Transcriber's Note
Illustration captions in {braces} have been added by the transcriber
for the convenience of the reader.
MYTH-LAND.
BY
F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF
"FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS," ETC. ETC.
"Far away in the twilight time
Of every people, in every clime,
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire.
Born of water, or air, or fire,
Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud
And ooze of the old Deucalion flood,
Crawl, and wriggle, and foam with rage,
Through dark tradition and ballad age."
Whittier.
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1886.
[_All rights reserved._]
[Decoration]
PREFACE.
The nucleus of the following pages was originally written in the form
of two short papers to be read at the meetings of a Public School
Natural History Society. Since then, finding materials rapidly growing
on our hands, we have been gradually amplifying our notes on the
subject until they have grown to the present dimensions; for, to quote
the quaint words of Thomas Fuller, "when there is no recreation or
business for thee abroad, thou may'st then have a company of honest
old fellows in leathern jackets in thy study, which may find thee
excellent divertisement at home." Our researches in pursuit of the
marvellous, through the works of divers and sundry old writers, have
been so far entertaining and interesting to us that we would fain hope
that they may not be altogether received without favour by others.
Our subject naturally divides itself into two very obvious
sections--the one dealing with wholly untrue and impossible creatures
of the fancy, the other with the strange beliefs and fancies that have
clustered round the real creatures we see around us. It will readily
be discovered that we have confined ourselves in the present volume
almost entirely to the first of these sections. Should our present
labours prove acceptable they may readily be followed by a companion
volume, at least as entertaining, dealing with the second section of
our subject.
[Decoration]
[Decoration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Introduction--"A Description of 300 Animals"--Unicorn--The Bible
Unicorn--The Heraldic Unicorn--The Horn as a Poison Test--The
Unicorn of Mediæval Legend--Wolf Causing Dumbness--The Rompo or
Man-Eater--The Manticora--The Lamia--Stag Antipathies--Dragons--
Dragon-Slaying--Legends of the Saints--The "Legenda Aurea"--St.
George--Mediæval Recipes--The "Historia Monstrorum" of Aldrovandus--
The Dragon in Heraldry--The Dragon of Wantley--Dragons' Teeth--The
Dragonnades--The Dragons of Shakespeare--Guardians of Treasure--The
Feud between the Dragon and the Elephant--The "Bestiare Divin" of
Guillaume--The Cockatrice--The Basilisk--The Phoenix: Its Literary
Existence from Herodotus to Shakespeare--The Dun-Cow of Warwick--Sir
Guy, and Percie's "Reliques of Antient Poetry"--Old Ribs and other
Bones in Churches--The Salamander--Breydenbach's Travels--The
"Bestiary" of De Thaun--The Ylio--The Griffin--The Arimaspians--
Burton's "Miracles of Art and Nature"--The Lomie--The Tartarian
Vegetable Lamb--The Sea-Elephant--Pegasus--The Vampyre--The
Chameleon 1-80