tively on any person severely beaten, or sorely | body of the female cannot be influenced by it? wounded, the spirits immediately flow into those Might it not be plausibly said, that there is no parts of the body which correspond to those we similitude between any part of the egg and any see in pain. The more delicate the constitution, particular feather which we expect to propagate; the more it is thus affected; the spirits making and yet for all this the fact is known to be true, a stronger impression on the fibres of a weakly and what no speculation can invalidate. In the habit than of a robust one. Strong vigorous same manner, a thousand various instances asmen see an execution without much concern, sure us that the child in the womb is sometimes while women of nicer texture are struck with marked by the strong affections of the mother: horror and concern. This sensibility in them how this is performed we know not; we only must, of consequence, be communicated to all see the effect, without any connection between parts of their body; and as the fibres of the child it and the cause. The best physicians have alin the womb are incomparably finer than those lowed it; and have been satisfied to submit to of the mother, the course of the animal spirits the experience of a number of ages; but many must consequently produce greater alterations. disbelieve it, because they expect a reason for Hence every stroke given to the criminal forcibly every effect. This, however, is very hard to be struck the imagination of the woman; and by a given, while it is very easy to appear wise by kind of counter-stroke, the delicate tender frame pretending incredulity. of the child.

Such is the reasoning of an ingenious man upon a fact, the veracity of which many have since called in question.3 They have allowed, indeed, that such a child might have been produced, but have denied the cause of its deformity. "How could the imagination of the mother," say they, "produce such dreadful effects upon her child? She has no communication with the infant; she scarcely touches it in any part; quite unaffected with her concerns, it sleeps in security, in a manner secluded by a fluid in which it swims, from her that bears it. With what a variety of deformities," say they, "would all mankind be marked, if all the vain and capricious desires of the mother were thus readily written upon the body of the child?" Yet notwithstanding this plausible way of reasoning, I cannot avoid giving some credit to the variety of instances I have either read or seen upon this subject. If it be a prejudice, it is as old as the days of Aristotle, and to this day as strongly believed by the generality of mankind as ever. It does not admit of a reason; and, indeed, I can give none, even why the child should, in any respect, resemble the father or the mother. The fact we generally find to be so. But why it should take the particular print of the father's features in the womb is as hard to conceive, as why it should be effected by the mother's imagination. We all know what a strong effect the imagination has on those parts in particular, without being able to assign a cause how this effect is produced; and why the imagination may not produce the same effect in marking the child that it does in forming it, I see no reason. Those persons whose employment it is to rear up pigeons of different colours, can breed them, as their expression is, to a feather. In fact, by properly pairing them, they can give what colour they will to any feather, in any part of the body. Were we to reason upon this fact, what could we say? Might it not be asserted, that the egg, being distinct from the

3 Buffon, vol. iv. p. 9.

Among the number of monsters, dwarfs and giants are usually reckoned; though not, perhaps, with the strictest propriety, since they are no way different from the rest of mankind, except in stature. It is a dispute, however, about words; and therefore scarcely worth contending about. But there is a dispute, of a more curious nature, on this subject; namely, whether there are races of people thus very diminutive, or vastly large; or whether they be merely accidental varieties, that now and then are seen in a country, in a few persons whose bodies some external cause has contributed to lessen or enlarge.

With regard to men of diminutive stature, all antiquity has been unanimous in asserting their national existence. Homer was the first who has given us an account of the pigmy nation contending with the cranes; and what poetical license might be supposed to exaggerate, Athenæus has attempted seriously to confirm by historical assertion. If we attend to these, we must believe that, in the internal parts of Africa, there are whole nations of pigmy beings, not more than a foot in stature, who continually wage an unequal war with the birds and beasts that inhabit the plains in which they reside. Some of the ancients, however, and Strabo in particular, have supposed all these accounts to be fabulous; and have been more inclined to think this supposed nation of pigmies nothing more than a species of apes, well known to be numerous in that part of the world. With this opinion the moderns have all concurred; and that diminutive race which was described as human, has been long degraded into a class of animals that resemble us but very imperfectly.

The existence, therefore, of a pigmy race of mankind being founded in error, or in fable, we can expect to find men of diminutive stature only by accident, among men of the ordinary size. Of these accidental dwarfs, every country, and almost every village, can produce numerous instances. There was a time when these unfavoured

4 Atheræus, ix. 390.

were,

from their poverty, incapable of affording | human race, is that of its extraordinary maghim any better nourishment; and his education nitude. Concerning the reality of a nation of was little better than his food, being bred up giants, there have been many disputes among the among the rustics of the place. At six years old learned. Some have affirmed the probability of he was about fifteen inches high; and his whole such a race; and others, as warmly have denied body weighed but thirteen pounds. Notwith- the possibility of their existence. But it is not standing this, he was well-proportioned and hand- from any speculative reasonings, upon a subject some; his health was good, but his understand- of this kind, that information is to be obtained; ing scarcely passed the bounds of instinct. It it is not from the disputes of the scholar, but the was at that time that the king of Poland, hav-labours of the enterprising, that we are to be ining heard of such a curiosity, had him convey-structed in this inquiry. Indeed, nothing can be ed to Lunenville, gave him the name of Baby, more absurd, than what some learned men have and kept him in his palace.

Baby, having thus quitted the hard condition of a peasant, to enjoy all the comforts and conveniences of life, seemed to receive no alteration from his new way of living, either in mind or person. He preserved the goodness of his constitution till about the age of sixteen, but his body seemed to increase very slowly during the whole time; and his stupidity was such, that all instructions were lost in improving his understanding. He could never be brought to have any sense of religion, nor even to show the least signs of a reasoning faculty. They attempted to teach him dancing and music, but in vain; he never could make anything of music; and as for dancing, although he beat time tolerably exact, yet he could never remember the figure, but while his dancing-master stood by to direct his motions. Notwithstanding, a mind thus destitute of understanding was not without its passions; anger and jealousy harassed it at times; nor was he without desires of another nature.

advanced upon this subject. It is very unlikely, says Grew, that there should either be dwarfs or giants; or if such, they cannot be fitted for the usual enjoyment of life and reason. Had man been born a dwarf, he could not have been a reasonable creature: for to that end he must have a jolt head, and then he would not have body and blood enough to supply his brain with spirits; or if he had a small head, proportionable to his body, there would not be brain enough for conducting life. But it is still worse with giants; and there could never have been a nation of such, for there would not be food enough found in any country to sustain them; or if there were beasts sufficient for this purpose, there would not be grass enough for their maintenance. But what is still more, add others, giants could never be able to support the weight of their own bodies; since a man of ten feet high, must be eight times as heavy as one of the ordinary stature; whereas he has but twice the size of muscles to support such a burden: and, consequently, would be overloaded with the weight of his own body. Such are the theories upon this subject; and they require no other answer, but that experience proves them both to be false: dwarfs are found capable of life and reason; and giants are seen to carry their own bodies. We have several accounts from mariners, that a nation of giants actually exists;, and mere speculation should never induce us to doubt their veracity.

Ferdinand Magellan was the first who discovered this race of people along the coast towards the extremity of South America. Magellan was a Portuguese, of noble extraction; who having long behaved with great bravery, under Albuquerque, the conqueror of India, he was treated with neglect by the court, upon his return. Applying, therefore, to the king of Spain, he was

At the age of sixteen, Baby was twenty-nine inches tall; at this he rested; but having thus arrived at his acme, the alterations of puberty, or rather, perhaps, of old age, came fast upon him. From being very beautiful, the poor little creature now became quite deformed; his strength quite forsook him; his back-bone began to bend; his head hung forward; his legs grew weak; one of his shoulders turned awry; and his nose grew disproportionably large. With his strength, his natural spirits also forsook him; and, by the time he was twenty, he was grown feeble, decrepit, and marked with the strongest impressions of old age. It had been before remarked by some, that he would die of old age before he arrived at thirty; and, in fact, by the time he was twenty-two, he could scarcely walk a hundred paces, being worn out with the multi-intrusted with the command of five ships, to subplicity of his years, and bent under the burden of protracted life. In this year he died ; a cold, attended with a slight fever, threw him into a kind of lethargy, which had a few momentary intervals; but he could scarcely be brought to speak. However, it is asserted, that in the five last days of his life, he showed a clearer understanding than in his times of best health: but at length he died, after enduring great agonies, in the twenty-second year of his age.

due the Molucca islands; upon one of which he was slain. It was in his voyage thither, that he happened to winter in St Julian's Bay, an American harbour, forty-nine degrees south of the line. In this desolate region, where nothing was seen but objects of terror, where neither trees nor verdure dressed the face of the country, they remained for some months without seeing any human creature. They had judged the country to be utterly uninhabitable; when one day they Opposite to this accidental diminution of the saw approaching, as if he had been dropped from

for the convenience of food, climate, or pasture."

This race of giants are described as possessed of great strength; and, no doubt, they must be very different from those accidental giants that are to be seen in different parts of Europe. Stature, with these, seems rather their infirmity than their pride; and adds to their burden, without increasing their strength. Of those I have

ful; weak in their persons, or incapable of exerting what strength they were possessed of. The same defects of understanding that attended those of suppressed stature, were found in those who were thus overgrown: they were heavy, phlegmatic, stupid, and inclined to sadness. Their numbers, however, are but few; and it is thus kindly ordered by Providence, that as the middle stature is the best fitted for happiness, so the middle ranks of mankind are produced in the greatest variety.

the clouds, a man of enormous stature, dancing and singing, and putting dust upon his head, as they supposed, in token of peace. This overture for friendship was, by Magellan's command, quickly answered by the rest of his men; and the giant approaching, testified every mark of astonishment and surprise. He was so tall, that the Spaniards only reached his waist; his face was broad, his colour brown, and painted over with a variety of tints; each cheek had the re-seen, the generality were ill-formed and unhealthsemblance of a heart drawn upon it; his hair was approaching to whiteness; he was clothed in skins, and armed with a bow. Being treated with kindness, and dismissed with some trifling presents, he soon returned with many more of the same stature; two of whom the mariners decoyed on ship-board: nothing could be more gentle than they were in the beginning; they considered the fetters that were preparing for them as ornaments, and played with them like children with their toys; but when they found for what purpose they were intended, they instantly exerted their amazing strength, and broke them in pieces with a very easy effort. This account, with a variety of other circumstances, has been confirmed by succeeding travellers. Herrara, Sebald Wert, Oliver Van Noort, and James le Maire, all correspond in affirming the fact, although they differ in many particulars of their respective descriptions. The last voyager we have had, that has seen this enormous race, is Commodore Byron. I have talked with the person who first gave the relation of that voyage, and who was the carpenter of the commodore's ship; he was a sensible, understanding man, and I believe extremely faithful. By him, therefore, I was assured, in the most solemn manner, of the truth of his relation; and this account has since been confirmed by one or two publications; in all which the particulars are pretty nearly the same. One of the circumstances which most puzzled me to reconcile to probability was that of the horses, on which they are described as riding down to the shore. We know the American horse to be of the European breed; and, in some measure, to be degenerated from the original. I was at a loss, therefore, to account how a horse of not more than fourteen hands high, was capable of carrying a man of nine feet; or, in other words, an animal almost as large as itself. But the wonder will cease, when we consider, that so small a beast as an ass will carry a man of ordinary size tolerably well; and the proportion between this and the former instance is nearly exact. We can no longer, therefore, refuse our assent to the existence of this gigantic race of mankind in what manner they are propagated, or under what regulations they live, is a subject that remains for future investigation. It should appear, however, that they are a wandering nation, changing their abode with the course of the sun, and shifting their situation

However, mankind seems naturally to have a respect for men of extraordinary stature; and it has been a supposition of long standing that our ancestors were much taller, as well as much more beautiful, than we. This has been, indeed, a theme of poetical declamation from the beginning; and man was scarcely formed, when he began to deplore an imaginary decay. Nothing is more natural than this progress of the mind, in looking up to antiquity with reverential wonder. Having been accustomed to compare the wisdom of our fathers with our own, in early imbecility, the impression of their superiority remains when they no longer exist, and when we cease to be inferior. Thus the men of every age consider the past as wiser than the present; and the reverence seems to accumulate as our imaginations ascend. For this reason, we allow remote antiquity many advantages, without disputing their title; the inhabitants of uncivilized countries represent them as taller and stronger; and the people of a more polished nation, as more healthy and more wise. Nevertheless, these attributes seem to be only the prejudices of ingenuous minds; a kind of gratitude, which we hope in turn to receive from posterity. The ordinary stature of men, Mr. Derham observes, is, in all probability, the same now as at the beginning. The oldest measure we have of the human figure, is in the monument of Cheops, in the first pyramid of Egypt. This must have subsisted many hundred years before the times of Homer, who is the first that deplores the decay. This monument, however, scarcely exceeds the measure of our ordinary coffins: the cavity is no more than six feet long, two feet wide, and deep in about the same proportion. Several mummies also, of a very early age, are found to be only of

6 Later voyagers have not confirmed this account, in some particulars.

the ordinary stature; and show that, for these three thousand years at least, men have not suffered the least diminution. We have many corroborating proofs of this, in the ancient pieces of armour which are dug up in different parts of Europe. The brass helmet dug up at Medauro fits one of our men, and yet is allowed to have been left there at the overthrow of Asdrubal. Some of our finest antique statues, which we learn from Pliny and others to be exactly as big as the life, still continue to this day, remaining monuments of the superior excellence of their workmen indeed, but not of the superiority of their stature. We may conclude, therefore, that men have been in all ages pretty much of the same size they are at present; and that the only difference must have been accidental, or perhaps national.

As to the superior beauty of our ancestors, it is not easy to make the comparison: beauty seems a very uncertain charm; and frequently is less in the object, than in the eye of the beholder. Were a modern lady's face formed exactly like the Venus of Medicis, or the sleeping vestal, she would scarce be considered beautiful, except by the lovers of antiquity, whom, of all her admirers, perhaps, she would be least desirous of pleasing. It is true, that we have some disorders among us that disfigure the features, and from which the ancients were exempt; but it is equally true, that we want some which were common among them, and which were equally deforming. As for their intellectual powers, these also were probably the same as ours: we excel them in the sciences, which may be considered as an history of accumulated experience; and they excel us in the poetic arts, as they had the first rifling of all the striking images of Nature.

be wholly forgotten. The soul, ardent after eternity for itself, is willing to procure, even for the body, a prolonged duration."

In

But of all nations, the Egyptians carried this art to the highest perfection: as it was a principle of their religion, to suppose the soul continued only coeval to the duration of the body, they tried every art to extend the life of the one by preventing the dissolution of the other. this practice they were exercised from the earliest ages; and the mummies they have embalmed in this manner continue in great numbers to the present day. We are told, in Genesis, that Joseph, seeing his father expire, gave orders to his physicians to embalm the body, which they executed in the compass of forty days, the usual time of embalming. Herodotus also, the most ancient of the profane historians, gives us a copious detail of this art, as it was practised, in his time, among the Egyptians. There are certain men among them, says he, who practise embalming as a trade; which they perform with all expedition possible. In the first place, they draw out the brain through the nostrils, with irons adapted to this purpose; and in proportion as they evacuate it in this manner, they fill up the cavity with aromatics: they next cut open the belly near the sides with a sharpened stone, and take out the entrails, which they cleanse, and wash in palm oil; having performed this operation, they roll them in aromatic powder, fill them with myrrh, cassia, and other perfumes, except incense; and replace them, sewing up the body again. After these precautions, they salt the body with nitre, and keep it in the salting place for seventy days, it not being permitted to preserve it so any longer. When the seventy days are accomplished, and the body washed once more, they swathe it in bands made of linen, which have been dipt in a gum the Egyptians use instead of salt. When the friends have taken back the body, they make a hollow trough, something like the shape of a man, in which they place the body; and this they enclose in a box, preserving the whole as a most precious relic, "MAN1 is not content with the usual term of life, placed against the wall. Such are the ceremobut he is willing to lengthen out his existence by nies used with regard to the rich. As for those art; and although he cannot prevent death, he who are contented with an humbler preparation, tries to obviate his dissolution. It is natural to they treat them as follows: they fill a syringe attempt to preserve even the most trifling relics with an odoriferous liquor extracted from the of what has long given us pleasure; nor does the cedar-tree, and, without making any incision, inmind separate from the body, without a wish, ject it up the body of the deceased, and then that even the wretched heap of dust it leaves be- keep it in nitre, as long as in the former case. hind may yet be remembered. The embalming When the time is expired, they evacuate the body practised in various nations, probably had its rise of the cedar liquor which had been injected; in this fond desire: an urn filled with ashes, and such is the effect of this operation, that the among the Romans, served as a pledge of continu- liquor dissolves the intestines, and brings them ing affection; and even the grassy graves in our away: the nitre also serves to eat away the flesh, own churchyards are raised above the surface, and leaves only the skin and the bones remainwith the desire that the body below should not ing. This done, the body is returned to the 1 This chapter I have, in a great measure, translat-friends, and the embalmer takes no farther trouWhatever is added from ble about it.

CHAP. XIII.

OF MUMMIES, WAX-WORKS, ETC.

ed from Mr. Daubenton.

others, is marked by inverted commas.

The third method of embalming those of the meanest condition is merely by purg