(Vol. ii., p. 517.)
The subject on which R.S. jun. writes in No. 61. is one of so much interest
in many points of view, that I hope that a few notices relating to it may
not be considered unworthy of insertion in "NOTES AND QUERIES."
In Murray's _Handbook of Northern Italy_, mention is made, in the account
of the church of St. Maria delle Grazie, near Mantua, of a stuffed lizard,
crocodile, or other reptile, which is preserved suspended in the church.
This is said to have been killed in the adjacent swamps, about the year
1406. It is stated to be six or seven feet long.
Eight or ten years ago, I saw an animal of the same order, and about the
same size, hanging from the roof of the cathedral of Abbeville, in Picardy.
I then took it for a small crocodile, but I cannot say positively that it
was one. I am not sure whether it still remains in the cathedral. I do not
know whether any legend exists respecting this specimen, or whether it owed
its distinguished post to its being deemed an appropriate ornament.
At the west door of the cathedral of Cracow are hanging some bones, said to
have belonged to the dragon which inhabited the cave at the foot of the
rock (the Wawel) on which the cathedral and the royal castle stand; and was
destroyed by Krak, the founder of the city. I regret that my want of
osteological science prevented me from ascertaining to what animal these
bones had belonged. I thought them the bones of some small species of
whale.
I hope that some competent observer may inform us of what animals these and
the lindwurm at Brünn are the remains.
It has struck me as possible that the real history of these crocodiles or
alligators, if they are such, may be, that they were brought home by
crusaders as specimens of dragons, just as Henry the Lion, Duke of
Brunswick, brought from the Holy Land the antelope's horn which had been
palmed upon {41} him as a specimen of a griffin's claw, and which may still
be seen in the cathedral of that city. That they should afterwards be
fitted with appropriate legends, is not surprising.
Some years since, when walking down the valley of St. Nicholas, on the
south side of the Valais, my guide, a native of the valley, pointed out to
me a wood on the mountain side, and told me that therein dwelt great
serpents, about 24 feet long, which carried off lambs from the pastures. He
had, however, never seen one of these monsters, but had only seen those who
had, and I failed in procuring any testimony of a more decisive character.
My guide, however, affirmed that their existence was generally believed in
the valley.