in Chronology, a cycle of 12 years; in use among the Turks and Cathayans.

Each year of the giach bears a name of some animal: the first that of a mouse; the second that of a bullock; the third of a lynx or leopard; the fourth of a hare; the fifth of a crocodile; the sixth of a serpent; the seventh of a horse; the eighth of a sheep; the ninth of a monkey; the tenth of a hen; the eleventh of a dog; and the twelfth of a hog.

They also divide the day into 12 parts, which they call giachs, and distinguish them by the name of some animals. Each giach contains two of our hours, and is divided into eight kels, as many as there are quarters in our hours.

GIALLOLINO, in Natural History, a fine yellow pigment, much used under the name of NAPLES YELLOW.

GIANT, a person of extraordinary bulk and stature.

The romances of all ages have furnished us with so many extravagant accounts of giants of incredible bulk and strength, that the existence of such people is now generally disbelieved. It is commonly thought, that the stature of men hath been the same in all ages; and some have even pretended to demonstrate the impossibility of the existence of giants mathematically. Of these our countryman Mr. Laurin hath been the most explicit. "In general (says he) it will easily appear, that the efforts tending to destroy the cohesion of beams arising from their own gravity only, increase in the quadruplicate ratio of their lengths: but that the opposite efforts tending to preserve their cohesion, increase only in the triplicate proportion of the same lengths. From which it follows, that the greater beams must be in greater danger of breaking than the lesser similar ones; and that though a lesser beam may be firm and secure, yet a greater similar one may be made so long, that it will necessarily break by its own weight. Hence Galileo justly concludes, that what appears very firm, and succeeds very well in models, may be very weak and infirm, or even fall to pieces by its own weight, when it comes to be executed in large dimensions according to the model. From the same principle he argues, that there are necessary limits in the operations of nature and art, which they cannot surpass in magnitude. Were trees of a very enormous size, their branches would fall by their own weight. Large animals have not strength in proportion to their size; and if there were any land animals much larger than those we know, they could hardly move, and would be perpetually subject to the most dangerous accidents. As to the animals of the sea, indeed, the case is different; for the gravity of the water in a great measure sustains those animals; and in fact there are known sometimes to be vastly larger than the greatest land animals. Nor does it avail against this doctrine to tell us, that bones have sometimes been found which were supposed to have belonged to giants of immense size; such as the skeletons mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, the former of which was 60 cubits high, and the latter 40: for naturalists have coalesced on just grounds, that in some cases these bones had belonged to elephants; and that the larger ones were bones of whales, which had been brought to the places where they were found by the revolutions of nature that have happened in past times. Though it must be owned, that there appears no reason why there may not have been men who have exceeded by some feet in height the tallest we have seen."

It will easily be seen, that arguments of this kind can never be conclusive; because, along with an increase of stature in any animal, we must always suppose a proportional increase in the cohesion of the parts of its body. Large works sometimes fail when constructed on the plan of models, because the cohesion of the materials whereof the model is made, and of the large work, are the same; but a difference in this respect will produce a very remarkable difference in the ultimate result. Thus, suppose a model is made of firwood, the model may be strong and firm enough; but a large work made also of fir, when executed according to the plan of the model, may be so weak that it will fall to pieces by its own weight. If, however, we make use of iron for the large work instead of fir, the whole will be sufficiently strong, even though made exactly according to the plan of the model. The like may be said with regard to large and small animals. If we could find an animal whose bones exceeded in hardness and strength the bones of other animals as much as iron exceeds fir, such an animal might be of a monstrous size, and yet be exceedingly strong. In like manner, if we suppose the flesh and bones of a giant to be greatly superior in hardness and strength to the bones of other men, the great size of his body will be no objection at all to his strength. The whole of the matter therefore concerning the existence of giants must rest on the credibility of the accounts we have from those who pretend to have seen them, and not on any arguments drawn a priori.

In the Scripture we are told of giants, who were produced from the marriages of the sons of God with the daughters of men. This passage indeed has been differently interpreted, so as to render it doubtful whether the word translated giants does there imply any extraordinary stature. In other parts of Scripture, however, giants, with their dimensions, are mentioned in such a manner that we cannot possibly doubt; as in the case of Og king of Bashan, and Goliath. In a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences at Rouen, M. Le Cat gives the following account of giants that are said to have existed in different ages.

"Profane historians have given seven feet of height..." David Hunter's relation above quoted; but in that case they usually show signs of terror, by whining and creeping to their master for protection; and it is generally supposed that they often see things of this nature when their owner cannot; there being some persons, particularly those born on a Christmas eve, who cannot see spirits.

"The coming of a spirit is announced some time before its appearance, by a variety of loud and dreadful noises; sometimes rattling in the old hall like a coach and six, and rumbling up and down the stairs—like the trundling of bowls or cannon balls. At length the door flies open, and the spectre stalks slowly up to the bed's foot, and opening the curtains, looks steadfastly at the person in bed by whom it is seen; a ghost being very rarely visible to more than one person, although there are several in company. It is here necessary to observe, that it has been universally found by experience, as well as affirmed by diverse apparitions themselves, that a ghost has not the power to speak till it has been first spoken to; so that notwithstanding the urgency of the business on which it may come, everything must stand still till the person visited can find sufficient courage to speak to it; an event that sometimes does not take place for many years. It has not been found that female ghosts are more loquacious than those of the male sex, both being equally restrained by this law.

"The mode of addressing a ghost is by commanding it, in the name of the Three Persons of the Trinity, to tell you who it is, and what is its business; this it may be necessary to repeat three times; after which it will, in a low and hollow voice, declare its satisfaction at being spoken to, and desire the party addressing it not to be afraid, for it will do him no harm. This being premised, it commonly enters into its narrative; which being completed, and its request or commands given, with injunctions that they be immediately executed, it vanishes away, frequently in a flash of light; in which case, some ghosts have been so considerate as to desire the party to whom they appeared to shut their eyes; sometimes its departure is attended with delightful music. During the narration of its business, a ghost must by no means be interrupted by questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous: if any doubts arise, they must be stated after the spirit has done its tale. Questions respecting its state, or the state of any of their former acquaintance, are offensive, and not often answered; spirits perhaps being restrained from divulging the secrets of their prison house. Occasionally spirits will even condescend to talk on common occurrences, as is instanced by Glanvil in the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke, relation 10th, wherein the major reproved the captain for suffering a sword he had given him to grow rusty: saying, 'Captain, captain, this sword did not use to be kept after this manner when it was mine?' This attention to the state of arms, was a remnant of the major's professional duty when living.

"It is somewhat remarkable that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this world. In cases of murder, a ghost, instead of going to the next justice of the peace, and laying its information, or to the nearest relation of the person murdered, appears to some poor labourer who knows none of the parties, draws the curtains of some decrepit nurse or alms woman, or hovers about the place where his body is deposited. The same circuitous mode is pursued with respect to redressing injured orphans or widows; when it seems as if the shortest and most certain way would be, to go to the person guilty of the injustice, and haunt him continually till he be terrified into a restitution. Nor is the pointing out lost writings generally managed in a more summary way; the ghost commonly applying to a third person ignorant of the whole affair, and a stranger to all concerned. But it is presumptuous to scrutinize too far into these matters: ghosts have undoubtedly forms and customs peculiar to themselves.

"If, after the first appearance, the persons employed neglect, or are prevented from, performing the mischief or business committed to their management, the ghost appears continually to them, at first with a discontented, next an angry, and at length with a furious countenance, threatening to tear them in pieces if the matter is not forthwith executed; sometimes terrifying them, as in Glanvil's relation 26th, by appearing in many formidable shapes, and sometimes even striking them a violent blow. Of blows given by ghosts there are many instances, and some wherein they have been followed with an incurable lameness.

"It should have been observed, that ghosts, in delivering their commissions, in order to ensure belief, communicate to the persons employed some secret, known only to the parties concerned and themselves, the relation of which always produces the effect intended. The business being completed, ghosts appear with a cheerful countenance, saying they shall now be at rest, and will never more disturb any one; and, thanking their agents, by way of reward communicate to them something relative to themselves, which they will never reveal.

"Sometimes ghosts appear, and disturb a house, without deigning to give any reason for doing so: with these, the shortest and only way is to exorcise, and eject them; or, as the vulgar term is, lay them. For this purpose there must be two or three clergymen, and the ceremony must be performed in Latin; a language that strikes the most audacious ghost with terror. A ghost may be laid for any term less than 100 years, and in any place or body, full or empty; as, a solid oak—the pommel of a sword—a barrel of beer, if a yeoman or simple gentleman—or a pipe of wine, if an esquire or a justice. But of all places the most common, and what a ghost least likes, is the Red Sea; it being related, in many instances, that ghosts have most earnestly besought the exorcists not to confine them in that place. It is nevertheless considered as an indisputable fact, that there are an infinite number laid there, perhaps from its being a safer prison than any other nearer at hand; though neither history nor tradition gives us any instance of ghosts escaping or returning from this kind of transportation before their time.

"Another species of human apparition may be here noticed, though it does not come under the strict description of a ghost. These are the exact figures and resemblances of persons then living, often seen not only by their friends at a distance, but many times by themselves; selves; of which there are several instances in Aubery's Miscellanies: one of Sir Richard Napier, a physician of London, who being on the road from Bedfordshire to visit a friend in Berkshire, saw at an inn his own apparition lying on his bed as a dead corpse; he nevertheless went forward, and died in a short time: another of Lady Diana Rich, daughter of the earl of Holland, who met her own apparition walking in a garden at Kennington, and died a month after of the smallpox. These apparitions are called fetches; in Cumberland, fixarts; and in Scotland, swraiths: they most commonly appear to distant friends and relations, at the very instant preceding the death of the person whose figure they put on. Sometimes, as in the instances above mentioned, there is a greater interval between the appearance and death." For a philosophical inquiry into the subject of apparitions in general, see the article Spectre.