The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

i6 ATHLETIC SPORTS OF SCOTLAND. have been a world too wide for the shrunk shanks ofthe puny men of the nineteenth century; but the fact was clear, it was in most cases far too little. There are considerable collections of old armour inmany castlesin England and Scotland, and within a radius ofa few miles of each collection you will find scores of men of the present time that could not get a single coat of mail large enoughto fit them. We are asked to look at such works as the great Pyramids of Egypt, and to judge from them the mighty men of old. We admit the grandeur of the Pyramids, but we do not need to judge ofthe sizeof the builders from the buildings, as they have handed down their exact size, and we find nothing to wonder at except their inferiority to many modern races. The occasionalgiants ofhistory andtradition— nowise lessenedin bulk during transmission—find their equals in our midst atfairs or in side shows of the "greatest show on earth." In short, the idea that the human race asa whole is degenerating is a popular delusion founded on ignorance of the plainest and mostundeniable facts. As the idea that men are falling off in size is a mistaken one, there are good grounds for doubting that anyman of former times ever performed a feat of strength beyond the powersof the strongest man of the present time. In popular estimation SAMSON (the originalone) remains the typicalstrong man,and many people will think it bordering on sacrilege to doubt his claimto be thestrongest man that ever lived. Yet what feat is recorded of him that has anyundoubted definite value asmeasure of strength ? He killed a young lion with his hands. Polydamus, who will be mentioned later on, killed with his bare hands ahuge and fierce lion, as also did Richard Coeur de Lion, accordingto history. Samson broke ropes of various kinds. How strong were they? Breaking ropes and chains are very indefinite proofs of strength. He killed icoo men with the jawbone of an ass. To fracture a man's skull with such a weapon needs no very exceptional amount of strength, as several men have killed a man with one blow of the bare fist. If the 1000men were all opposed to him