blanket; but I felt certain that he was less than five feet in height,
and felt quite positive that he would not then measure more than four
and a half feet. His height in 1827 was, Poe states, four feet and eight
inches. One of the old man's arms lay exposed by his side, and the
finger-ends reached below the knee; while his hand, spread out on the
blanket, would have covered the area of a small ham. His shoulders and
neck, and the one bare arm visible, were indicative of vast muscular
strength. There was the enormous head mentioned by Poe; and there was
the completely bald scalp, exposed, as by a semi-automatic movement of
respect he raised his hand to his head and removed a section of woolly
sheepskin; and there, too, was the indenture in the crown; there the
enormous mouth, spreading from ear to ear, with the lips which, as he
gave a chuckle, and the wrinkles about his eyes evinced a passing facial
contortion, I saw to be wholly wanting in pliancy. There was the
expression, fixed at least as far as the mouth and lower face was
concerned, the protruding teeth, and the grotesque appearance of a smile
such as a demon might have smiled over ruined innocence. Oh, there was
no possibility of a mistake. Doctor Castleton glanced at me
questioningly, but confidently; and I lowered my head in assent. But if
I expected to have an opportunity of learning much of anything from
Peters, I was mistaken. Doctor Castleton was almost ready to depart
before I had finished my visual examination of the old man. I heard the
aged neighbor-woman, a coal miner's wife, who had as an act of kindness
come in to assist the invalid, say, looking at the poor old fellow:

"My mon stayed wi' he the night, dochter. The poor mon, he had delerion
bad. He thot hesel' on a mountain o' ice, wi' tha mountain o' ice on
other like mountain o' salt, a lookin' at devils i' hell. But sin' tha
light o' day. Tha good mon's hesel' agin."