Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/375

LEFT GHUBI 311 GIARRETTA W. from Kandahar; inhabited by Ha- zaras and Eimaks, and since 1845 has been included in the territory of Herat. GHUm, a dynasty of princes who had »" the seat of their empire in the country of Ghur, and ruled over Persia, Afghan- istan, northern Hindustan, and Trans- oxiana. We first read of Ghur in con- nection with Mahmud of Ghazni and his son Masaud, the latter of whom sub- jugated the region in 1020. About a century later Malik Izzuddin made him- self ruler of all the Ghur country. His son, Alauddin Jahansoz (the Burner), fell upon Ghazni, and took it and bui-ned it to the ground. This prince's nephews, Ghiyassuddin and Muizuddin, established their power in Khorasan and Ghazni. The latter, crossing the Indus, then con- quered successively the provinces of Multan (1176), Lahore (1186), and Aj- mere (1190), and in the course of the next six years, all Hindustan as far S. as Nagpur and E. to the Irawadi. On the death of Muizzuddin the Indian states asserted their independence, the power of the Ghuri being confined to Ghur, Seistan, and Herat. This last feeble remnant was taken from them by the Shah of Kharezm about 1215. Some 30 years later the Ghur princes managed to revive something of their former power at Herat, which they retained by sufferance from the Mongols down to 1383, when the city was captured by Timur, and the Ghur sovereignty came to an end. GHUZ EL-HISS AR, a town of Ana- tolia in Asia Minor, 55 miles from Smyrna, the site of ancient Tralles. GIA-DINH. See Saigon. GIANTS, people of extraordinary stature. History makes mention of giants, and even of races of giants, but this in general occurs only at an early stage of civilization when the national mind is apt to exaggerate anything un- usual. The first mention of giants in the Bible is in Gen. vi: 4, where the Hebrew word used is nephilim, a word which occurs in only one other passage, where it is applied to the sons of Anak, who dwelt about Hebron, and who were described by the terrified spies as of such size that compared with them they appeared in their own sight as grass- hoppers. A race of giants called the Rephaim is frequently mentioned in the Bible, and in Gen. xiv. and xv. appear as a distinct tribe, of whom Og, King of Bashan, is said to have been the last. Other races of giants are mentioned, such as the Emim, the Zuzim, and the Zamzummim. The tales of old wi-iters regarding gigantic human skeletons have now no importance, it being mostly cer- tain that these bones do not belong to giants, but to animals of the primitive woi'ld which, from ignorance of an- atomy, were taken for human bones. A gigantic human skeleton, however, the largest ever recorded, was found in 1899, near Miamisburg, O., in a locality which contains many relics of the mound builders. It is of prehistoric age and is fossilized. It must have belonged to a man 8 feet 1^,'^ inches high, and extremely well proportioned. The skull is of an extremely low order and resembles that of the gorilla, the jaws projecting be- yond the face. GIANTS' CAUSEWAY (deriving its name from a legend that it was the com- mencement of a road to be constructed by giants across the channel to Scot- land), a natural pier or mole of colum- nar basalt, projecting from the N. coast of Antrim, Ireland, into the North Chan- nel, 7 miles N. E. of Portrush. It is part of an overlying mass of basalt from 300 to 500 feet in thickness, which covers almost the whole county of An- trim and the E. part of Londonderry. It is exposed for 300 yards, and exhibits an unequal pavement, formed of the tops of 40,000 vertical closely fitting polyg- onal columns, which in shape are chiefly hexagonal. The diameter of the pillars varies from 15 to 20 inches. Each pillar is divided into joints of unequal length, the concave hollow at the end of one division fitting exactly into the con- vex projection of the other. The Giants' Causeway is itself formed of three causeways, the Little, Middle or Honey- comb, and the Grand Causeway. On the Little Causeway may be seen an octagon, pentagon, hexagon, and heptagon all to- gether; on the Middle Causeway is the famous Wishing Chair, with two arms and a back, on the platform where the columns rise to a height of about 10 feet. At the starting point is the Giants' Loom, an imposing row of columns 30 feet high, each intersected by about 30 joints; to the left is the Giants' Well, to the right the Giants' Chair. GIARRE (jai-'re), a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, on the E. slope of Mount Etna. The surrounding dis- trict produces excellent wine. Pop. about 18,000. GIARRETTA (jtir-ret'ta), or SI- METO (se-ma'to), a river of Sicily, which, with its affluents, the Adriano, Trachino, Dettaino, and Chrisas, waters the plain of Catania, and the portion of the island W. of Mount Etna. It rises 20 miles S. E. of Caronia, and after a very tortuous course of 50 miles enters the Mediterranean 6 miles S. of Catania.