Seneb was a 4th or early 5th Dynasty dwarf and was chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of the funerary cults of Khufu. A statue still exists of him and it depicts him with his family - including his wife who was of normal stature. Also, the Egyptian gods Bes and Ptah were often depicted as dwarves. To say that dwarves were accepted and often revered members of ancient Egyptian society would be an understatement.

Dwarfism was unusually common in ancient Egypt – in fact, over 150 mummified dwarves and skeletons are currently in museum collections and scenes depicting dwarfs often adorned tomb walls. The reason for this is quite simple. The specific form of dwarfism that was present was achondroplasia – which is one of many forms of dwarfism. But Achondroplasia, which is characterized by abnormal bone growth that results in short stature with disproportionately short arms and legs, a large head, and characteristic facial features, is a dominant genetic mutation – thus there is a 50% chance of passing the trait to offspring. Considering the fact that Egypt was a closed society for quite some time and the total acceptance of dwarfs, the chance for these individuals to procreate without prejudice was favorable.

Dwarves are not to be confused with pigmies though. Pygmies are and entire race of persons of small stature first extensively written of by Homer in the Iliad. The Geranomachia, or pygmy war, was a popular topic for ancient writers and during the early modern age naturalist were clamoring to ‘rediscover’ the pygmies. In the late 1699, Edward Tyson wrote a lengthy paper on a pygmy he dissected attempting to prove that the creature was not human and thus modern man was superior. He proved to be correct in his first assumption as, looking back on the document; the pygmy was actually a chimpanzee.

The first pygmy to be rediscovered was named Akadimoo and belonged to the ‘Aka’ tribe who dwell in the forests of Africa. The account, which occurred in 1870, was recorded by botanist George August Schweinfurth:

‘I looked up and, sure enough, was the strange little creature perched upon Mohammed’s right shoulder, nervously hugging his head, and casting glances of alarm in every direction. Thus, at last, I was able to feast my eyes upon a living embodiment of the myths of some thousand years!’

Three years later two children of the Aka tribe, named Thibaut and Chair-Allah were presented to King Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.

In broad terms, a pygmy is a member of a tribe in which the top height is less than 150 centimeters (four feet and ten inches) however the shortest tribe is Efe at 135 centimeters (four feet and five inches). Furthermore, pygmies tend to have shorter legs and longer arms when compared to the average man. Also, their teeth and heads also appear to be larger that what is considered proportional.

And then there are midgets and giants.

A midget is essentially a slang term for a proportioned individual in miniature while a giant is basically a proportion, uh, giant human being. Both have been staples of the sideshow and countless human curiosity stories and both result from a similar cause.

At the base of the brain lies the pituitary gland. On average, it is the size of a pea and it secretes a total of six hormones. But the hormone is question here is growth hormone – of which it makes one thousand times more that any of the other five. Secreted into the bloodstream it tells the cells of the body to grow and divide. By entering the bloodstream, it ensures that all portions of the body grow at an equal rate.

In gigantism – the condition of being a giant, of which there are about 50 subgroups – the pituitary gland produces far too much growth hormone and is usually due to an enlarged gland. This enlargement is either genetic or the result of a tumor and mutation and in one case, that of the Irish giant Charles Byrne (pictured above), the enlarged pituitary was comparable in size to a peach.

In the case of a midget, the gland is either too small or the cells lack the receptors the growth hormone binds to. The lack of a receptor can be a mutation or genetic – as exampled by a village in the Ecuadorian Andes where and entire community, inbreed due to location, are all midgets under four feet in height.

Lastly, there is one documented case in which a man was both a dwarf and a giant during his lifetime. Adam Rainer was born in Graz, Austria in 1899 and at the age of 21 he stood only three feet, ten and a half inches. But his height soon began to increase at an astonishing rate and by his 32nd birthday he stood just less than seven feet and two inches. He died on March 4, 1950, at the age of 51 and at a height of seven feet and ten inches – which was twice his measurement at age 21.

Adam Rainer is the only person in medical history to have been classified both as a dwarf and a giant.

Many of these marvel of early record are baffling in their descriptions. According to Paré there was a boy born in 1493 that was ‘the result of illicit intercourse between a woman and a dog’. The creature was said to have the lower extremities of its canine father. In his 1557 book Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon Conrad Lycosthenes states that in the year 1110, in the ‘Bourg of Liège’, there was born a child with the head, hands, and feet of a man, and the rest of the body like that of a pig. Lycosthenes also references the birth of a ‘serpent’ by a woman. Other animal / human hybrid marvels include a child born at Cracovia in 1547 which ‘had a head shaped like that of a man; a nose long and hooked like an elephant’s trunk; hands and feet looking like the web-foot of a goose; and a tail with a hook in it’. The child was reported to have lived for three days.

These very early accounts are likely quite true, but the descriptions attributed are simply the documenters attempt to relate what they saw in terms they and the audience could comprehend. These animal-men were most certainly human beings born with serious genetic mutations and deformities with features that in some way resembled animal characteristics. Those animal comparisons continued well into the golden age of sideshow with epithets like Lobster Boy, Dog Faced Boy, Alligator-Skinned Man, Monkey Girl and others.

Other marvels are described in legitimate detail; however, their names are lost in history. Roger of Wendover, the English chronicler, in 1062 Normandy there was a report of a ‘female monster’ - two women joined about the umbilicus (belly button) and fused into a single lower extremity. According to Roger of Wendover, the monster took its food by two mouths but expelled it from a single orifice. The account also relates how one of them died, and the survivor bore her dead sister about for three years before she was overcome by the oppression and stench of the cadaver

Lycosthenes reported seeing a ‘double monster’ an infant he also states ‘took its food and drink simultaneously in its two mouths’. Another account by Saint Augustine reports that he knew of a child born in ‘the Orient who’ who was conjoined to his brother from the belly up. Paré gives an account of twins, born near Heidelberg in 1486, that had double bodies joined back to back and most remarkably one of the twins had the aspect of a female and the other of a male and though both had two sets of genitals. Bartholinus wrote of a three-headed monster who survived very briefly after birth and another account of two girls, born in 1495, joined at the These girls were said to be normal in every respect, except for the forehead union, and ‘when one walked forward, the other was compelled to walk backward; their noses almost touched, and their eyes were directed laterally’. When one of these girls died, an attempt to separate the other from the cadaver was made, but proved unsuccessful and the second girl soon died. A second example, almost identical, was made in 1501 and a third allegedly occurred soon after in St. Petersburg. There are also accounts of a ‘two-headed monster’ born in Ferrari, Italy, in 1540 – the child was said to be healthy and well formed but possessed two sets of genitals, one male and the other female.

Other nameless wonders include a boy born in 1529 who had two heads, four ears, four arms, but only two thighs and two legs. A rather detailed account exists of Swiss double headed man who, in 1538 at the age of thirty, ‘possessed of a beard on each face, the two bodies fused at the umbilicus into a single lower extremity. These two twins resembled one another in contour and countenance. They were so joined that at rest they looked upon one another. They had a single wife, with whom they were said to have lived in harmony’. About one hundred and fifty years later in the Gentleman's Magazine a portrait and description of a double woman was featured. Apparently the young was something of exhibition in parts of Europe but little information can be found of her and her physical situation with the exception that it was stated that she had two heads, two necks, four arms, two legs, one pelvis, and one set of pelvic organs.

These are only a few and truly it is a shame that these persons, immortalized by appearance only hundreds of year after there unique lives have ended, are anonymous. What personal stories and recollections they may have had to share. The triumphs and tribulations of the human spirit are far more interesting that the malformed bodies that vessel said spirit.

Julia’s origins are shrouded in mystery. It is believed that she was born in 1834 to a tribe of ‘Root Digger’ Indians in the western slopes of Mexico. However, what is highly obvious is that Julia had appearance unlike any marvel before her on record. In addition to excessive hairiness over her body – predominately in the face – Julia also possessed a jutting jaw and swollen gums. In odd juxtaposition to her ape like features, Julia possessed great poise, and a well developed a buxom four and a half foot figure.

Her documented career began in 1854 as she was exhibited in New York at the Gothic Hall on Broadway as ‘The Marvelous Hybrid or Bear Woman’. Her ‘handler’ was one M. Rates who allegedly discovered the young Julia as a servant girl to the governor of Sinaloa, Mexico. While in New York, Julia attracted the attention of many scientific minds and media moguls. One newspaper described her as ‘terrifically hideous’ and possessing a ‘harmonious voice’ – which gives evidence that she sang during her exhibition. One of the members of Medical society to examine her was Dr. Alexander Mott who declared her ‘the most extraordinary beings of the present day’ and ‘a hybrid between human and orangutan’.

Julia then moved on to Cleveland with a new promoter, J. W. Beach, and it is there that Dr. S. Brainerd declared her a ‘distinct species’. That analysis was, of course, quickly added to all subsequent promotional materials.

Julia impressed many with her charm and grace. When invited to attend a military gala, she waltzed with many of the braver men there and, while in Boston – billed as the “Hybrid Indian: The Misnomered Bear Woman – Julia again impressed with her grace and singing voice. So much so that she was put on exhibition by both the Horticultural Society and the Boston History Society.

Julia was preceded in London, England by impressive newspaper announcements touting her as ‘a Grand and Novel Attraction’. Now going by the epithet ‘The Nondescript’ – a term that in this era mean something unexplainable – Julia was now being show by one Mr. Theodore Lent and was a rousing success. In fact, the bulk of the documentation on Julia comes from this time period, when London reporter could not stop debating her origins and describing her appearance in lengthy articles. In these articles, Julia is described as being very civilized and domestic. In addition to her native language, she also spoke Spanish and English quite well. She loved to travel, cook and sew. She willing gave herself to medical examination and was said to have an eager thirst for knowledge. These articles also seemed to emphasize that she was both happy and content with her situation and she did not covet wealth – though her ‘handler’ Mr. Lent surely did. During her performances in London, Julia sang romances in both Spanish and English and danced what are described as ‘fancy dances’ – likely traditional Spanish numbers.

After London Mr. Lent secured a tour of Berlin and in Leipzig, Julia played the leading role in a play called Der curierte Meyer. In the play, a young German boy falls in love with a woman who always wears a veil. When the young man was not on stage, Julia would lift her veil to the great amusement of the audience. The play ends with the young man finally seeing his beloved – and being cured of his infatuation. Following the play, the weekly magazine Gartenlaube published an extensive interview with Julia – an article published with a fantastic life sketch by the artist H. Konig (pictured above). The article consisted of Julia speaking on her tours of America and London and of the numerous marriage proposals she had received. She claimed to have turned down over twenty admirers because ‘they were not rich enough’. That was a response that the reporter suspected Mr. Lent had coached – in the hopes of attracting a rich suitor.

That notion was short lived and Mr. Lent, wary of loosing his investment in Julia to rivals, married her in 1857. While there is evidence that Julia was infatuated with her husband, Mr. Lent was not a kind man. While in Vienna he forced Julia to undergo sensitive physical examinations and barred her from leaving their apartment during daylight. As their tour through Poland and on to Moscow continued, Mr. Lent became more and more controlling. In late 1859, while in Moscow, it was discovered that Julia was pregnant. The doctors feared a difficult childbirth due to Julia’s stature and narrow hips; however Julia was more concerned that the baby should take after its father. On March 20, 1860 her fears were confirmed when she gave birth to a hair covered newborn boy. The child lived only thirty-five hours.

Julia died five days later.

During her lifetime Julia, though treated little more than an object by her promoters, did meet many influential people. She was visited by P.T. Barnum himself and even Charles Darwin acknowledged her in his book The Variation of Animal and Plants under Domestication with the words ‘Julia Pastrana, a Spanish dancer, was a remarkably fine woman – she had a thick and masculine beard’. Her condition at the time was unknown, yet given all the evidence: excessive hair, melodic voice, dental deformations and a child born with excessive hair– it is likely that she suffered from a form hypertrichosis lanuginose. All of her interviews and personal anecdotes promote the idea that she was a happy and content woman – pleased with her lot in life. Yet, one is left with a sour feeling when reflecting on the events of her life.

However, that is nothing compared to the feeling one suffers when recounting her afterlife.

Shortly after her death, Mr. Lent continued his commercial aspirations with Julia. He sold her corpse, as well as the body of his son, to Professor Sukolov of Moscow University. The Professor took the bodies to his Anatomical Institute, dissected them, and then – using unknown embalming techniques – mummified the bodies of Julia and her son. The entire process took six months and the results, while macabre, were impressive. Unlike the mummies of ancient Egypt, these mummified remains retained their color, texture and form and appeared very lifelike. Sukolov placed the mummies in the anatomical museum of the University where they attracted great crowds.

When Mr. Lent heard of the profit his wife and child were earning in death he went about legal proceedings to reclaim them. He presented his marriage certificate to the American consul and Sukolov was forced to release the remains. Lent tried to put the mummies on display in Russia but the authorities refused as they were outside the confines of a scientific institute. Thus, in February of 1862 Lent return to England to show Julia Pastrana again. The price was only a shilling and, with the added attraction of the mummified infant, the exhibit was packed with onlookers. Inside it was said that the ‘Embalmed Nondescript’ stood dressed in one of her many dancing costumes while her son stood to her left – atop a small pedestal and dressed in a sailor suit.

When the popularity of the exhibit began to fade, Lent rented the mummies to an English traveling museum of curiosities. In 1864 they were taken on a tour of Sweden. Most unbelievably, during that same time, Lent met a young lady with a condition very similar to Julia. In fact, unbelievably, the two looked so much alike that Lent married her as well and began touring her as Zenora Pastrana – Julia’s sister. The mummy rejoined Lent for a time and the four of them toured together, however Lent rented to mummies to a Vienna museum and began to claim that Zenora and Julia were one and the same.

Lent and Zenora retired to St. Petersburg in the early 1880’s and purchased a small waxworks museum. Lent was quite wealthy by this time however he was unable to enjoy his wealth as, shortly after retirement, he experienced a mental breakdown and disappeared behind the walls of a sanitarium. It is assumed that he died shortly thereafter.

Zenora left Russia for Munich in 1888 where she reclaimed the mummies and toured with then – this time to ‘prove’ that she was not Julia. In 1889 Zenora gave the mummies to an anthropological exhibit in Munich run by a man named J. B. Gassner before she retired again and remarried to a much younger man.

Gassner took the mummies to various German fairs and, in 1895, he took them to a large circus convention in Vienna and sold them to the highest bidder. In the next twenty-five years the mummies changed hands several times and showed up again in 1921 when a Mr. Lund bought them for his Norwegian ‘chamber of horrors’. At this point, it is unclear if Lund knew these mummies were real as the medical community considered them lost.

In 1943, during the German occupation, the chamber of horrors collection was ordered to be destroyed however Lund was able to convince authorities that a tour of the ‘Apewoman’ - as Julia was now called - would prove beneficial to the treasury of the Third Reich. For several year, Julia and her son toured German occupied territories.

In 1953, Lund stored his chamber of horrors collection, including the mummies, in a large warehouse just outside of Oslo. For several years rumors spread that the warehouse was occupied by a strange ape-like creature and one night in the mid 50’s teens broke into the warehouse and Julia terrified them – some 80 years after her death. The experience and rumors that followed grew so popular that Lund’s son Hans (Lund had since passed away) took the chamber out of storage and back on popular display until the mid 60’s. Still, no one truly realized that these mummies were actual human beings.

That changed in 1969 when Judge Hofheinz, a very wealthy American collector of the unusual hired a small team of detectives to track down the mummies of Julia and her child. It was a circus director named Rhodin who eventually tracked down some pamphlets and posters and made contact with Hans. Now aware of the priceless relic he now possessed, Hans instigated a bidding war only to decline all offers and put the mummies back on exhibit himself. The press picked up the story of Julia and the exhibit proved so popular that it toured Sweden and Norway in 1970. In 1971, they made their way back to the United States – over one hundred year after the living Julia began her career there. The tour was cut short in America due to public outcry and when Hans attempted to return to Norway – he was denied exhibition rights. Undeterred, Hans rented the mummies to a Swedish traveling show until good taste arrived and the exhibition was banned there as well. Defeated, Hans placed the mummies in storage in 1973.

In August of 1976, the storage facility was broken into and the mummies vandalized. The child was badly damaged as its jaw and arm were torn off. His remains were thrown in a ditch outside and before it could be located – it was almost entirely eaten by mice – only scraps remained. Julia now stood alone.

In 1979, the storage facility was again broken into and this time Julia was stolen. It was presumed that it too was destroyed.

Then, in February of 1990, a Norwegian journalist discovered the mummy in the basement of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Oslo. In 1979 police responded to a call involving some children who found an arm in a ditch. A search of the area revealed the mummified body of Julia, badly mangled. Unsure of what to do or even what it was, the police brought the mummy to the institute where it remained limbo - no one really paying it any attention.

Apparently it is still there – tucked away in some corner covered with a dusty blanket.

image: illustration byH. Konig, originally produced in the magaize Gartenlaube
Adapted from the work of Jan Bondeson and his book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities and the book Very Special People.

The first person exhibited due to sheer mass is lost in history. Although, history does tend to point out some of more prolifically portly persons – though few ever were sideshow attractions. Galen, a first century Roman physician, reported meeting Nichomachus of Smyrna - a man who was so heavy that he could not move nor be moved from his bed. Other ancient texts cite the case of an unnamed Roman senator who was only able to walk when two slaves carried his belly for him, and another yarn of an Egyptian pharaoh whose belly was broader than the ‘span of a man's outstretched arms’.

Dionysius of Heracleia, who died around 305 BC, was well know in his time for his great appetite and he eventually grew so large that he could scarcely move. Furthermore, he allegedly suffered from sleep apnea and narcolepsy. His doctors feared that he would die sitting on his throne – thus servants were hired to prick him with needles should he nod off while squatting upon it. The strange treatment seemed to work as he lived to the age of fifty-five – even earning a noble reputation as large as his corpulence.

The Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave once observed a man who took his meals at a table that ‘had been cut away in a semicircle to accommodate his circumference’. Furthermore the man ‘not having slaves to help him, used a sling worn around his shoulders to carry his belly’. In 1789 a popular Gentleman’s magazine told of a man who hadn't left his bed under his own power for three years. Allegedly pulleys were needed to accommodate a maid in changing the sheets. In 1889, an attempt was made to put a young French woman in Plaisance on exhibit. It was said that ‘eight men could not move her from her room’. As it turned out, she couldn’t fit through the door and the idea of exhibition was abandoned.

The problem with all of these tales, even those of the largest man to even walk the earth - Mills Darden - is that it is human nature to exaggerate. Even in cases where exaggeration is not evident – estimation is, thus this presented information is somewhat unreliable. So, is there any case in history where the bulk of evidence matches the human stature?

On March 13, 1770 a man was born in Leicester in England whose name would enter into the English language to be synonymous with colossal. Daniel Lambert was a fairly rotund man in his youth; healthy and stout. He was of average height and born unto average parents, he had two sisters and a younger brother – all of whom were average as well. He was an active man and unusually strong. At the age of 20, as his mass started to grow – he consciously remained active and watched his diet. However, in the 1790’s Daniel took over his father’s position as keeper of Leicester prison – and took up a stationary lifestyle. In 1793, he weighed 448 pounds – in a time when the greatest weight ever medically recorded in England was around 616 pounds. Despite his weight, Lambert was still quite strong and showed little sign of fatigue as he gave swimming and hunting lessons. However, his weight continued and in 1801, at 560 pounds, he could no longer hunt, his horse simply could not bear his weight. In 1805, his prison closed down and, after a brief time as a recluse and ballooning to a legitimate 700 pounds, he took to exhibiting himself for profit.

Lambert was an exceptionally bright man, possessed of a razor wit and while most came to see him out of interest and respect – he did have to deal with the occasional heckler. His retorts were legendary. On one particular occasion an obnoxious fellow was persistent and adamant in knowing the cost of Lamberts waistcoat - a rather rude question in that era – when Lambert politely refused to answer the question the heckler remarked that since he had paid a shilling (the cost of admission) toward the cost of the coat, he had a right to demand any information about it. ‘Sir,’ replied Lambert, ‘I can assure you that if I knew what part of my coat your shilling would pay for, I would cut out that piece.’

During his lifetime, Lambert was the subject of many writings including the Medical and Physical Journal, countless flyers, newspapers and caricatures and even appeared in the Memoirs of Charles Mathews (a popular actor of the era). He rubbed elbows with the affluent in influential of the time. He met King George III, visiting officers of Napoleon, royalty, ambassadors and even an elderly Josef Boruwlaski – certainly a stunning meeting as the biggest man of that time met the smallest.

When Lambert died in 1808, still in relative good health except for nagging knees, he weighed in at 739 pounds. His waist measured 9 feet and 4 inches. He was immensely popular due to his wit and easy going nature. People were in awe of not only his size, but of his spirit as well. Many regarded him as a true jovial, gentle giant - a reputation that would carry to the big jolly sideshow men and women who would follow in his ample shoes for decades.

Following his death, Lambert was featured in his own biography: The Life of that Wonderful and Extraordinary Heavy Man, the late Daniel Lambert. He was also featured in Granger’s Wonderful Museum and Magazine Extraordinary, Smeeton’s Biographia Curiosa. He is referred to in great novels like Barry Lyndon, Vanity Fair and even Charles Dickenson’s Nicholas Nickleby. Lambert’s popularity even spread to America following his death as P.T. Barnum displayed a wax version of Lambert, dressed in a suit of clothing purchased from the Lambert estate. During Barnum’s museum fire of 1865 – the wax representation was fittingly too heavy to rescue.

It was also Dickens who, in his magazine Household Words forever cemented the name Daniel Lambert with hugeness. Even today, there are numerous Pubs, Taverns and Inns named after Lambert – with the keepers hoping the clientele will associate the name with ample portions of food and drink. Oddly enough, Lambert likely suffered from a pituitary obesity – he reputedly never ate a large meal or drank beer.

The Mountainous Human Marvel is all but gone now, with only one Fat Man, Howard Huge, still traveling. The obese are no longer looked upon in wonder, interest and awe - rather with disgust and insensitivity. In fact just a few short years ago, at St. Martin's churchyard in Stamford, someone spray-painted the word FATTY on Lambert’s tombstone.

Adapted from the book The Two Headed Boy by Jan Bondeson .