Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/333

Rh and they have pieces of the bones which belong to them, which they use as charms. The Dacotas use such bones for "medicine," and say they belong to the great horned water-beast, the Unk-a- ta-he. Hiawatha helped the Indians to subdue the great monsters that overran the country. The "Tom Thumb" of the Chippewas killed the giants and hacked them into little pieces, saying, "Henceforth let no man be larger than you are now," and so men became of their present size. There are plenty more such stories. One mentioned by Dr. Wilson has the interesting feature that monsters and giants both perished by the thunderbolts of the Great Spirit, and in another all the monsters were thus slain except the Big Bull, who went off to the Great Lakes. It must be borne in mind, however, that in speculating on the origin of tales such as these, possible recollections of contests of men with huge animals now extinct must be taken into consideration, as well as inferences from the finding of large bones, and sometimes even both causes may have worked together.

In the Old World, myths both old and new connected with huge bones, fossil or recent, are common enough. Marcus Scaurus brought to Rome, from Joppa, the bones of the monster who was to have devoured Andromeda, while the vestiges of the chains which bound her were to be seen there on the rock; and the sepulchre of Antæus, containing his skeleton, 60 cubits long, was found in Mauritania.

Don Quixote was beforehand with Dr. Falconer in reasoning on the huge fossil bones so common in Sicily as remains of ancient inhabitants, as appears from his answer to the barber's question, how big he thought the giant Morgante might have be-on? "... Moreover, in the island of Sicily there have been found long-bones and shoulder-bones so huge, that their size manifests their owners to have been giants, and as big as great towers, for this truth geometry sets beyond doubt." Again, the fossil bones so plentifully strewed over the Sewalik, or lowest ranges of the Himalayas, belonged to the slain Rakis,