| of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits
the breadth of it."
Again, Deut. ii, 19: "I will not give thee of the land of the
children of Ammon any possession, because I have give it unto the
children of Lot for a possession. That also was accounted a land
of giants—giants dwelt there in old times, and the Ammonites call
them Zamzummims a people great and many, and tall as the
Anakins."
Homer and Virgil both speak of the Cyclops—persons of huge
stature and immense strength. I have often thought that the extrava-
gant tales of the poets concerning people of enormous stature were
founded on original truths; and though they are sometimes so
confused that we find it very difficult to draw a correct line between
truth and fable, some general ideas can be formed from them of
the character of the men of remote antiquity. It is certain that the
persons who introduced architecture into Greece were remarkable
for their extraordinary size and great strength. Herodotus alludes
to them under the name of Cadmians, and his views of their form
and stature are gathered from the wonderful character of the struc-
tures which they built.
While standing in the central hall of the pyramid I thought of
the lines of Teage, the Liberian poet, when urging his
countrymen to noble deeds:
"From pyramidal hall,
From Karnac's sculptured wall,
From Thebes they loudly call—
Retake your fame."
This, thought I, is the work of my African progenitors, Teage was
right; they had fame, and their descendants should strive, by nobler
deeds, to "retake" it. Feelings came over me far different from those
which I have felt when looking at the mighty works of European
genius. I felt that I had a peculiar "heritage in the Great Pyramid"—
built before the tribes of mankind had been so generally scattered,
and, therefore, before they had acquired their different geographical characteristics, but built by that branch of the descendants of Noah,
the enterprising sons of Ham, from whom I am descended. The blood
seemed to flow faster through my veins. I seemed to hear the echo
of those illustrious Africans. I seemed to feel the impulse from those
stirring characters who sent civilization into Greece—the teachers
of the father of poetry, history, and mathematics—Homer, Herodo-
tus, and Euclid. I seemed to catch the sound of the "stately
steppings" of Jupiter, as, with his brilliant celestial retinue, he
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