stood just over five feet tall. Seville's most famous resident lived seventy-four years, but in January, 1919, he finally yielded to a lingering illness. (Also see Swan, Anna Raining) California Giants In 1833, some soldiers digging a pit at Lompock Rancho, California, unearthed a twelve-foot giant with a double row of teeth, both uppers and lowers.7 The Lompock giant's teeth, while unusual, were not unique. For another ancient skeleton later found on Santa Rosa Island off the California coast showed the same dental peculiarity. Also, in 1888, in a burial mound near Clearwater, Minnesota, seven skeletons, with skulls containing double rows of teeth, were dug up, but they were not giants. (See Arizona Giant; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Colorado River Giants (See Coronado's Giant Discoveries) Copafi When Hernando De Soto reached the territory of the Apalachee around Tallahassee, Copafi, that tribe's cacique, insolently refused to meet with him. To avoid playing a subservient role, the chief, described as "a man of monstrous proportions," fled into the woods. De Soto and some of his men pursued and captured the giant and brought him in. (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Serf Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Coronado's Giant Discoveries Across the continent, at the same time that De Soto was blazing his famous trail, an expedition led by Coronado searched for the fabulously rich "Seven Cities of Cibola." Near Mexico's present-day border with California and Arizona they ran into several tribes of Indian giants. Starting out from Mexico City with some three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred native Indians, the Coronado expedition marched west to the Pacific Ocean. Then turning north-ward, they ascended the coast through regions that later became known as Sinaloa and Sonora. While this march was underway, Hemando de Alarcon set sail with two ships up the coast, transporting the baggage and supplies for the soldiers. The original plan called for Alarcon and the army to keep in frequent touch and to rendezvous at suitable harbors along the coast. So when the army reached the province of Senora, a force under Don Rodrigo Maldonado set out to find the harbor and scan the horizon for Alarcon's ships. Maldonado sighted no ships, but he did return with an Indian who stood so tall as to astonish the Spaniards. Pedro de Castaneda, who accompanied Coronado and later wrote the most complete and factual history of the expedition, records this unusual event as follows: "Don Rodrigo Maldonado, who was captain of those who went in search of the ships, did not find them, but he brought back with him an Indian so large and tall that the best man in the army reached only to his chest. It was said that other Indians were even taller on the coast."8 This giant evidently belonged to the Seri. This great Indian tribe occupied the island of Tiburon and the adjacent Sonora coast on the Gulf of California. Historians testify to their tall stature. Soon after this, while still trying to establish contact with Alarcon, Captain Melchior Diaz came across another tribe of giants. Taking twenty-five of his "most efficient men" and some guides, Diaz struck out toward the north and west in search of the seacoast and the ships. "After going about 150 leagues," reports Castaneda, "they came to a province of exceedingly tall and strong men--like giants " Evidently, these were the Cocopa, a Yuman tribe. According to Castaneda, these huge Indians went about mostly naked. "They . . . live," he adds, "in large straw cabins built underground like smoke houses, with only the straw roof above ground. They enter these at one end and come out at the other. More than a hundred persons, old and young, sleep in one cabin. When they carry anything, they can take a load of more than three or four hundredweight on their heads. Once when our men wished to fetch a log for the fire, and six men were unable to carry it, one of these Indians is reported to have come and raised it in his arms, put it on his head alone, and carried it very easily." (For a similar feat, see San Francisco Giants) While among these Cocopas, the captain learned that ships had been seen at a point three days down toward the sea. But when Diaz' finally reached this place, he saw no sign of a sail, even to the distant horizon. On a tree near the shore, however, his party found this written message: "Alarcon reached this place; there are letters at the foot of this tree." Diaz dug up the letters and learned from them how long Alarcon had waited for news of the army and that he had gone back with the ships to New Spain, i.e., Mexico.9 But on his way back Alarcon changed his mind--and thus became the discoverer of the Colorado River giants. Sailing into the port of Culiacan, he came unexpectedly upon the San Gabriel, loaded with provisions for Coronado. This chance meeting with the San Gabriel probably figured in Alarc6n's decision to resume efforts to locate the explorer's party. At any rate, he added this third ship to his fleet and continued up the coast. They sailed the Gulf of California until they entered the shallows near the head of the gulf. After hazarding the murky shoals there and almost losing all three ships, he and his crew reached the mouth of the Colorado River. Dropping anchor here, Alarcon and his exploratory party launched two boats against the river's furious current. "Thus began," writes historian Herbert Eugene Bolton, "the historic first voyage by Europeans up the Colorado River among the tall Yuman peoples who lived along its banks on either side."10 A piece up the river Alarcon and his men came upon their first settlement. About two hundred and fifty giant Cocopa warriors stood on the banks, ready to attack them. But the captain, by making signs of peace and offering gifts, won them over. Further upstream more than a thousand giant Indians appeared with bows and arrows, but Alarcon knew they intended them no harm because their women and children accompanied them. These Cocopas he described as "large and well formed, without being corpulent. Some have their noses pierced, and from them hang pendants, while others wear shells. . . . All of them, big and little, wear a multi-colored sash about the waist; and tied in the middle, a round bundle of feathers hanging down like a tail.... Their bodies are branded by fire; their hair is banged in front, but in the back it hangs to the waist." The women, meanwhile, "go about naked, except that, tied in front and behind, they wear large bunches of feathers."11 (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) De Soto's Encounters with Giants In 1539, probably while the survivors of Narvaez' crew were making their way across the country, another Spanish explorer, Hernando De Soto, sailed nine ships into Tampa Bay. There he put ashore six hundred lancers, targeteers, cross-bowmen, and harque-busiers, along with two hundred and thirteen horses. As they ventured inland, the first Indians they encountered were friendly Timucuans. While some of their leaders were giants, most of these people stood, on average, only a foot taller than the explorers. Their vast territory extended from Tampa Bay north to the present Jacksonville area and west to the Aucilla River, which runs along the eastern border of modern Jefferson County and empties into the gulf. As De Soto marched through the various Indian provinces, he met with their caciques. It was his custom after these conferences to courteously "detain" the cacique and some of his nobles--as a precaution against attack. He also required them to furnish him with porters. The Indians' reaction to this policy varied. After some reluctance, the cacique of Ocala, "an Indian of enormous size and amazing strength,"12 finally agreed to become De Soto's "guest." Vitacucho, the cacique in the neighboring province of Caliquin (present-day Alachua County), consented only after his daughter chanced to fell into De Soto's hands. But even while being detained, Vitacucho and his tall warriors secretly managed two serious uprisings. Copafi, the cacique of the Apalachee around Tallahassee, described as "a man of monstrous proportions,"13 refused even to meet with De Soto, but a party led by the governor himself finally captured the giant and brought him in. After wintering at Ambaica Apalachee, the Spanish explorers crossed over into Georgia. But there they received a kindly reception, with the nation of the Creeks greeting them everywhere in a warm, friendly manner. The several other caciques who guided them through the Carolinas and into Tennessee were, for the most part, also friendly, and even those who may have been offended by the governor's invitation to accompany him offered no serious objection. So all went well--until De Soto's company reached the borders of the giant cacique Tuscaloosa. As suzerain over many caciques, he ruled a wide territory that included most of modern Alabama and Mississippi. Though proud and haughty, Tuscaloosa sent an embassy headed by his huge son to greet and welcome De Soto and his men. Tuscaloosa's heir apparent, who, at eighteen years, already stood as tall as his father, came to De Soto while he stayed at Tallise, a large Indian town located on the bank of a great river. The young giant delivered to the governor the following communication from Tuscaloosa: "The grand cacique of Tuscaloosa, my master, sends me to salute you. He bids me say, that he is told how all, not without reason, are led captive by your perfection and power; that wheresoever lies your path you receive gifts and obedience, which he knows are all your due; and that he longs to see you as much as he could desire for the continuance of life. Thus, he sends me to offer you his person, his lands, his subjects; to say, that wheresoever it shall please you to go through his territories, you will find service and obedience, friendship and peace. In requital of this wish to serve you, he asks that you so far favor him as to say when you will come; for that the sooner you do so, the greater will be the obligation, and to him the earlier pleasure."14 Dismissing the cacique of Coca, who had accompanied him to Tuscaloosa's borders, De Soto set out to meet with Tuscaloosa. Early on the morning of the third day, the governor, his master of the camp, and fifteen cavalrymen entered the village where he was quartered. Having heard daily reports from his scouts on De Soto's progress, the Indian chieftain was prepared to receive them in state. As they rode in, they saw Tuscaloosa stationed on a high place, seated on a mat. Around him stood one hundred of his noblemen, all dressed in richly colored mantles and plumes. Tuscaloosa appeared to be about forty years old. His physical measurements, writes Garcilaso de la Vega, who accompanied De Soto, "were like those of his son, for both were more than a half-yard taller than all the others. He appeared to be a giant, or rather was one, and his limbs and face were in proportion to the height of his body. His countenance was handsome, and he wore a look of severity, yet a look which well revealed his ferocity and grandeur of spirit. His shoulders conformed to his height, and his waistline measured just a little more than two-thirds of a yard. His arms and legs were straight and well formed and were in proper proportion to the rest of his body. In sum he was the tallest and most handsomely shaped Indian that the Castilians saw during all their travels."15 As the cavaliers and officers of the camp who preceded De Soto rode forward and arranged themselves in his presence, Tuscaloosa took not the slightest notice of them, even as they made their horses curvet and caracole as they passed. Determined to excite his at ten-ti on, some spurred their horses up to his very feet, to which "he, with great gravity, and seemingly with indifference, now and then would raise his eyes, and look on as in contempt."16 He made no move to rise even when De Soto approached. So the governor took him by the hand, and they walked together to the piazza. There they sat on a bench and talked for several minutes. Two days later De Soto decided to resume his journey toward Mobile.17 He also decided to take Tuscaloosa with him. On these marches the cacique in custody always rode alongside the governor. So De Soto ordered a horse for Tuscaloosa. But owing to the cacique's huge size and great weight, not even the largest horse they brought forward was able to bear him. At last, a pack horse accustomed to heavy burdens proved strong enough to carry the chief. But when he mounted Tuscaloosa's feet almost touched the ground. This description accords with Garcilaso de la Vega's statement that the chief stood a half-yard taller than the tallest men around him. Though no one recorded Tuscaloosa's actual size, these two measurements give us some idea of his height. If these descriptions are accurate, then we cannot err too much in estimating his stature at about eight feet. Even while they were on the trail to Mobile, De Soto's party encountered an ominous sign of what awaited them. Two soldiers turned up missing. The Spaniards suspected that the Indians caught the two men some distance from camp and killed them. When De Soto questioned Tuscaloosa about their whereabouts, the cacique testily replied that the Indians were not the white men's keepers. Vigilance was now increased, and the governor dispatched two of his best men to Mobile under the pretext of making arrangements for provisions. Four days later, as the Spaniards approached the town, the scouts rode out to De Soto and reported that many Indians had gathered inside and that some preparations had been made. They then suggested the army camp in the woods nearby. Unfortunately, the doughty De Soto refused to heed his scouts' advice. While the army waited, the governor with his small party approached the town and its high walls. Just then a welcoming committee of painted warriors, clad in robes of skins and head-pieces with many feathers of very brilliant colors, came out to greet them. A group of young Indian maidens followed, dancing and singing to music played on rude instruments. The governor entered the town with Tuscaloosa, his son, and the cacique's entourage. Seven or eight men of his own guard plus four cavalrymen also accompanied him. They seated themselves in a piazza. From here, De Soto saw that there were only about eighty houses, but several of them large enough to hold one thousand to fifteen hundred people. Unknown to him, more than two thousand Indian warriors now stood in concealment behind these walls, waiting. After some of the chief men from the town joined him, Tuscaloosa withdrew a short distance from De Soto. With a severe look, he warned the governor and his party to leave at once. In attempting to regain custody of the chief, a tussle between a Spaniard and an Indian ignited an all-out war. Under a hail of arrows, De Soto and most of his men retreated from the village. The governor then ordered the town besieged. After a time, the Spaniards gained entry, set fire to the buildings, and conducted a massacre. According to Alvaro Fernandez, about two thousand five hundred Indians died that day, while only eighteen Spaniards fell. Among the Indian dead was Tuscaloosa's giant son and heir apparent. Tuscaloosa himself escaped. At the start of the battle, some of his chiefs, wanting to protect his life for the good of their nation, persuaded him to flee Mobile. Tuscaloosa reluctantly agreed, departing with twenty brave bodyguards soon after the battle began. (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) De Vaca and the Giants (See Florida Giants) Florida Giants In 1528, or almost ten years after Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda's discovery of giants on the Mississippi River, the ill-fated explorer Panfilo de Narvaez put three hundred men ashore at Tampa Bay. His mission was to search the Florida mainland for its riches, while his five ships sailed just off the coast. Only Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and three companions survived this expedition. Afterward they crossed the North American continent from shore to shore, becoming the first white men to do so. In his history, Cabeza de Vaca mentions some giant Florida Indians who attacked the Narvaez party. "When we came in view of Apalachen," he writes, "the Governor ordered that I should take nine cavalry with fifty infantry and enter the town.18 Accordingly the assessor and I assailed it; and having got in, we found only women and boys there, the men being absent; however these returned to its support, after a little time, while we were walking about, and began discharging arrows at us. They killed the horse of the assessor, and at last taking to flight, they left us.... The town consisted of forty small houses, made low, and set up in sheltered places because of the frequent storms. The material was thatch. They were surrounded by very dense woods, large groves and many bodies of fresh water. . . Two hours after our arrival at Apalachen, the Indians who had fled from there came in peace to us, asking for their women and children, whom we released; but the detention of a cacique [the Indians' chief] by the Governor produced great excitement, in consequence of which they returned for battle early the next day, and attacked us with such promptness and alacrity that they succeeded in setting fire to the houses in which we were."19 After twenty-five days, Narvaez' army departed Apalachen. But a short while later, as they attempted to cross a large lake, they came under heavy attack from many giant Indians concealed behind trees. "Some of our men were wounded in this conflict, for whom the good armor they wore did not avail," continues Cabeza de Vaca. 'There were those this day who swore that they had seen two red oaks, each the thickness of the lower part of the leg, pierced through from side to side by arrows; and this is not so much to be wondered at, considering the power and skill with which the Indians are able to project them. I myself saw an arrow that had entered the butt of an elm to the depth of a span.... The Indians we had so far seen in Florida are all archers. They go naked, are large of body, and appear at a distance like giants. They are of admirable proportions, very spare and of great activity and strength. The bows they use are as thick as the arm, of eleven or twelve palms in length, which will discharge at two hundred paces with so great precision that they miss nothing."20 Harassments by these Indian giants continued. So Narvaez decided to head south for the gulf coast and escape by the sea. Arriving there after much hardship, he and his men constructed five crude boats, in order to search along the coast for a Spanish settlement. Unfortunately, a sudden, fierce storm caught them some distance from land. The high winds drove all the boats, with all their men aboard, far out to sea. All were subsequently lost except Cabeza de Vaca and three companions who managed to reach the shore. They walked across Texas and northern Mexico, finally reaching the Pacific coast where they linked up with Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in 1541. (See Arizona Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Horned Giants; Indiana Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; San Francisco Giants; Serf Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants; also see Barranc de Cobre Giants; Mexico's Giants; Quiname; Tlaxcala's Giants) Freeman, Charles Michigan-born Charles Freeman could lift fifteen hundred-weight, and "could throw an astounding number of somersaults in succession and run and jump like a deer."21 But he knew almost nothing about professional boxing. After gazing upon his seven-foot, six-inch frame and witnessing his feats of great strength and agility, one-time British prize-fighter champion Ben Caunt decided that did not matter. He envisioned great things for Freeman in the ring and persuaded the young man to return with him to London. Before leaving, Caunt tipped the New York press. The writers, of course, pounced on the story. They built Freeman up, giving him a fictitious record, while the editors caught their readers' attention with headlines proclaiming that the huge American was crossing the Atlantic to lay claim to the "Championship of the World." On December 14,1842, near Sawbridgeworth, Freeman fought seventy rounds with William Perry, known as "The Tipton Slasher," but the bout "was adjourned due to darkness falling." Six days later they resumed the match, "but Perry fell before receiving a blow and was disqualified."22 Freeman gave up boxing for the stage. In early 1843, he appeared at the Olympia Theatre in The Son of the Desert and Demon Changeling, a piece written expressly for him. He also did a stint with the circus. "His great circus performance," according to a Hunterian Museum report, "was to ride two horses at a time, galloping around the arena, with his arms above his head balancing a man."23 Perhaps to make ends meet, he later became a barman at the Lion and Ball tavern in Red Lion Street, Holborn. The giant barman excited the Lion and Ball's regular crowd and attracted many new patrons, who got to see him for only the price of a whiskey. Either Freeman or one of his promoters penned the following poetic invitation to the British public to visit him: You need not unto Hyde Park go, For without imposition, Smith's Bar Man is, and no mistake, The true Great Exhibition. The proudest noble in the land, Despite caprice and whim, Though looking down on all the world, Must fain look up to him. His rest can never be disturbed By chanticleer in song, For though he early goes to bed, He sleeps so very long. Though you may boast a many friends, Look in and stand a pot; You'll make a new acquaintanceship, The longest you have got. Then come and see the Giant Youth, Give Edward Smith a call, Remember in Red Lion-street, The Lion and the Ball. Liquors of a Giant's Strength.24 (See Toller, James) Horned Giants Pursuit, in its July, 1973, issue, reported that in the 1880s, while digging in a mound at Sayre in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, a reputable group of antiquarians found skeletons of humans measuring not only above seven feet tall but having skulls with horns.25 The diggers, which included two professors and Pennsylvania's state historian, turned what they found over to the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia, but the bones were afterward misplaced, stolen, or lost. A story about the horned skulls appeared in a Reader's Digest book, Mysteries of the Unexplained. (See Ariels; Origin of the Giants--Biblical Account; also see Arizona Giants; Barranc de Cobre Giants; California Giants; Cocopa Giants; Copafi; Coronado's Giant Discoveries; De Soto's Encounters with Giants; Florida Giants; Graveyards of the Giants; Indiana Giants; Mexico's Giants; Mississippi and Texas Giants; Montana's Giants; Ocala; Ohio Giants; Quiname; San Francisco Giants; Seri Giants; Tlaxcala's Giants; Tuscaloosa; Yuman Giants)

August 13, 2003 When the Whites arrived, Western New York was littered with the works of earlier people. Stone walls, graded roads, and fortifications were reported, though most commonly these markers were earthen mounds or enclosures. The Native Americans seldom had any tradition about the people who had put them in place. Most of us now believe that the influence of the Mississippian (Mound-Builder) culture was behind them. The settlement and the plow have been lethal to most of these fragile works, and even the old mound-fanatic E. G. Squier confessed ruefully in 1849 that the Western Door held little any more worth looking at. (read more) As these works were destroyed in the last century a stablefull of curiosities seems to have come out. T. Apoleon Cheney notes (in Illustrations of the Ancient Monuments of Western New York) that a twelve-foot high elliptical mound above Cattaraugus County’s Conewango Valley held eight big skeletons. Most crumbled, but a thigh bone was found to be 28” long. Exquisite stone points, enamelwork, and jewelry (like that of Mexico or Peru) were also unearthed in the area. The mound looked like those of the Old World. Cheney also mentions a skeleton seven-foot-five (with an unusually thick skull) from a Chautauqua County site near Cassadaga Creek. Inside a very old mound near Cassadaga Lake were some large skeletons that were examined by medical gentlemen.” One measured nearly nine feet. (In 1938 Charles Hunnington of Randolph was so inspired by Doc Cheney’s finds that he made two giant “wooden Indian” statues, probably still at the museum in Little Valley.) The History of Cattaraugus County notes the town of Carrollton’s “Fort Limestone,” whose rough figure-eight enclosed five acres. In 1851 the removal of a stump turned up a mass of human bones. Some were enormous. Franklinville’s Marvin Older virtually gamboled about the site with them: a skull fit over his size seven-and-a-half head; a rib curved all the way around him, a shinbone went from his ankle to above his knee, and a jaw - with bodacious molars - went over his own. Its first owner had probably stood eight feet tall. Stafford Cleveland’s History and Directory of Yates County refers to skeletons from a conical burial mound by Keuka Lake in the early 1800’s. A Penn Yan doctor found that many were seven footers. (Tales of ghosts and buried treasure cling to this vicinity as well.) Turner’s History of the Holland Purchase reports an ancient three-acre earth fort in Orleans county (about one and a half miles west of Shelby Center) that covered seven- and eight-foot skeletons. Their skulls were well developed in front, broad between the ears, and flattened on top. Also, Turner notes that, upon digging a cellar on his town of Aurora farm, Charles P. Pierson found a giant of his own. The 1879 History of Allegany County noted a circular mound between Philip’s Creek and the Genesee in the village of Belmont. Several feet high and fifteen or so in diameter, it disgorged human bones, some very large, when the railroad was made in 1849 and 1850. Giant human skeletons don’t ring any bells with us. Some think the Scandinavians were in Western New York, and they were considered virtual giants in the ancient world (whose people were traditionally much shorter than those now). Many Vikings would seem tall even today, but they were not routinely seven-footers. Not all the humanlike skeletons found about the Western Door were so surely human. Several old histories discuss the two very bizarre skulls taken in the early 1820’s from a mound on Tonawanda Island near Buffalo. One early writer notes each "portentous, protruding lower jaw and canine forehead." Another adds that the burial customs were entirely unlike those of the region’s natives. Our County and Its People (Truman C. White, 1898) mentions skeletons that seem to have been "platycnemic" - flat-shinned. In the bluff at Fort Porter (Buffalo) one such skeleton was found near ancient implements. Burials of up to three such skeletons have been found high up on river or lake banks about the region. Their flat shins and "other skeletal peculiarities" were thought due to climbing and living in trees. These are odd stories to make up. In nature’s evident experiments toward Homo sapiens, some of the discontinued models were very large (Gigantopithecus comes to mind); none are thought to have set foot or dragged knuckle on any American soil. Jess Stearn (in Montezuma’s Serpent) cites finds from the American southwest implying some giant, bestial hominid was here. Jim Brandon’s Weird America lists two such accounts from just outside the Western Door. An eight-footer turned up in an Ellisburg, PA mound (near Wellsville, NY) in 1886. The same year a team of professors and professionals found dozens of huge, oddly-skulled humans in a mound in Sayre, PA (near Elmira, NY). They averaged seven feet, though some were taller, and some had horny knobs on their foreheads. Several went to the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia, into which they disappeared. Modern fans of Bigfoot (seen in almost all the states of the Union) might rejoice at historical testimony of monster bones; for the rest of us the matter is just... weird. Written by Mason C. Winfield http://www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1711

THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY 4Q203, 1Q23, 2Q26, 4Q530-532, 6Q8 Introduction and Commentary It is fair to say that the patriarch Enoch was as well known to the ancients as he is obscure to modern Bible readers. Besides giving his age (365 years), the book of Genesis says of him only that he "walked with God," and afterward "he was not, because God had taken him" (Gen. 5:24). This exalted way of life and mysterious demise made Enoch into a figure of considerable fascination, and a cycle of legends grew up around him. Many of the legends about Enoch were collected already in ancient times in several long anthologies. The most important such anthology, and the oldest, is known simply as The Book of Enoch, comprising over one hundred chapters. It still survives in its entirety (although only in the Ethiopic language) and forms an important source for the thought of Judaism in the last few centuries B.C.E. Significantly, the remnants of several almost complete copies of The Book of Enoch in Aramaic were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it is clear that whoever collected the scrolls considered it a vitally important text. All but one of the five major components of the Ethiopic anthology have turned up among the scrolls. But even more intriguing is the fact that additional, previously unknown or little-known texts about Enoch were discovered at Qumran. The most important of these is The Book of Giants. Enoch lived before the Flood, during a time when the world, in ancient imagination, was very different. Human beings lived much longer, for one thing; Enoch's son Methuselah, for instance, attained the age of 969 years. Another difference was that angels and humans interacted freely -- so freely, in fact, that some of the angels begot children with human females. This fact is neutrally reported in Genesis (6:1-4), but other stories view this episode as the source of the corruption that made the punishing flood necessary. According to The Book of Enoch, the mingling of angel and human was actually the idea of Shernihaza, the leader of the evil angels, who lured 200 others to cohabit with women. The offspring of these unnatural unions were giants 450 feet high. The wicked angels and the giants began to oppress the human population and to teach them to do evil. For this reason God determined to imprison the angels until the final judgment and to destroy the earth with a flood. Enoch's efforts to intercede with heaven for the fallen angels were unsuccessful (1 Enoch 6-16). The Book of Giants retells part of this story and elaborates on the exploits of the giants, especially the two children of Shemihaza, Ohya and Hahya. Since no complete manuscript exists of Giants, its exact contents and their order remain a matter of guesswork. Most of the content of the present fragments concerns the giants' ominous dreams and Enoch's efforts to interpret them and to intercede with God on the giants' behalf. Unfortunately, little remains of the independent adventures of the giants, but it is likely that these tales were at least partially derived from ancient Near Eastern mythology. Thus the name of one of the giants is Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero and subject of a great epic written in the third millennium B.C.E. -- Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) p246-250. See James VanderKam's online article, The Enoch Literature for further information on the Enoch tradition and its literature. Also of interest regarding links between the Enoch tradition and the DSS community is the recent book by Gabriele Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (available in the Bookstore). Book of Giants -- Reconstructed Texts A summary statement of the descent of the wicked angels, bringing both knowledge and havoc. Compare Genesis 6:1-2, 4. 1Q23 Frag. 9 + 14 + 15 2[ . . . ] they knew the secrets of [ . . . ] 3[ . . . si]n was great in the earth [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] and they killed manY [ . . ] 5[ . . . they begat] giants [ . . . ] The angels exploit the fruifulness of the earth. 4Q531 Frag. 3 2[ . . . everything that the] earth produced [ . . . ] [ . . . ] the great fish [ . . . ] 14[ . . . ] the sky with all that grew [ . . . ] 15[ . . . fruit of] the earth and all kinds of grain and al1 the trees [ . . . ] 16[ . . . ] beasts and reptiles . . . [al]l creeping things of the earth and they observed all [ . . . ] |8[ . . . eve]ry harsh deed and [ . . . ] utterance [ . . . ] l9[ . . . ] male and female, and among humans [ . . . ] The two hundred angels choose animals on which to perform unnatural acts, including, presumably, humans. 1Q23 Frag. 1 + 6 [ . . . two hundred] 2donkeys, two hundred asses, two hundred . . . rams of the] 3flock, two hundred goats, two hundred [ . . . beast of the] 4field from every animal, from every [bird . . . ] 5[ . . . ] for miscegenation [ . . . ] The outcome of the demonic corruption was violence, perversion, and a brood of monstrous beings. Compare Genesis 6:4. 4Q531 Frag. 2 [ . . . ] they defiled [ . . . ] 2[ . . . they begot] giants and monsters [ . . . ] 3[ . . . ] they begot, and, behold, all [the earth was corrupted . . . ] 4[ . . . ] with its blood and by the hand of [ . . . ] 5[giant's] which did not suffice for them and [ . . . ] 6[ . . . ] and they were seeking to devour many [ . . . ] 7[ . . . ] 8[ . . . ] the monsters attacked it. 4Q532 Col. 2 Frags. 1 - 6 2[ . . . ] flesh [ . . . ] 3al[l . . . ] monsters [ . . . ] will be [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] they would arise [ . . . ] lacking in true knowledge [ . . . ] because [ . . . ] 5[ . . . ] the earth [grew corrupt . . . ] mighty [ . . . ] 6[ . . . ] they were considering [ . . . ] 7[ . . . ] from the angels upon [ . . . ] 8[ . . . ] in the end it will perish and die [ . . . ] 9[ . . . ] they caused great corruption in the [earth . . . ] [ . . . this did not] suffice to [ . . . ] "they will be [ . . . ] The giants begin to be troubled by a series of dreams and visions. Mahway, the titan son of the angel Barakel, reports the first of these dreams to his fellow giants. He sees a tablet being immersed in water. When it emerges, all but three names have been washed away. The dream evidently symbolizes the destruction of all but Noah and his sons by the Flood. 2Q26 [ . . . ] they drenched the tablet in the wa[ter . . . ] 2[ . . . ] the waters went up over the [tablet . . . ] 3[ . . . ] they lifted out the tablet from the water of [ . . . ] The giant goes to the others and they discuss the dream. 4Q530 Frag.7 [ . . . this vision] is for cursing and sorrow. I am the one who confessed 2[ . . . ] the whole group of the castaways that I shall go to [ . . . ] 3[ . . . the spirits of the sl]ain complaining about their killers and crying out 4[ . . . ] that we shall die together and be made an end of [ . . . ] much and I will be sleeping, and bread 6[ . . . ] for my dwelling; the vision and also [ . . . ] entered into the gathering of the giants 8[ . . . ] 6Q8 [ . . . ] Ohya and he said to Mahway [ . . . ] 2[ . . . ] without trembling. Who showed you all this vision, [my] brother? 3[ . . . ] Barakel, my father, was with me. 4[ . . . ] Before Mahway had finished telling what [he had seen . . . ] 5[ . . . said] to him, Now I have heard wonders! If a barren woman gives birth [ . . . ] 4Q530 Frag. 4 3[There]upon Ohya said to Ha[hya . . . ] 4[ . . . to be destroyed] from upon the earth and [ . . . ] 5[ . . . the ea]rth. When 6[ . . . ] they wept before [the giants . . . ] 4Q530 Frag. 7 3[ . . . ] your strength [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] 5Thereupon Ohya [said] to Hahya [ . . . ] Then he answered, It is not for 6us, but for Azaiel, for he did [ . . . the children of] angels 7are the giants, and they would not let all their poved ones] be neglected [. . . we have] not been cast down; you have strength [ . . . ] The giants realize the futility of fighting against the forces of heaven. The first speaker may be Gilgamesh. 4Q531 Frag. 1 3[ . . . I am a] giant, and by the mighty strength of my arm and my own great strength 4[ . . . any]one mortal, and I have made war against them; but I am not [ . . . ] able to stand against them, for my opponents 6[ . . . ] reside in [Heav]en, and they dwell in the holy places. And not 7[ . . . they] are stronger than I. 8[ . . . ] of the wild beast has come, and the wild man they call [me]. 9[ . . . ] Then Ohya said to him, I have been forced to have a dream [ . . . ] the sleep of my eyes [vanished], to let me see a vision. Now I know that on [ . . . ] 11-12[ . . . ] Gilgamesh [ . . . ] Ohya's dream vision is of a tree that is uprooted except for three of its roots; the vision's import is the same as that of the first dream. 6Q8 Frag. 2 1three of its roots [ . . . ] [while] I was [watching,] there came [ . . . they moved the roots into] 3this garden, all of them, and not [ . . . ] Ohya tries to avoid the implications of the visions. Above he stated that it referred only to the demon Azazel; here he suggests that the destruction isfor the earthly rulers alone. 4Q530 Col. 2 1concerns the death of our souls [ . . . ] and all his comrades, [and Oh]ya told them what Gilgamesh said to him 2[ . . . ] and it was said [ . . . ] "concerning [ . . . ] the leader has cursed the potentates" 3and the giants were glad at his words. Then he turned and left [ . . . ] More dreams afflict the giants. The details of this vision are obscure, but it bodes ill for the giants. The dreamers speak first to the monsters, then to the giants. Thereupon two of them had dreams 4and the sleep of their eye, fled from them, and they arose and came to [ . . . and told] their dreams, and said in the assembly of [their comrades] the monsters 6[ . . . In] my dream I was watching this very night 7[and there was a garden . . . ] gardeners and they were watering 8[ . . . two hundred trees and] large shoots came out of their root 9[ . . . ] all the water, and the fire burned all 10[the garden . . . ] They found the giants to tell them 11[the dream . . . ] Someone suggests that Enoch be found to interpret the vision. [ . . . to Enoch] the noted scribe, and he will interpret for us 12the dream. Thereupon his fellow Ohya declared and said to the giants, 13I too had a dream this night, O giants, and, behold, the Ruler of Heaven came down to earth 14[ . . . ] and such is the end of the dream. [Thereupon] all th e giants [and monsters! grew afraid 15and called Mahway. He came to them and the giants pleaded with him and sent him to Enoch 16[the noted scribe]. They said to him, Go [ . . . ] to you that 17[ . . . ] you have heard his voice. And he said to him, He wil1 [ . . . and] interpret the dreams [ . . . ] Col. 3 3[ . . . ] how long the giants have to live. [ . . . ] After a cosmic journey Mahway comes to Enoch and makes his request. [ . . . he mounted up in the air] 41ike strong winds, and flew with his hands like ea[gles . . . he left behind] 5the inhabited world and passed over Desolation, the great desert [ . . . ] 6and Enoch saw him and hailed him, and Mahway said to him [ . . . ] 7hither and thither a second time to Mahway [ . . . The giants awaig 8your words, and all the monsters of the earth. If [ . . . ] has been carried [ . . . ] 9from the days of [ . . . ] their [ . . . ] and they will be added [ . . . ] 10[ . . . ] we would know from you their meaning [ . . . ] 11[ . . . two hundred tr]ees that from heaven [came down . . . ] Enoch sends back a tablet with its grim message of judgment, but with hope for repentance. 4Q530 Frag. 2 The scribe [Enoch . . . ] 2[ . . . ] 3a copy of the second tablet that [Epoch] se[nt . . . ] 4in the very handwriting of Enoch the noted scribe [ . . . In the name of God the great] 5and holy one, to Shemihaza and all [his companions . . . ] 61et it be known to you that not [ . . . ] 7and the things you have done, and that your wives [ . . . ] 8they and their sons and the wives of [their sons . . . ] 9by your licentiousness on the earth, and there has been upon you [ . . . and the land is crying out] 10and complaining about you and the deeds of your children [ . . . ] 11the harm that you have done to it. [ . . . ] 12until Raphael arrives, behold, destruction [is coming, a great flood, and it will destroy all living things] 13and whatever is in the deserts and the seas. And the meaning of the matter [ . . . ] 14upon you for evil. But now, loosen the bonds bi[nding you to evil . . . ] l5and pray. A fragment apparently detailing a vision that Enoch saw. 4Q531 Frag. 7 3[ . . . great fear] seized me and I fell on my face; I heard his voice [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] he dwelt among human beings but he did not learn from them [ . . . ] The Dead Sea Scrolls Collection at The Gnostic Society Library | Introduction | Texts | Timetable | Resources | Recommended Books | | Gnostic Society Library | Gnosis Archive |

April 20, 2003 DAMIANSVILLE, Illinois (AP) -- Digging crews have found hundreds of 1,200-year-old stone arrowheads and pottery fragments buried under an Illinois hillside. The discovery near this village about 35 miles east of St. Louis represents an important archaeological find, said Brad Koldehoff, a state archaeologist. "It's a significant site. They discovered a keyhole-shaped house and what appears to be a small village," he said. "Keyhole" houses are dwellings made of clay and logs with rooms half submerged in the ground. The large, dome-shaped living area at one end was reached by a long, straight, covered entrance, giving rise to the name "keyhole." Microscopic examination of debris from their ancient garbage pits shows the inhabitants ate venison and turkey, plus what are today considered weeds. One common dish was a sort of pancake made from the seeds of knot weed. The village dates from the Late Woodland period, from about 600 to 800 A.D., said Koldehoff. What is learned from the dig will be integrated with knowledge gained from other finds in Illinois in recent years, including the 2001 discovery of 70 handmade ceremonial stone ax heads beneath a field in Shiloh. The hillside where the artifacts were found last week was chosen for excavation because the landowner wants to sell its dirt to the state as fill for a nearby highway project. State law requires that an archaeological team search for artifacts and excavate any that might be found. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/04/20/archaeological.find.ap/index.html

December 2, 2003 Have you investigated the "Cat People" of the upper Susquahana Valley? If not I believe it would be worth your time. My father was one of the last pure blood Susquahanock Indians. He passed the stories of old on to me. To start with, the Susquahanock were considered "giants" themselves. The average male was 6' 6" tall. Not impressive, but that was in the 1600's. If you can get access to John Smiths journals (of Pocahontas fame) He wrote extensively and made many drawings of the Susquahanock. The average European male was only 5'2" tall. One of the great war chiefs of the Susquahanock during the Dutch wars in Baltimore was around 7'6" tall. He was said to be the son of one the "cat peoples". He also was said to posses 2 sets of teeth. (this is all on record at the Susquahanock museum in Ephrata PA) Now on to the "Cat people". They were given that name by the Susquahanock and Delaware Indians, due to the fact that when they spoke it was like listening to a panther scream. They were feared by all tribes of the inland northeast. The cats were by legend and if you look closely at the archaeological evidence said to be over 10' tall. They were of fair skin and had hair that was red/black. They were a savage people. Never taking prisoners but rather taking "food" in the bodies of their enemies. They also had 2 sets of teeth. It is said in the legends of my father that they would also eat the rocks from the river. My guess is for the iron content. I have found the bones of these people all along the river with my metal detector. Their bones contain alot of iron. This would also explain the legends of Cannon balls bouncing off them. (the Susquahanock were a fierce war tribe in their time, using cannon supplied by the English against the Dutch) The Archaeological evidence of these people contains things like bowls measuring 48" to 90". There have never been any found smaller than that that couldn't be linked to another tribe. A village was unearthed that showed homes measuring over 35' in length. and 20' in width. Arrow heads that measure over 6" in length are found on a regular basis all along the river. Most of this archaeological evidence has been locked away (including remains) in several museums all along the river valley and at the William Penn Museum in Philadelphia. Also at Millersburg University in Lancaster. They may be able to hide the evidence but they will never silence the legends that i have been taught. The truth is out there. Please never give up finding it. I have moved away from Pennsylvania. Certain "organizations" have been pressuring me to forget the past. I will not. Now....I have some one to pass on the stories and legends to. That is if you are interested in them. Even though i do not live there now i can still guide you as to where to search. There are remains yet to be found. The river valley "recycles" the ground at a rate higher than the rest of the country. (just look at Gettysburg where they found the remains of union soldiers a few years ago) There are remains found all over but they are whisked away by unknown persons. A farmer friend of mine calls them the reall men in black. He has found 2 sets of remains measuring approx. 11'. When he reported them they were whisked away by "men in cheap black suits and even cheaper sunglasses"(his words). I now live in your area, Sandpoint, Id. And I have already started to learn the legends that this area holds. And I will always search out the strange and abnormal. I am half Susquahanock Indian and half Scottish Celt. So the strange and unusual always seem to find me. If you are interested in more I can be reached at this email addy. I will freely tell you all i know. If you are not interested then this will be the last time I will communicate with you. But either way thank you for hearing my legends. Keep the excellent work up. FuzzyBear

CHAPTER I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS WE find allusions to the Atlanteans in the most ancient traditions of many different races. The great antediluvian king of the Mussulman was Shedd-Ad-Ben-Ad, or Shed-Ad, the son of Ad, or Atlantis. Among the Arabians the first inhabitants of that country are known as the Adites, from their progenitor, who is called Ad, the grandson of Ham. These Adites were probably the people of Atlantis or Ad-lantis. "They are personified by a monarch to whom everything is ascribed, and to whom is assigned several centuries of life." ("Ancient History of the East," Lenormant and Chevallier, vol. ii., p. 295.), Ad came from the northeast. "He married a thousand wives, had four thousand sons, and lived twelve hundred years. His descendants multiplied considerably. After his death his sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over the Adites. In the time of the latter the people of Ad were a thousand tribes, each composed of several thousands of men. Great conquests are attributed to Shedad; he subdued, it is said, all Arabia and Irak. The migration of the Canaanites, their establishment in Syria, and the Shepherd invasion of Egypt are, by many Arab writers, attributed to an expedition of Shedad." (Ibid., p. 296.) Shedad built a palace ornamented with superb columns, and surrounded by a magnificent garden. It was called Irem. "It was a paradise that Shedad had built in imitation of the celestial Paradise, of whose delights he had heard." ("Ancient History of the East," p. 296.) In other words, an ancient, sun-worshipping, powerful, and conquering race overran Arabia at the very dawn of history; they were the sons of Adlantis: their king tried to create a palace and garden of Eden like that of Atlantis. The Adites are remembered by the Arabians as a great and civilized race. "They are depicted as men of gigantic stature; their strength was equal to their size, and they easily moved enormous blocks of stone." (Ibid.) They were architects and builders. "They raised many monuments of their power; and hence, among the Arabs, arose the custom of calling great ruins "buildings of the Adites." To this day the Arabs say "as old as Ad." In the Koran allusion is made to the edifices they built on "high places for vain uses;" expressions proving that their "idolatry was considered to have been tainted with Sabæism or star-worship." (Ibid.) "In these legends," says Lenormant, "we find traces of a wealthy nation, constructors of great buildings, with an advanced civilization, analogous to that of Chaldea, professing a religion similar to the Babylonian; a nation, in short, with whom material progress was allied to great moral depravity and obscene rites. These facts must be true and strictly historical, for they are everywhere met with among the Cushites, as among the Canaanites, their brothers by origin." Nor is there wanting a great catastrophe which destroys the whole Adite nation, except a very few who escape because they had renounced idolatry. A black cloud assails their country, from which proceeds a terrible hurricane (the water-spout?) which sweeps away everything. The first Adites were followed by a second Adite race; probably the colonists who had escaped the Deluge. The centre of its power was the country of Sheba proper. This empire endured for a thousand years. The Adites are represented upon the Egyptian monuments as very much like the Egyptians themselves; in other words, they were a red or sunburnt race: their great temples were pyramidal, surmounted by buildings. ("Ancient History of the East," p. 321.) "The Sabæans," says Agatharchides ("De Mari Erythræo," p. 102), "have in their houses an incredible number of vases, and utensils of all sorts, of gold and silver, beds and tripods of silver, and all the furniture of astonishing richness. Their buildings have porticos with columns sheathed with gold, or surmounted by capitals of silver. On the friezes, ornaments, and the framework of the doors they place plates of gold incrusted with precious stones." All this reminds one of the descriptions given by the Spaniards of the temples of the sun in Peru. The Adites worshipped the gods of the Phœnicians under names but slightly changed; "their religion was especially solar... It was originally a religion without images, without idolatry, and without a priesthood." (Ibid., p. 325.) They "worshipped the sun from the tops of pyramids." (Ibid.) They believed in the immortality of the soul. In all these things we see resemblances to the Atlanteans. The great Ethiopian or Cushite Empire, which in the earliest ages prevailed, as Mr. Rawlinson says, "from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the mouth of the Ganges," was the empire of Dionysos, the empire of "Ad," the empire of Atlantis. El Eldrisi called the language spoken to this day by the Arabs of Mahrah, in Eastern Arabia, "the language of the people of Ad," and Dr. J. H. Carter, in the Bombay Journal of July, 1847, says, "It is the softest and sweetest language I have ever heard." It would be interesting to compare this primitive tongue with the languages of Central America. The god Thoth of the Egyptians, who was the god of a foreign country, and who invented letters, was called At-hothes. We turn now to another ancient race, the Indo-European family--the Aryan race. In Sanscrit Adim, means first. Among the Hindoos the first man was Ad-ima, his wife was Heva. They dwelt upon an island, said to be Ceylon; they left the island and reached the main-land, when, by a great convulsion of nature, their communication with the parent land was forever cut off. (See "Bible in India.") Here we seem to have a recollection of the destruction of Atlantis. Mr. Bryant says, "Ad and Ada signify the first." The Persians called the first man "Ad-amah." "Adon" was one of the names of the Supreme God of the Phœnicians; from it was derived the name of the Greek god "Ad-onis." The Arv-ad of Genesis was the Ar-Ad of the Cushites; it is now known as Ru-Ad. It is a series of connected cities twelve miles in length, along the coast, full of the most massive and gigantic ruins. Sir William Jones gives the tradition of the Persians as to the earliest ages. He says: "Moshan assures us that in the opinion of the best informed Persians the first monarch of Iran, and of the whole earth, was Mashab-Ad; that he received from the Creator, and promulgated among men a sacred book, in a heavenly language, to which the Mussulman author gives the Arabic title of 'Desatir,' or 'Regulations.' Mashab-Ad was, in the opinion of the ancient Persians, the person left at the end of the last great cycle, and consequently the father of the present world. He and his wife having survived the former cycle, were blessed with a numerous progeny; he planted gardens, invented ornaments, forged weapons, taught men to take the fleece from sheep and make clothing; he built cities, constructed palaces, fortified towns, and introduced arts and commerce." We have already seen that the primal gods of this people are identical with the gods of the Greek mythology, and were originally kings of Atlantis. But it seems that these ancient divinities are grouped together as "the Aditya;" and in this name "Ad-itya" we find a strong likeness to the Semitic "Adites," and another reminiscence of Atlantis, or Adlantis. In corroboration of this view we find, 1. The gods who are grouped together as the Aditya are the most ancient in the Hindoo mythology. 2. They are all gods of light, or solar gods. (Whitney's Oriental and Linguistic Studies," p. 39.) 3. There are twelve of them. (Ibid.) 4. These twelve gods presided over twelve months in the year. 5. They are a dim recollection of a very remote past. Says Whitney, "It seems as if here was an attempt on the part of the Indian religion to take a new development in a moral direction, which a change in the character and circumstances of the people has caused to fail in the midst, and fall back again into forgetfulness, while yet half finished and indistinct." (Ibid.) 6. These gods are called "the sons of Aditi," just as in the Bible we have allusions to "the sons of Adab," who were the first metallurgists and musicians. "Aditi is not a goddess. She is addressed as a queen's daughter, she of fair children." 7. The Aditya "are elevated above all imperfections; they do not sleep or wink." The Greeks represented their gods as equally wakeful and omniscient. "Their character is all truth; they hate and punish guilt." We have seen the same traits ascribed by the Greeks to the Atlantean kings. 8. The sun is sometimes addressed as an Aditya. 9. Among the Aditya is Varuna, the equivalent of Uranos, whose identification with Atlantis I have shown. In the vedas Varuna is "the god of the ocean." 10. The Aditya represent an earlier and purer form of religion: "While in hymns to the other deities long: life, wealth, power, are the objects commonly prayed for, of the Aditya is craved purity, forgiveness of sin, freedom from guilt, and repentance." ("Oriental and Linguistic Studies," p. 43.) 11. The Aditya, like the Adites, are identified with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Yama is the god of the abode beyond the grave. In the Persian story he appears as Yima, and "is made ruler of the golden age and founder of the Paradise." (Ibid., p. 45.) (See "Zamna," p. 167 ante.) In view of all these facts, one cannot doubt that the legends of the "sons of Ad," "the Adites," and "the Aditya," all refer to Atlantis. Mr. George Smith, in the Chaldean account of the Creation (p. 78), deciphered from the Babylonian tablets, shows that there was an original race of men at the beginning of Chaldean history, a dark race, the Zalmat-qaqadi, who were called Ad-mi, or Ad-ami; they were the race "who had fallen," and were contradistinguished from "the Sarku, or light race." The "fall" probably refers to their destruction by a deluge, in consequence of their moral degradation and the indignation of the gods. The name Adam is used in these legends, but as the name of a race, not of a man. Genesis (chap. v., 2) distinctly says that God created man male and female, and "called their name Adam." That is to say, the people were the Ad-ami, the people of "Ad," or Atlantis. "The author of the Book of Genesis," says M. Schœbel, "in speaking of the men who were swallowed up by the Deluge, always describes them as 'Haadam,' 'Adamite humanity.'" The race of Cain lived and multiplied far away from the land of Seth; in other words, far from the land destroyed by the Deluge. Josephus, who gives us the primitive traditions of the Jews, tells us (chap. ii., p. 42) that "Cain travelled over many countries" before he came to the land of Nod. The Bible does not tell us that the race of Cain perished in the Deluge. "Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah;" he did not call on his name; the people that were destroyed were the "sons of Jehovah." All this indicates that large colonies had been sent out by the mother-land before it sunk in the sea. Across the ocean we find the people of Guatemala claiming their descent from a goddess called At-tit, or grandmother, who lived for four hundred years, and first taught the worship of the true God, which they afterward forgot. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 75.) While the famous Mexican calendar stone shows that the sun was commonly called tonatiuh but when it was referred to as the god of the Deluge it was then called Atl-tona-ti-uh, or At-onatiuh. (Valentini's "Mexican Calendar Stone," art. Maya Archæology, p. 15.) We thus find the sons of Ad at the base of all the most ancient races of men, to wit, the Hebrews, the Arabians, the Chaldeans, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Mexicans, and the Central Americans; testimony that all these races traced their beginning back to a dimly remembered Ad-lantis. http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw401.htm

When these pyramids are mapped, we just may find that some are aligned to constellations important to the ancient Chinese, much like the Giza pyramids are aligned to the three belt stars of the constellation Orion. ---- Laura Lee Rocky Mountain News Article from 1947 ANCIENT PYRAMIDS IN CHINA Hartwig Hausdorf, a researcher in Germany, sent over these photographs from his collection, taken during his 1994 trip to the Forbidden Zone in The Shensi Province in China. Estimates for an age are 4,500 years old, but Hausdorf mentions the diaries of two Australian traders who, in 1912, met an old Buddhist monk who told them these pyramids are mentioned in the 5,000 year old records of his monastery as being "very old." Hausdorf reports: There are over 100 pyramids, made of clay, that have become nearly stone hard over the centuries. Many are damaged by erosion or farming. One pyramid is as large as the Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacan in Mexico (which is as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza). Most are flat topped, some have small temples on top. There is a stone pyramid in Shandong, about 50 feet tall. Some incorporate the golden proportion. BOOKS Hausdorf is the author of "The White Pyramid" and "Satellites of the Gods." (Will someone please publish these two books, and his third, coming out soon, in English, so I can read them?) Thank you to Hausdorf for giving us permission to post these photos on our website. RECENT INTERVIEW: "THE CHINESE ROSWELL" Hausdorf was in the U.S. for a couple of weeks during August. On August 2nd, he was our guest on the radio show. He talked about the pyramids of China, AND about an extraordinary UFO crash, what he calls "the Chinese Roswell." It involves a great number of graves containing skeletons of strange looking humanoid beings with heads too big for their 4 feet, 4 inches tall frames. Along side, were hundreds of these granite stone disks, with strange hieroglyphs that, according to one translation, tell of a UFO crash 12,000 years ago. Legends from the area mention "ugly, yellowish and skinny beings with big heads that came down from heaven a long, long time ago"!

Cave Skeleton is European, 1,300 Years Old, Man Says Sept. 29, 2002 MORGANTOWN - The man who first advanced the theory that markings carved on in a Wyoming County cave are actually characters from an ancient Irish alphabet has found human remains at the site, which tests indicate are European in origin and date back to A.D. 710, he maintains. Robert Pyle of Morgantown says that a DNA analysis of material from the skeleton's teeth roots was conducted by Brigham Young University. That analysis, he says, shows that the skeleton's DNA, when compared to samples from Native American groups and an array of European sources, most closely matches samples from the British Isles. Pyle says the DNA test, plus a radiocarbon test that dates the skeleton to 710, suggest the presence of a European visitor to the North American continent nearly 800 years before the arrival of Columbus, and nearly 300 years before Viking Leif Erickson. Found near the skeleton was a bone needle etched with markings similar to those on the cave walls. Pyle says his findings and the test results help validate his hypothesis that the markings at the Wyoming County site "were done by seafaring people, probably monks, probably from the British Isles." "Based on the available data, that's doubtful," counters Robert Maslowski, president of the Council for West Virginia Archaeology, a state association of professional archaeologists with research interests in West Virginia. Pyle's findings, Maslowski says, while "interesting," still need "to be examined by the professional community. We would welcome the opportunity to go over the evidence - to look at the skeletal material, the archaeological material, the radiocarbon data and the DNA data, then draw our own conclusions," he says. Pyle, who performed archaeological surveys for the state Division of Highways in late 1970s and early 1980s, does not have a degree in archaeology. He says he is a federally certified archaeologist who has studied the subject at Northwestern University, and has taken geology courses at WVU. He says he would be interested in having another group examine his work, including additional DNA and Carbon-14 testing, which he paid for using privately raised funds totaling about $7,000. He also wants to raise money to preserve the site and continue his research. Pyle first visited the cave, known as the Cook petroglyph site, in 1981, while in the area to conduct archeological surveys for the DOH. "I was visiting my sister when someone mentioned some Indian scratchings on the top of a nearby ridge," he said. When he arrived at the site, "I saw an elongated group of markings along the right side," he recalls. "I'd just read a book on Norse runes, and my first thought was that these were archaic runes." He later read about carvings found in Ireland and Wales, usually on the edges of grave markers, that made use of an ancient Celtic alphabet of connected lines and slashes known as Ogam. Joined by Dr. William Grant of Edinburgh University in Scotland and Dr. John Grant of Oakland, Md., both Celtic linguists who had studied at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Pyle continued to study the Wyoming County carvings, plus similar markings near Dingess in Mingo County and in Manchester, Ky., eventually hypothesizing that they were Ogam. In the 1980s, Wonderful West Virginia magazine ran a series of stories about the Wyoming County site and the carvings, and their links to Ogam. In 1989, West Virginia Archaeologist Magazine published an issue devoted to debunking that theory. Editor Janet Brashler, then an archaeologist for the Monongahela National Forest, concluded that the "turkey foot" patterns carved in the rock are design elements "in common with other acknowledged prehistoric Native American petroglyphs." Pyle maintains the carvings contain crosses, rebuses and other markings unique to Ogam. He traveled to Ireland to study the markings in 1998, and in 2000, was invited to take part in the examination of a newly found 8-feet-high, 20-feet-long Irish Ogam petroglyph panel, which closely resembles the Wyoming County markings. The latter visit to Ireland was filmed for a public television special. Pyle says his findings and the recent test results will make it possible to validate a hypothesis "I didn't think it would be possible to validate in a lifetime." He says he expected his findings to generate controversy. "That's science," he says. "No one totally, 100 percent endorses a new idea. ... I'll let science decide where to go from here. But I would like to have credit for this discovery." "We know the Vikings were here before him, but I wouldn't stop celebrating Columbus Day, yet," Maslowski says. "Hopefully, we'll be able to go over the findings and have this resolved by the end of October - West Virginia Archaeology Month." Pyle plans to post his findings on the Internet at www.prehistoricplanet.com/wv/. The site already contains material on Ogam and the West Virginia petroglyphs. http://sundaygazettemail.com/news/Valley+%26+State/2002092835/

July 24, 2003 Bourke Lee, in his book 'Death Valley Men' chapter: "Old Gold", describes a conversation which he had several years ago with a small group of Death valley residents. The conversation had eventually turned to the subject of Paihute Indian legends. At one point two of the men, Jack and Bill, described their experience with an 'underground city' which they claimed to have discovered after one of them had fallen through the bottom of an old mine shaft near Wingate Pass. They found themselves in a natural underground cavern which they claimed to have followed about 20 miles north into the heart of the Panamint Mountains. (read more) To their amazement, they allegedly found themselves in an huge, ancient, underground cavern city. They claimed that they discovered within the city several perfectly preserved 'mummies', which wore thick arm bands, wielded gold spears, etc. The city had apparently been abandoned for ages, except for the mummies, and the entire underground system looked very ancient. It was formerly lit, they found out by accident, by an ingenious system of lights fed by subterranean gases. They claimed to have seen a large, polished round table which looked as if it may have been part of an ancient council chamber, giant statues of solid gold, stone vaults and drawers full of gold bars and gemstones of all kinds, heavy stone wheelbarrows which were perfectly balanced and scientifically-constructed so that a child could use them, huge stone doors which were almost perfectly balanced by counter-weights, and other incredible sights. They also claimed to have followed the caverns upwards to a higher level which ultimately opened out onto the face of the Panamints, about half-way up the eastern slope, in the form of a few ancient tunnel-like quays. They realized that the valley below was once under water and they eventually came to the conclusion that the arched openings were ancient 'docks' for sea vessels. They could allegedly see Furnace Creek Ranch and Wash far below them. They told Bourke Lee that they had brought some of the treasure out of the caverns and tried to set up a deal with certain people, including scientists associated with the Smithsonian Institute, in order to gain help to explore and publicize the city as one of the 'wonders of the world'. These efforts ended in disappointment however when a 'friend' of theirs stole the treasure (which was also the evidence) and they were scoffed at and rejected by the scientists when they went to show them the 'mine' entrance and could not find it. A recent cloud- burst, they claimed, had altered and rearranged the entire countryside and the landscape did not look like it had been before. When Lee last heard from the two men, Bill and Jack, they were preparing to climb the east face of the Panamints to locate the ancient tunnel openings or quays high up the side of the steep slope. Bourke Lee never did see or hear from his friends ever again. In 1946 a man calling himself Dr. F. Bruce Russell, and claiming to be a retired physician, told a similar story about finding strange underground rooms in the Death Valley area in 1931. He told of a large room with several tunnels leading off in different directions. One of these tunnels led to another large room that contained three mummies. Artifacts found in the room appeared to be a combination of Egyptian and American Indian design. The most amazing thing about the mummies though was the fact that they were more than eight feet tall. Dr. Russell and a group of investors formed "Amazing Explorations, Inc" to handle the release, and profit, from this remarkable find. But, as stories of this type usually go, Russell disappeared, and the investigators were never able to find the caverns and tunnels again, even though Russell had personally taken them there. The desert can be very deceiving to anyone not used to traveling it. Month's later, Russell's car was found abandoned, with a burst radiator, in a remote area of Death Valley. His suitcase was still in the car. The old TV series Death Valley Days once ran a short story about western pioneers also finding mummies in the desert. Since one of the script writers stated that "there had never been a script without a solid basis in fact", it would be interesting to find out what their source had been. For now, these stories will have to be shrouded in mystery, along with the 21,000 year old bones found in California's Imperial Valley, also rumored to have been spirited off by the Smithsonian. http://www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1643