Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine

by Raphael Holinshed; William Harrison; John Hooker

Deut. 3. vers. 11.
Og of Basan. Furthermore, there is mention made also in the scriptures of Og, sometime king of Basan, who was the last of the race of the giants, that was left in the land of promise to be ouercome by the Israelits, & whose iron bed was afterward shewed for a woonder at Rabbath (a citie of the Ammonites) conteining 9. cubits in length, and 4. in bredth, which cubits I take not to be geometricall, (that is, each one so great as six of the smaller, as those were wherof the Arke was made, as our Diuines affirme, especiallie Augustine: whereas Origen, hom. 2. in Gen. out of whom he seemeth to borrow it, appeareth to haue no such meaning directlie) but rather of the arme of a meane man, which oftentimes dooth varie & differ from the standard. Oh how Goropius dalieth about the historie of this Og, of the breaking of his pate against the beds head, & of hurting his ribs against the sides, and all to prooue, that Og was not bigger than other men, and so he leaueth the matter as sufficientlie answered with a French countenance of truth. But see August. de ciuit. lib. 15. cap. 25. & ad Faustum Manich. lib. 12. Ambros. &c. and Johannes Buteo that excellent geometrician, who hath written of purpose of the capacitie of the Arke.

Cap. 17. ver. 4,
5, 6. Goliah. In the first of Samuel you shall read of Goliah a Philistine, the weight of whose brigandine or shirt of maile was of 5000. sicles, or 1250. ounces of brasse, which amounteth to 104. pound of Troie weight after 4. common sicles to the ounce. The head of his speare came vnto ten pound English or 600. sicles of that metall. His height also was measured at six cubits and an hand bredth. All which doo import that he was a notable giant, and a man of great stature & strength to weare such an armour, and beweld so heauie a lance. But Goropius thinking himselfe still to haue Og in hand, and indeuouring to extenuate the fulnesse of the letter to his vttermost power, dooth neuerthelesse earnestlie affirme, that he was not aboue three foot more than the common sort of men, or two foot higher than Saule: and so he leaueth it as determined.

Cap. 21. ver. 16, 17, &c. In the second of Samuel, I find report of foure giants borne in Geth; of which Ishbenob the first, that would haue killed Dauid, had a speare, whose head weighed the iust halfe of that of Goliath: the second called Siphai, Sippai or Saph, 1. Par. 20. was nothing inferiour to the first: the third hight also Goliah, the staffe of whose speare was like vnto the beame of a weauers loome, neuerthelesse he was slaine in the second battell in Gob by Elhanan, as the first was by Abisai Ioabs brother, and the second by Elhanan. The fourth brother (for they were all brethren) was slaine at Gath by Ionathan nephew to Dauid, and he was not onlie huge of personage, but also of disfigured forme, for he had 24. fingers and toes. Wherby it is euident, that the generation of giants was not extinguished in Palestine, vntill the time of Dauid, which was 2890. after the floud, nor vtterlie consumed in Og, as some of our expositors would haue it.

Now to come vnto our christian writers. For though the authorities alreadie alleged out of the word, are sufficient to confirme my purpose at the full; yet will I not let to set downe such other notes as experience hath reuealed, onelie to the end that the reader shall not thinke the name of giants, with their quantities, and other circumstances, mentioned in the scriptures, rather to haue some mysticall interpretation depending vpon them, than that the sense of the text in this behalfe is to be taken simplie as it speaketh. And first of all to omit that which Tertullian Lib. 2. de resurrect. saith; De ciuitate Dei lib. 15. cap. 9. S. Augustine noteth, how he with other saw the tooth of a man, wherof he tooke good aduisement, and pronounced in the end that it would haue made 100. of his owne, or anie other mans that liued in his time. The like Iohannes Boccacius. hereof also dooth Iohn Boccace set downe, in the 68. chapter of his 4. booke, saieng that in the caue of a mountaine, not far from Drepanum (a towne of Sicilia called Eryx as he gesseth) the bodie of an exceeding high giant was discouered, thrée of whose teeth did weigh 100. ounces, which being conuerted into English poise, doth yeeld eight pound and foure ounces, after twelue ounces to the pound, that is 33. ounces euerie tooth.

He addeth farther, that the forepart of his scull was able to conteine manie bushels of wheat, and by the proportion of the bone of his thigh, A carcase discouered of 200. cubits. the Symmetricians iudged his bodie to be aboue 200. cubits. Those teeth, scull, and bones, were (and as I thinke yet are, for ought I know to the contrarie) to be seene in the church of Drepanum in perpetuall memorie of his greatnesse, whose bodie was found vpon this occasion. As some digged in the earth to laie the foundation of an house, the miners happened vpon a great vault, not farre from Drepanum: whereinto when they were entred, they saw the huge bodie of a man sitting in the caue, of whose greatnesse they were so afraid, that they ranne awaie, and made an outcrie in the citie, how there sat a man in such a place, so great as an hill: the people hearing the newes, ran out with clubs and weapons, as if they should haue gone vnto a foughten field, and 300. of them entring into the caue, they foorthwith saw that he was dead, and yet sat as if he had been aliue, hauing a staffe in his hand, compared by mine author vnto the mast of a tall ship, which being touched fell by and by to dust, sauing the nether end betwéene his hand and the ground, whose hollownesse was filled with 1500. pound weight of lead, to beare vp his arme that it should not fall in péeces: neuerthelesse, his bodie also being touched fell likewise into dust, sauing three of his aforesaid teeth, the forepart of his scull, and one of his thigh bones, which are reserued to be séene of such as will hardlie beleeue these reports.

In the histories of Brabant I read of a giant found, whose bones were 17. or 18. cubits in length, but Goropius, as his maner is, denieth them to be the bones of a man, affirming rather that they were the bones of an elephant, because they somwhat resembled those of two such beasts which were found at the making of the famous ditch betwéene Bruxels and Machlin. As though there were anie precise resemblance betwéene the bones of a man and of an elephant, or that there had euer béene any elephant of 27. foot in length. But sée his demeanour. In the end he granteth that another bodie was found vpon the shore of Rhodanus, of thirtie foot in length. Which somewhat staieth his iudgement, but not altogither remooueth his error.

Mat. Westmon. The bodie of Pallas was found in Italie, in the yeare of Grace 1038. and being measured it conteined twentie foot in length, this Pallas was companion with Æneas.

Iohannes Leland. There was a carcase also laid bare 1170. in England vpon the shore (where the beating of the sea had washed awaie the earth from the stone wherein it laie) and when it was taken vp it conteined 50. foot in Mafieus, lib. 14. Triuet. measure, as our histories doo report. The like was seene before in
Mat. West. Wales, in the yeare 1087. of another of 14. foot.

In Perth moreouer a village in Scotland another was taken vp, which to this daie they shew in a church, vnder the name of little John (per Antiphrasin) being also 14. foot in length, as diuerse doo affirme which Hector Boet. haue beholden the same, and whereof Hector Boetius dooth saie, that he did put his whole arme into one of the hanch bones: which is worthie to be remembred.

In the yeare of Grace 1475. the bodie of Tulliola the daughter of Cicero was taken vp, & found higher by not a few foot than the common sort of women liuing in those daies.