THE DRAGON.
The dragon is defined in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ for 1877 as "the
name given by the ancients to a huge winged lizard or serpent (fabulous)."
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--_Draco_, OR FLYING LIZARD FROM SINGAPORE. (_After
N. B. Dennys._)]
The text also goes on to state that "they (the ancients) regarded it as
the enemy of mankind, and its overthrow is made to figure among the
greatest exploits of the gods and heroes of heathen mythology. A dragon
watched the gardens of the Hesperides, and its destruction formed one of
the seven labours of Hercules. Its existence does not seem to have been
called in question by the older naturalists; figures of the dragon
appearing in the works of Gesner and Aldrovandus, and even specimens of
the monster, evidently formed artificially of portions of different
animals, have been exhibited." A reference is also made to the genus
Draco, comprising eighteen specimens of winged lizards, all small, and
peculiar to India and the islands of the Malay archipelago.
Such is the meagre account of a creature which figures in the history and
mythology of all nations, which in its different forms has been worshipped
as a god, endowed with beneficent and malevolent attributes, combatted as
a monster, or supposed to have possessed supernatural power, exercised
alternately for the benefit or chastisement of mankind.
Its existence is inseparably wedded to the history, from the most remote
antiquity, of a nation which possesses connected and authentic memoirs
stretching uninterruptedly from the present day far into the remote past;
on which the belief in its existence has been so strongly impressed, that
it retains its emblem in its insignia of office, in its ornamentation of
furniture, utensils, and dwellings, and commemorates it annually in the
competition of dragon boats, and the processions of dragon images; which
believes, or affects to believe, in its continued existence in the pools
of the deep, and the clouds of the sky; which propitiates it with
sacrifices and ceremonies, builds temples in its honour, and cultivates
its worship; whose legends and traditions teem with anecdotes of its
interposition in the affairs of man, and whose scientific works, of
antiquity rivalling that of our oldest Western Classics, treat of its
existence as a sober and accepted fact, and differentiate its species with
some exactness. It is, moreover, though not very frequently, occasionally
referred to in the Biblical history of that other ancient, and almost
equally conservative branch of the human race, the Jews, not as a myth, or
doubtfully existent supernatural monster, but as a tangible reality, an
exact terrible creature.
Equally do we find it noticed in those other valuable records of the past
which throw cross lights upon the Bible narrative, and confirm by
collateral facts the value of its historic truth; such as the fragments
of Chaldæan history handed down by the reverent care of later historians,
the careful narrative of Josephus, and the grand resurrection of Chaldæan
and Assyrian lore effected by the marvellously well directed and fortunate
labour of G. H. Smith and those who follow in his train.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--BRONZE DRAGONS SUPPORTING THE ARMILLARY SPHERE,
OBSERVATORY, PEKIN.]
Among the earliest classics of Europe, its existence is asserted as a
scientific fact, and accepted by poets as a sound basis for analogies,
comparisons, allegories, and fable; it appears in the mythology of the
Goth, and is continued through the tradition and fable of every country of
Europe; nor does it fail to appear even in the imperfect traditions of the
New World,[139] where its presence may be considered as comparatively
indigenous, and undetermined by the communications dependent on the
so-called discovery of later days.
Turning to other popular accounts, we find equally limited and incredible
versions of it. All consider it sufficiently disposed of by calling it
fabulous,[140] and that a sufficient explanation of any possible belief in
it is afforded by a reference[141] to the harmless genus of existing
flying lizards referred to above.
Some consider it an evolution of the fancy, typifying noxious principles;
thus, Chambers[142] says, "The dragon appears in the mythical history and
legendary poetry of almost every nation as the emblem of the destructive
and anarchical principle; ... as misdirected physical force and untamable
animal passions.... The dragon proceeds openly to work, running on its
feet with expanded wings, and head and tail erect, violently and
ruthlessly outraging decency and propriety, spouting fire and fury both
from mouth and tail, and wasting and devastating the whole land."
The point which strikes me as most interesting in this passage is the
reference to the legendary theory of the mode of the dragon's progress,
which curiously calls to mind the semi-erect attitude of the existing
small Australian frilled lizard (_Chlamydosaurus_). This attitude is also
ascribed to some of the extinct American Dinosaurs, such as the
Stegosaurus.
No one, so far as I am aware, in late days has hitherto ventured to uphold
the claims of this terrible monster to be accepted as a real contemporary
of primitive man,[143] which may even have been co-existent with him to a
comparatively recent date, and but lately passed away into the cohort of
extinct species, leaving behind it only the traditions of its ferocity and
terrors, to stamp their impression on the tongues of all countries.
No one has endeavoured to collate the vast bulk of materials shrouded in
the stories of all lands. If this were perfectly effected, a diagnosis of
the real nature of the dragon might perhaps be made, and the chapter of
its characteristics, alliances, and habits completed like that of any
other well-established species.
The following sketch purposes only to initiate the task here propounded,
the author's access to materials being limited, and only sufficient to
enable him, as he thinks, to establish generally the proposition which it
involves, to grasp as it were some of the broader and salient features of
the investigation, while leaving a rich gleaning of corroborative
information for the hand of any other who may please to continue and
extend his observations.
At the outset it will be necessary to assign a much more extended
signification to the word dragon than that which is contained in the
definition at the head of this chapter. The popular mind of the present
day doubtless associates it always with the idea of a creature possessing
wings; but the _Lung_ of the Chinese, the δράκων of the Greeks, the
_Draco_ of the Romans, the Egyptian dragon, and the _Nâga_ of the Sanscrit
have no such limited signification, and appear to have been sometimes
applied to any serpent, lacertian, or saurian, of extraordinary
dimensions, nor is it always easy to determine from the passages in which
these several terms occur what kind of monster is specially indicated.
Thus the dragon referred to by Propertius in the quotation annexed may
have been a large python. "Lanuvium[144] is, of old, protected by an aged
dragon; here, where the occasion of an amusement so seldom occurring is
not lost, where is the abrupt descent into a dark and hollowed cave; where
is let down--maiden, beware of every such journey--the honorary tribute to
the fasting snake, when he demands his yearly food, and hisses and twists
deep down in the earth. Maidens, let down for such a rite, grow pale, when
their hand is unprotectedly trusted in the snake's mouth. He snatches at
the delicacies if offered by a maid; the very baskets tremble in the
virgin's hands; if they are chaste, they return and fall on the necks of
their parents, and the farmers cry 'We shall have a fruitful year.'"[145]
To the same class may probably be ascribed the dragon referred to by
Aristotle.[146] "The eagle and the dragon are enemies, for the eagle feeds
on serpents"; and again,[147] "the Glanis in shallow water is often
destroyed by the dragon serpent." It might perhaps be supposed that the
crocodile is here referred to, but this is specially spoken of in another
passage, as follows[148]: "But there are others which, though they live
and feed in the water, do not take in water but air, and produce their
young out of the water; many of these animals are furnished with feet, as
the otter and crocodile, and others are without feet, as the
water-serpent."
A somewhat inexplicable habit is ascribed to the dragon in Book ix.[149]:
"When the draco has eaten much fruit, it seeks the juice of the bitter
lettuce; it has been seen to do this."
Pliny, probably quoting Aristotle,[150] also states that the dragon
relieves the nausea which affects it in spring with the juices of the
lettuce; and Ælian[151] repeats the story.
It is also probable that some large serpent is intended by Pliny in the
story which he relates,[152] after Democritus, that a man called Thoas was
preserved in Arcadia by a dragon. When a boy, he had become attached to it
and had reared it very tenderly; but his father, being alarmed at the
nature and monstrous size of the reptile, had taken and left it in the
desert. Thoas being here attacked by robbers who lay in ambush, he was
delivered from them by the dragon, which recognized his voice and came to
his assistance. It may be noted in regard to this that there are many
authenticated instances of snakes evidencing considerable affection for
those who have treated them with kindness.[153]
The impression that Pliny's dragon was intended to represent some large
boa or python is strengthened by his statement:[154] "The dragon is a
serpent destitute of venom; its head placed beneath the threshold of a
door, the gods being duly propitiated by prayers, will ensure good fortune
to the house, it is said."
It is remarkable that he attributes to the dragon the same desire and
capacity to attack the elephant as is attributed to the Pa snake in
Western China, and by the old Arabian voyagers to serpents in Borneo.
The _Shan-hai-king_, a Chinese work of extreme antiquity, of which special
mention will be made hereafter, says: "The Pa snake swallows elephants,
after three years it ejects the bones; well-to-do people, eating it, are
cured of consumption."
Diodorus Siculus, in speaking of the region of the Nile in Libya, says
that, according to report, very large serpents are produced there and in
great numbers, and that these attack elephants when they gather around the
watering places, involve them in their folds till they fall exhausted, and
then devour them.
Diodorus, in another passage referring to the crocodiles and hippopotami
of Egypt, speaking of Ethiopia and Libya, mentions a variety of serpents
as well as of other wild beasts, including dragons of unusual size and
ferocity.
While El Edrisi says: "On peut encore citer le serpent de Zaledj dont
parlent Ben Khordadébe, l'auteur du Livre des Merveilles, et divers autres
écrivains qui s'accordent à dire qu'il existe dans les montagnes de l'ile
de Zaledj une espèce de serpent qui attaque l'elephant et le buffle, et
qui ne les abandonnent qu'après les avoir vaincu."[155]
Artemidorus, also, according to Strabo,[156] "mentions serpents of thirty
cubits in length, which can master elephants and bulls. In this he does
not exaggerate; but the Indian and African serpents are of a more fabulous
size, and are said to have grass growing on their backs."
Iphicrates, according to Bryant, "related that in Mauritania there were
dragons of such extent that grass grew upon their backs."
It is doubtful whether large serpents, or real dragons, are referred to by
Pliny in the following interesting passages which I give at length: the
surprise which he expresses at Juba's believing that they had crests,
leads me to suspect that there was possibly some confusion of species
involved; that Juba might have been perfectly accurate so far as the
crests are concerned, and that the beasts in question, in place of being
pythons of magnitude, were rather some gigantic lizard-like creature, of
great length and little bulk, corresponding with the Chinese idea of the
dragon, and, therefore, naturally bearing horny crests, similar to those
with which the monster is usually represented by the latter people.
It must be noticed here, that if we postulate the existence of the dragon,
we are not bound to limit ourselves to a single species, or even two, as
the same causes which effected the gradual destruction of one would be
exceedingly likely to effect that of another; we must not, therefore, be
too critical in comparing descriptions of different authors in different
countries and epochs, since they may refer only to allied, but not
identical, animals.
"Africa produces elephants, but it is India that produces the largest, as
well as the _dragon_, who is perpetually at war with the elephant, and is
itself of so enormous a size, as easily to envelop the elephants with its
folds, and encircle them in its coils. The contest is equally fatal to
both; the elephant, vanquished, falls to the earth, and by its weight
crushes the dragon which is entwined around it.[158]
"The sagacity which every animal exhibits in its own behalf is wonderful,
but in these it is remarkably so. The dragon has much difficulty in
climbing up to so great a height, and therefore, watching the road, which
bears marks of their footsteps, when going to feed, it darts down upon
them from a lofty tree. The elephant knows that it is quite unable to
struggle against the folds of the serpent, and so seeks for trees or rocks
against which to rub itself.
"The dragon is on its guard against this, and tries to prevent it, by
first of all confining the legs of the elephant with the folds of its
tail; while the elephant, on the other hand, tries to disengage itself
with its trunk. The dragon, however, thrusts its head into its nostrils,
and thus, at the same moment, stops the breath, and wounds the most tender
parts. When it is met unexpectedly, the dragon raises itself up, faces its
opponent, and flies more especially at the eyes; this is the reason why
elephants are so often found blind, and worn to a skeleton with hunger and
misery.
"There is another story, too, told in relation to these combats. The blood
of the elephant, it is said, is remarkably cold; for which reason, in the
parching heats of summer, it is sought by the dragon with remarkable
avidity. It lies, therefore, coiled up and concealed in the river, in wait
for the elephants when they come to drink; upon which it darts out,
fastens itself around the trunk, and then fixes its teeth behind the ear,
that being the only place which the elephant cannot protect with the
trunk. The dragons, it is said, are of such vast size that they can
swallow the whole of the blood; consequently the elephant, being drained
of its blood, falls to the earth exhausted; while the dragon, intoxicated
with the draught, is crushed beneath it, and so shares its fate.[159]
"Æthiopia produces dragons, not so large as those of India, but still
twenty cubits in length. The only thing that surprises me is, how Juba
came to believe that they have crests. The Æthiopians are known as the
Asachæi, among whom they most abound; and we are told that on those coasts
four or five of them are found twisted and interlaced together like so
many osiers in a hurdle, and thus setting sail, with their heads erect,
they are borne along upon the waves to find better sources of nourishment
in Arabia."[160]
Pliny then goes on to describe, as _separate from dragons, large serpents
in India_, as follows.
"Megasthenes[161] informs us that in India serpents grow to such an
immense size as to swallow stags and bulls; while Metrodorus says that
about the river Rhyndacus, in Pontus, they seize and swallow the birds
that are flying above them, however high and however rapid their flight.
"It is a well-known fact that during the Punic war, at the river Bagrada,
a serpent one hundred and twenty feet in length was taken by the Roman
army under Regulus, being besieged, like a fortress, by means of balistæ
and other engines of war. _Its skin and jaws_ were preserved in a temple
at Rome down to the time of the Numantine war.
"The serpents, which in Italy are known by the name of boa, render these
accounts far from incredible, for they grow to such vast size that a child
was found entire in the stomach of one of them which was killed on the
Vaticanian Hill during the reign of Emperor Claudius."[162]
Aristotle tells us that "in Libya, the serpents, as it has been already
remarked, are very large. For some persons say that as they sailed along
the coast, they saw the bones of many oxen, and that it was evident to
them that they had been devoured by serpents. And, as the ships passed on,
the serpents attacked the triremes, and some of them threw themselves upon
one of the triremes and overturned it."[163]
It is doubtful whether the dragons described by Benjamin of Tudela, who
travelled through Europe and the East and returned to Castille in
1173,[164] as infesting the ruins of the palace of Nebuchodonosor at
Babylon, so as to render them inaccessible, were creatures of the
imagination such as the mediæval mind seems to have loved to dress up, or
venomous serpents. But there is little doubt that the so-called dragons of
later voyages were simply boas, pythons, or other large serpents, such as
those described by John Leo, in his description of a voyage to Africa, as
existing in the caverns of Atlas. He says, "There are many monstrous
dragons which are thick about the middle, but have slender necks and
tails, so that their motion is but slow.[165] They are so venomous, that
whatever they bite or touch, certain death ensues." There is also the
statement of Job Ludolphus that (in Æthiopia) "the dragons are of the
largest size, very voracious, but not venomous."[166]
I fancy that at the present day the numbers, magnitude, and terrifying
nature of serpents but feebly represent the power which they asserted in
the early days of man's existence, or the terror which they then inspired.
This subject has been so ably dealt with by a writer of the last
century[167] that I feel no hesitation in transcribing his remarks at
length.
"It is probable, in early times, when the arts were little known and
mankind were but thinly scattered over the earth, that serpents,
continuing undisturbed possessors of the forest, grew to an amazing
magnitude, and every other tribe of animals fell before them. It then
might have happened that the serpents reigned tyrants of the district for
centuries together. To animals of this kind, grown by time and rapacity to
one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet long, the lion, the tiger, and
even the elephant itself were but feeble opponents. That horrible fetor,
which even the commonest and the most harmless snakes are still found to
diffuse, might in these larger ones become too powerful for any living
being to withstand, and while they preyed without distinction, they might
also have poisoned the atmosphere round them. In this manner, having for
ages lived in the hidden and unpeopled forest, and finding, as their
appetites were more powerful, the quantity of their prey decreasing, it is
possible they might venture boldly from their retreats into the more
cultivated parts of the country, and carry consternation among mankind, as
they had before desolation among the lower ranks of nature.
"We have many histories of antiquity presenting us such a picture, and
exhibiting a whole nation sinking under the ravages of a single serpent.
At that time man had not learned the art of uniting the efforts of many to
effect one great purpose. Opposing multitudes only added new victims to
the general calamity, and increased mutual embarrassment and terror. The
animal, therefore, was to be singly opposed by him who had the greatest
strength, the best armour, and the most undaunted courage. In such an
encounter hundreds must have fallen, till one more lucky than the rest, by
a fortunate blow, or by taking the monster in its torpid interval and
surcharged with spoil, might kill and thus rid his country of the
destroyer. Such was the original occupation of heroes.
"But as we descend into more enlightened antiquity we find these animals
less formidable, as being attacked in a more successful manner.
"We are told that while Regulus led his army along the banks of the river
Bagrada in Africa, an enormous serpent disputed his passage over. We are
assured by Pliny that it was one hundred and twenty feet long, and that it
had destroyed many of the army. At last, however, the battering engines
were brought out against it, and then, assailing it at a distance, it was
destroyed. Its spoils were carried to Rome, and the general was decreed an
ovation for his success.
"There are, perhaps, few facts better ascertained in history than this: an
ovation was a remarkable honour, and was only given for some signal
exploit that did not deserve a triumph. No historian would offer to invent
that part of the story, at least, without being subject to the most
shameful detection.
"The skin was kept for several years after, in the Capitol, and Pliny says
he saw it there.
"This tribe of animals, like that of fishes, seem to have no bounds put to
their growth; their bones are in a great measure cartilaginous, and they
are consequently capable of great extension.
"The older, therefore, a serpent becomes, the larger it grows, and, as
they live to a great age, they arrive at an enormous size. Leguat assures
us that he saw one in Java that was fifty feet long.[168] Carli mentions
their growing to above forty feet, and there is now in the British Museum
one that measures thirty-two feet.
"Mr. Wentworth, who had large concerns in the Berbice in America, assures
us that in that country they grow to an enormous length. He describes an
Indian mistaking one for a log, and proceeding to sit down on it, when it
began to move. A soldier with him shot the snake, but the Indian died of
fright. It measured thirty-six feet. It was sent to the Hague.
"A life of savage hostility in the forest offers the imagination one of
the most tremendous pictures in nature. In those burning countries where
the sun dries up every brook for hundreds of miles round: where what had
the appearance of a great river in the rainy season becomes in summer one
dreary bed of sand; in those countries a lake that is never dry, or a
brook that is perennial, is considered by every animal as the greatest
convenience of nature. When they have discovered this, no dangers can
deter them from attempting to slake their thirst. Thus the neighbourhood
of a rivulet, in the heart of the tropical continents, is generally the
place where all the hostile tribes of nature draw up for the engagement.
"On the banks of this little envied spot, thousands of animals of various
kinds are seen venturing to quench their thirst, or preparing to seize
their prey. The elephants are perceived in a long line, marching from the
darker parts of the forest. The buffaloes are there, depending upon
numbers for security; the gazelles relying solely upon their swiftness;
the lion and tiger waiting a proper opportunity to seize.
"But chiefly the larger serpents are upon guard there, and defend the
accesses of the lake. Not an hour passes without some dreadful combat, but
the serpent, defended by its scales, and naturally capable of sustaining a
multitude of wounds, is of all others the most formidable. It is the most
wakeful also, for the whole tribe sleep with their eyes open, and are
consequently for ever upon the watch; so that, till their rapacity is
satisfied, few other animals will venture to approach their station."
We read of a serpent exhibited in the time of Augustus at Rome, which,
Suetonius tells us, "was fifty cubits in length."[169] But at the present
day there are few authentic accounts of snakes exceeding thirty feet in
length; and there are some people who discredit any which profess to speak
of snakes of greater dimensions than this. There are some, however, among
the annexed stories, which I think demand belief, and apparently we may
conclude that the python and boa exceptionally attain as much as forty
feet in length, or even more.
Wallace[170] merely reports by hearsay that the pythons in the
Phillipines, which destroy young cattle, are said to reach more than forty
feet.
Captain Sherard Osborn,[171] in his description of Quedah in the Malay
peninsula, says, also, as a matter of popular belief: "The natives of
Tamelan declared most of them to be of the boa-constrictor species, but
spoke of monsters in the deep forests, which might, if they came out,
clear off the whole village. A pleasant feat, for which Jadie, with a wag
of his sagacious head, assured me that an 'oular Bessar' or big snake was
quite competent.
"It was strange but interesting to find amongst all Malays a strong belief
in the extraordinary size to which the boa-constrictors or pythons would
grow; they all maintained that in the secluded forests of Sumatra or
Borneo, as well as on some of the smaller islands which were not
inhabited, these snakes were occasionally found of forty or fifty feet in
length."
Major McNair says[172]: "One of the keenest sportsmen in Singapore gives
an account of a monster that he encountered. He had wounded a boar in the
jungle, and was following its tracks with his dogs, when, in penetrating
further into the forest, he found the dogs at bay, and, advancing
cautiously, prepared for another shot at the boar; to his surprise,
however, he found that the dogs were baying a huge python, which had
seized the boar, thrown its coils round the unfortunate beast, and was
crushing it to death. A well-directed shot laid the reptile writhing on
the ground, and it proved to be about thirty feet long. But such instances
of extreme length are rare."
Unfortunately the exciting story of a serpent, between forty and fifty
feet in length, which I extract from the _North China Daily News_ of
November 10th, 1880, the scene of which is also laid in the Malay
peninsula, lacks the authenticity of the narrator's name. It is as
follows:--
"The _Straits Times_ tells the following exciting python story: 'A
sportsman, who a few days ago penetrated into the jungle lying between
Buddoh and Sirangoon, came upon a lone hut in a district called Campong
Batta, upon the roof of which the skin of an enormous boa or python
(whichever may be the correct name) was spread out. The hut was occupied
by a Malay and his wife, from whom our informant gathered the following
extraordinary account. One night, about a week previously, the Malay was
awakened by the cries of his wife for assistance. Being in perfect
darkness, and supposing the alarm to be on account of thieves, he seized
his sharp parang, and groped his way to her sleeping place, where his hand
fell upon a slimy reptile. It was fully a minute before he could
comprehend the entire situation, and when he did, he discovered that the
whole of his wife's arm had been drawn down the monster's throat, whither
the upper part of her body was slowly but surely following. Not daring to
attack the monster at once for fear of causing his wife's death, the
husband, with great presence of mind, seized two bags within reach, and
commenced stuffing them into the corner of the snake's jaws, by means of
which he succeeded in forcing them wider open and releasing his wife's
arm. No sooner had the boa lost his prey than he attacked the husband,
whom he began encircling in his fatal coils; but holding out both arms,
and watching his opportunity, he attacked the monster so vigorously with
his parang that it suddenly unwound itself and vanished through an opening
beneath the attap sides of the hut. His clothes were covered with blood,
as was also the floor of the hut, and his wife's arm was blue with the
squeezing it received between the boa's jaws. At daylight the husband
discovered his patch of plaintain trees nearly ruined, where the boa,
writhing in agony, had broken off the trees at the roots, and in the midst
of the debris lay the monster itself, dead. The Malay assured our
informant that he had received no less than sixty dollars from Chinese,
who came from long distances to purchase pieces of the flesh on account of
its supposed medical properties, and that he had refused six dollars for
the skin, which he preferred to retain as a trophy. It was greatly
decomposed, having been some days exposed in the open air, and useless for
curing. There is no telling what may have been the measurement of this
large reptile, but the skin, probably greatly stretched by unskilful
removal, measured between seven and eight fathoms.'"
Bontius speaks of serpents in the Asiatic Isles. "The great ones," he
says, "sometimes exceed thirty-six feet; and have such capacity of throat
and stomach that they swallow whole boars."
Mr. McLeod, in the _Voyage of the Alceste_, states that during a captivity
of some months at Whidah, on the coast of Africa, he had opportunities of
observing serpents double this length.[173]
Broderip, in his _Leaves from the Note-book of a Naturalist_ (Parker,
1852), speaks of a serpent thirty feet in length, which attacked the crew
of a Malay proa anchored for the night close to the island of Celebes.
Mr. C. Collingwood in _Rambles of a Naturalist_, states that "Mr. Low
assured me that he had seen one [python] killed measuring twenty-six feet,
and I heard on good authority of one of twenty-nine feet having been
killed there. In Borneo they were said to attain forty feet, but for this
I cannot vouch."
That large pythons still exist in South and Western China, although of
very reduced dimensions as compared with those described in ancient works,
is affirmed by many writers, from whom I think it is sufficient to extract
a notice by one of the early missionaries who explored that country.
"Pour ce qui est des serpens qu'on trouve dans Chine l'Atlas raconte que
la Province de Quansi, en produit de si grands et d'une longueur si
extrême, qu'il est presque incroyable; et il nous assure, qu'il s'en est
trouvé, qui étaient plus longs que ne seraient pas dix perches attachées
les unes avec les autres, c'est-à-dire, qu'ils avaient plus de trente
pieds géométriques. Flore Sienois dit, 'Gento est le plus grand de tous
ceux qui sont dans les provinces de Quansi, de Haynan, et de Quantun ...
il dévore les cerfs.... Il s'élève droit sur sa queue, et combat
vigoureusement, en cette posture, contre les hommes et les bêtes
farouches.'"[174]
We have unfortunately no clue to the actual length of the serpent Bomma,
described by J. M. da Sorrento in _A Voyage to Congo_ in 1682, contained
in Churchill's collection of voyages published in 1732.[175] "The flesh
they eat is generally that of wild creatures, and especially of a sort of
serpent called Bomma. At a certain feast in Baia, I observed the windows,
instead of tapestry and arras, adorned with the skin of these serpents as
wide as that of a large ox, and long in proportion."
That harmless snakes of from twelve to fourteen feet in length occur
abundantly in Northern Australia is generally known; but it is only of
late years that I have been made acquainted with a firm belief,
entertained by the natives in the interior, of the existence near the
junction of the Darling and Murray, south of the centre of the continent,
of a serpent of great magnitude.
I learn from Mr. G. R. Moffat that on the Lower Murray, between Swan Hill
and the Darling junction--at the time of his acquaintance with the
district (about 1857 to 1867)--the black fellows had numerous stories of
the existence of a large serpent in the Mallee scrub. It was conspicuous
for its size, thirty to forty feet in length, and especially for its great
girth, swiftness, and intensely disgusting odour; this latter, in fact,
constituted the great protection from it, insomuch as it would be
impossible to approach without recognising its presence.
Mr. Moffatt learnt personally from a Mr. Beveridge, son of Mr. Peter
Beveridge, of Swan Hill station, that he had actually seen one, and that
his account quite tallied with those of the blacks. In answer to an
inquiry which I addressed to Australia, I received the note attached
below.[176]
Mr. Henry Liddell, who was resident on the Darling River in 1871-72,
informs me that he has heard from stock-riders and ration-carriers similar
accounts to that of Mr. Moffatt, with reference to the existence of large
serpents of the boa species in an adjacent locality, viz. the tract of
country lying to the east of Darling and Murray junction, in the back
country belonging to Pooncaira station.
They described them as being numerous, in barren and rocky places, among
big boulders; fully forty feet long; as thick as a man's thigh; and as
having the same remarkable odour described by Mr. Moffatt. They spoke of
them as quite common, and not at all phenomenal, between Wentworth and
Pooncaira.
The Anaconda, in regard to which so much myth and superstition prevails
among the Indians of Brazil, is thus spoken of by Condamine, in his
_Travels in South America_. "The most rare and singular of all is a large
amphibious serpent from twenty-five to thirty feet long and more than a
foot thick, according to report. It is called Jacumama, or 'the mother of
the waters,' by the Americans of Maynas, and commonly inhabits the large
lakes formed by the river-water after flood."[177]
Ulloa, also, in his _Voyage to South America_,[178] says: "In the
countries watered by that vast river (the Maranon) is bred a serpent of a
frightful magnitude, and of a most deleterious nature. Some, in order to
give an idea of its largeness, affirm that it will swallow any beast
whole, and that this has been the miserable end of many a man. But what
seems still a greater wonder is the attractive quality attributed to its
breath,[179] which irresistibly draws any creature to it which happens to
be within the sphere of its attraction. The Indians call it Jacumama,
_i.e._ 'mother of water'; for, as it delights in lakes and marshy places,
it may in some sense be considered as amphibious. I have taken a great
deal of pains to inquire into this particular, and all I can say is that
the reptile's magnitude is really surprising."
John Nieuhoff, in his Voyages to Brazil,[180] speaking of the serpent
Guaku or Liboya, says: "It is questionless the biggest of all serpents,
some being eighteen, twenty-four, nay thirty feet long, and of the
thickness of a man in his middle. The Portuguese call it Kobra Detrado, or
the roebuck serpent, because it will swallow a whole roebuck, or any other
deer it meets with; after they have swallowed such a deer, they fall
asleep, and so are catched. Such a one I saw at Paraiba, which was thirty
feet long, and as big as a barrel. This serpent, being a very devouring
creature, greedy of prey, leaps from amongst the hedges and woods, and
standing upright upon its tail, wrestles both with men and wild beasts;
sometimes it leaps from the trees upon the traveller, whom it fastens
upon, and beats the breath out of his body with its tail."
The largest (water boa) ever met with by a European appears to be that
described by a botanist, Dr. Gardiner, in his _Travels in Brazil_. It had
devoured a horse, and was found dead, entangled in the branches of a tree
overhanging a river, into which it had been carried by a flood; it was
nearly forty feet long.
_Winged Serpents._
The next section relates to winged serpents, a belief in which was
prevalent in early ages, and is strongly supported by several independent
works.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--EGYPTIAN FOUR-WINGED SERPENT, CHANUPHIS, OR BAIT.
(_From "Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt," by W. R. Cooper._)]
To my mind, Herodotus speaks without the slightest doubt upon the subject
in the following passages. "Arabia[181] is the last of inhabited lands
towards the south, and it is the only country which produces frankincense,
myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and ledanum." "The frankincense they procure by
means of the gum styrax, which the Greeks get from the Phœnicians. This
they burn, and thereby obtain the spice; for the trees which bear the
frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of
various colours, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are of
the same kind as the serpents that invade Egypt, and there is nothing but
the smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees."
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--THE SYMBOLIC WINGED SERPENT OF THE GODDESS
MERSOKAR OR MELSOKAR. (_After W. R. Cooper._)]
Again,[182] "the Arabians say that the whole world would swarm with these
serpents, if they were not kept in check, in the way in which I know that
vipers are." "Now, with respect to the vipers and the winged snakes of
Arabia, if they increased as fast as their nature would allow, impossible
were it for man to maintain himself upon the earth. Accordingly, it is
found that when the male and female come together, at the very moment of
impregnation, the female seizes the male by the neck, and having once
fastened cannot be brought to leave go till she has bit the neck entirely
through, and so the male perishes; but after a while he is avenged upon
the female by means of the young, which, while still unborn, gnaw a
passage through the womb and then through the belly of their mother.
Contrariwise, other snakes, which are harmless, lay eggs and hatch a vast
number of young. Vipers are found in all parts of the world, but the
winged serpents are nowhere seen except in Arabia, where they are all
congregated together; this makes them appear so numerous."
Herodotus had so far interested himself in ascertaining the probability of
their existence as to visit Arabia for the purpose of inquiry; he
says,[183] "I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly
opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged
serpents. On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such
numbers as it is impossible to describe; of the ribs there were a
multitude of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized. The place
where the bones lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep
mountains, which there open upon a spacious plain communicating with the
great plains of Egypt. The story goes, that with the spring the snakes
come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this gorge by the
birds called ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy them all. The
Arabians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that it is on account of
the service thus rendered that the Egyptians hold the ibis in so much
reverence." He further[184] describes the winged serpent as being shaped
like the water-snake, and states that its wings are not feathered, but
resemble very closely those of the bat.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--THE SYMBOLIC WINGED SERPENT OF THE GODDESS
EILEITHYA. (_After W. R. Cooper._)]
Aristotle briefly states, as a matter of common report, that there were in
his time winged serpents in Ethiopia.[185] Both two and four winged snakes
are depicted among the Egyptian sculptures, considered by Mr. Cooper to
be emblematic of deities, and to signify that the four corners of the
earth are embraced and sheltered by the supreme Providence.
Josephus[186] unmistakably affirms his belief in the existence of flying
serpents, in his account of the stratagem which Moses adopted in attacking
the Ethiopians, who had invaded Egypt and penetrated as far as Memphis.
From this we may infer that in his time flying serpents were by no means
peculiar to Arabia, but, as might have been expected, equally infested the
desert lands bordering the fertile strip of the Nile.
In Whiston's translation we read that "Moses prevented the enemies, and
took and led his army before those enemies were apprised of his attacking
them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a
wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult
to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents (which it produces
in vast numbers, and indeed is singular in some of those productions,
which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others
in power and mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which
ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon
men at unawares, and do them a mischief), Moses invented a wonderful
stratagem to preserve the army safe and without hurt; for he made baskets,
like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes, and carried them
along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents
imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they
fly they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts;
but the ibes are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind;
but about these ibes I say no more at present, since the Greeks themselves
are not unacquainted with this sort of bird. As soon, therefore, as Moses
was come to the land, which was the breeder of these serpents, he let
loose the ibes, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind, and used
them for his assistants before the army came upon that ground."
These statements of Herodotus and Josephus are both too precise to be
explicable on the theory that they refer to the darting or jumping
serpents which Nieuhoff describes, in his day, as infesting the palm trees
of Arabia and springing from tree to tree; or to the jaculus of
Pliny,[187] which darts from the branches of trees, and flies through the
air as though it were hurled by an engine, and which is described by Ælian
and graphically figured by Lucan[188] in the passage--"Behold! afar,
around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce serpent--Africa calls it the
jaculus--wreathes itself, and then darts forth, and through the head and
pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight: nothing does venom there
effect, death seizes him through the wound. It was then understood how
slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how sluggishly whizzes the
flight of the Scythian arrow."
Solinus, whose work, _Polyhistor_, is mainly a compilation from Pliny's
Natural History, gives a similar account of the swarms of winged serpents
about the Arabian marshes, and states that their bite was so deadly that
death followed the bite before pain could be felt; he also refers to their
destruction by the ibises, and is probably only quoting other authors
rather than speaking of his own knowledge.
Cicero, again, speaks of the ibis as being a very large bird, with strong
legs, and a horny long beak, which destroys a great number of serpents,
and keeps Egypt free from pestilential diseases, by killing and devouring
the flying serpents, brought from the deserts of Lybia by the south-west
wind, and so preventing the mischief which might attend their biting
while alive, or from any infection when dead.
There are not unfrequent allusions in ancient history to serpents having
become so numerous as to constitute a perfect plague; the dreadful
mortality caused among the Israelites by the fiery serpents spoken of in
Numbers is a case in point, and another[189] is the migration of the Neuri
from their own country into that of the Budini, one generation before the
attack of Darius, in consequence of the incursion of a huge multitude of
serpents. It is stated that some of these were produced in their own
country, but for the most part they came in from the deserts of the north.
The home of the Neuri appears to have been to the north-west of the Pontus
Euxinus, pretty much in the position of Poland, and I believe that at the
present day the only harmful reptile occurring in it is the viper common
to the rest of Europe. Diodorus Siculus[190] mentions a tradition that the
Cerastes had once made an irruption into Egypt in such numbers as to have
depopulated a great portion of the inhabited districts.
These stories are interesting as showing a migratory instinct occurring in
certain serpents, either periodically or occasionally, and are thus to
some extent corroborative of the account of the annual invasion of Egypt
by serpents, referred to in a previous page. They also, I think, confirm
the impression that serpents were more numerous in the days of early
history, and had a larger area of distribution than they have now, and
that possibly some species, such as the Arabian and flying serpents, which
have since become extinct, then existed. Thus the boa is spoken of by
Pliny as occurring commonly in Italy, and growing to such a vast size that
a child was found entire in one of them, which was killed on the Vatican
Hill during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. Yet at the present day
there are no snakes existing there at all corresponding to this
description.
Parallel instances of invasions of animals materially affecting the
prosperity of man are doubtless familiar to my readers, such as the
occasional migration of lemmings, passage of rats, flights of locusts, or
the ravages caused by the Colorado beetle; but many are perhaps quite
unaware what a terrible plague can be established, in the course of a very
few years, by the prolific unchecked multiplication of even so harmless,
innocent, and useful an animal as the common rabbit. The descendants of a
few imported pairs have laid waste extensive districts of Australia and
New Zealand, necessitated an enormous expenditure for their extirpation,
and have at the present day[191] caused such a widespread destruction of
property in the latter country, that large areas of ground have actually
had to be abandoned and entirely surrendered to them.
It is interesting to find in the work of the Arabic geographer El Edrisi a
tradition of an island in the Atlantic, called Laca, off the north-west
coast of Africa, having been formerly inhabited, but abandoned on account
of the excessive multiplication of serpents on it. According to
Scaligerus, the mountains dividing the kingdom of Narsinga from Malabar
produce many wild beasts, among which may be enumerated winged dragons,
who are able to destroy any one approaching their breath.
Megasthenes (_tradente Æliano_) relates that winged serpents are found in
India; where it is stated that they are noxious, fly only by night, and
that contact with their urine destroys portions of animals.
Ammianus Marcellinus (who wrote about the fourth century A.D.) states that
the ibis is one among the countless varieties of the birds of Egypt,
sacred, amiable, and valuable as storing up the eggs of serpents in his
nest for food and so diminishing their number. He also refers to their
encountering flocks of winged snakes, coming laden with poison from the
marshes of Arabia, and overcoming them in the air, and devouring them
before they quit their own region. And Strabo,[192] in his geographical
description of India, speaks of serpents of two cubits in length, with
membraneous wings like bats: "They fly at night, and let fall drops of
urine or sweat, which occasions the skins of persons who are not on their
guard to putrefy." Isaiah speaks of fiery flying serpents, the term
"fiery" being otherwise rendered in the Alexandrine edition of the
Septuagint by θανατοῦντες "deadly," while the term "fiery" is explained by
other authorities as referring to the burning sensation produced by the
bite, and to the bright colour of the serpents.[193] Collateral evidence
of the belief in winged serpents is afforded by incidental allusions to
them in the classics. Thus Virgil alludes to snakes with strident wings in
the line
Illa autem attolit stridentis anguibus alis.[194]
Lucan[195] refers to the winged serpents of Arabia as forming one of the
ingredients of an incantation broth brewed by a Thessalian witch, Erictho,
with the object of resuscitating a corpse, and procuring replies to the
queries of Sextus, son of Pompey. There are other passages in Ovid and
other poets, in which the words "winged serpents" are made use of, but
which I omit to render here, since from the context it seems doubtful
whether they were not intended as poetic appellations of the monster to
which, by popular consent, the term dragon has been generally restricted.
I feel bound to refer, although of course without attaching any very great
weight of evidence to them, to the numerous stories popular in the East,
in which flying serpents play a conspicuous part, the serpents always
having something magical or supernatural in their nature. Such tales are
found in the entrancing pages of the _Arabian Nights_, or in the very
entertaining folk-lore of China, as given to us by Dr. N. P. Dennys of
Singapore.[196]
The latest notice of the flying serpent that we find is in a work by P.
Belon du Mans, published in 1557, entitled, _Portraits de quelques
animaux, poissons, serpents, herbes et arbres, hommes et femmes d'Arabie,
Égypte, et Asie, observés par P. Belon du Mans_. It contains a drawing of
a biped winged dragon, with the notice "Portrait du serpent ailé" and the
quatrain--
Dangereuse est du serpent la nature
Qu'on voit voler près le mont Sinai
Qui ne serait, de la voir, esbahy,
Si on a peur, voyant sa pourtraiture?
This is copied by Gesner, who repeats the story of its flying out of
Arabia into Egypt.[197] I attach considerable importance to the short
extract which I shall give in a future page from the celebrated Chinese
work on geography and natural history, the _Shan Hai King_, or Mountain
and Sea Classic. The _Shan Hai King_ claims to be of great antiquity, and,
as Mr. Wylie remarks, though long looked on with distrust, has been
investigated recently by scholars of great ability, who have come to the
conclusion that it is at least as old as the Chow dynasty, and probably
older. Now, as the Chow dynasty commenced in 1122 B.C., it is, if this
latter supposition be correct, of a prior age to the works of Aristotle,
Herodotus, and all the other authors we have been quoting, and therefore
is the earliest work on natural history extant, and the description of the
flying serpent of the Sien mountains (_vide infrà_) the earliest record of
the existence of such creatures.
_Classical Dragon and Mediæval Dragon._
While the flying serpents of which we have just treated, will, if we
assent to the reality of their former existence, assist greatly in the
explanation of the belief in a winged dragon so far as Egypt, Arabia, and
adjacent countries are concerned, it seems hardly probable that they are
sufficient to account for the wide-spread belief in it. This we have
already glanced at; but we now propose to examine it in greater detail,
with reference to countries so distant from their habitat as to render it
unlikely that their description had penetrated there.
The poets of Greece and Rome introduce the dragon into their fables, as an
illustration, when the type of power and ferocity is sought for. Homer, in
his description of the shield of Hercules, speaks of "The scaly horror of
a dragon coiled full in the central field, unspeakable, with eyes oblique,
retorted, that askant shot gleaming fire." So Hesiod[198] (750 to 700
B.C., Grote), describing the same object, says: "On its centre was the
unspeakable terror of a dragon glancing backward with eyes gleaming with
fire. His mouth, too, was filled with teeth running in a white line, dread
and unapproachable; and above his terrible forehead, dread strife was
hovering, as he raises the battle rout. On it likewise were heads of
terrible serpents, unspeakable, twelve in number, who were wont to scare
the race of men on earth, whosoever chanced to wage war against the son of
Jove."
Here it is noteworthy that Hesiod distinguishes between the dragon and
serpents.
Ovid[199] locates the dragon slain by Cadmus in Bœotia, near the river
Cephisus. He speaks of it as being hid in a cavern, adorned with crests,
and of a golden colour. He, like the other poets, makes special reference
to the eyes sparkling with fire, and it may be noted that a similar
brilliancy is mentioned by those who have observed pythons in their native
condition. He speaks of the dragon as _blue_,[200] and terribly
destructive owing to the possession of a sting, long constricting folds,
and venomous breath.
The story of Ceres flying to heaven in a chariot drawn by two dragons, and
of her subsequently lending it to Triptolemus, to enable him to travel all
over the earth and distribute corn to its inhabitants, is detailed or
alluded to by numerous poets, as well as the tale of Medea flying from
Jason in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Ceres[201] is further made to
skim the waves of the ocean, much after the fashion of mythical personages
depicted in the wood-cuts illustrating passages in the _Shan Hai
King_.[202] Ammianus Marcellinus, whose history ends with the death of
Valerius in A.D. 378, refers, as a remarkable instance of credulity, to a
vulgar rumour that the chariot of Triptolemus was still extant, and had
enabled Julian, who had rendered himself formidable both by sea and land,
to pass over the walls of, and enter into the city of Heraclea. Though
rational explanations are afforded by the theory of Bochart and Le Clerc,
that the story is based upon the equivocal meaning of a Phœnician word,
signifying either a winged dragon or a ship fastened with iron nails or
bolts; or by that of Philodorus, as cited by Eusebius, who says that his
ship was called a flying dragon, from its carrying the figure of a dragon
on its prow; yet either simply transposes into another phase the current
belief in a dragon, without prejudicing it.
Diodorus Siculus disposes of the Colchian dragon and the golden-fleeced
ram in a very summary manner, as follows:--
"It is said that Phryxus, the son of Athamas and Nephele, in order to
escape the snares of his stepmother, fled from Greece with his half-sister
Hellen, and that whilst they were being carried, under the advice of the
gods, by the ram with a golden fleece out of Europe into Asia, the girl
accidentally fell off into the sea, which on that account has been called
Hellespont. Phryxus, however, being carried safely into Colchis,
sacrificed the ram by the order of an oracle, and hung up its skin in a
shrine dedicated to Mars.
"After this the king learnt from an oracle that he would meet his death
when strangers, arriving there by ship, should have carried off the golden
fleece. On this account, as well as from innate cruelty, the man was
induced to offer sacrifice with the slaughter of his guests; in order
that, the report of such an atrocity being spread everywhere, no one might
dare to set foot within his dominions. He also surrounded the temple with
a wall, and placed there a strong guard of Taurian soldiery; which gave
rise to a prodigious fiction among the Greeks, for it was reported by them
that bulls, breathing fire from their nostrils, kept watch over the
shrine, and that a dragon guarded the skin, for by ambiguity the name of
the Taurians was twisted into that of bulls, and the slaughter of guests
furnished the fiction of the expiation of fire. In like manner they
translated the name of the prefect Draco, to whom the custody of the
temple had been assigned, into that of the monstrous and horrible creature
of the poets."
Nor do others fail to give a similar explanation of the fable of Phryxus,
for they say that Phryxus was conveyed in a ship which bore on its prow
the image of a ram, and that Hellen, who was leaning over the side under
the misery of sea-sickness, tumbled into the water.
Among other subjects of poetry are the dragon which guarded the golden
apples of the Hesperides, and the two which licked the eyes of Plutus at
the temple of Æsculapius with such happy effect that he began to see.
Philostratus[203] separates dragons into Mountain dragons and Marsh
dragons. The former had a moderate crest, which increased as they grew
older, when a beard of saffron colour was appended to their chins; the
marsh dragons had no crests. He speaks of their attaining a size so
enormous that they easily killed elephants. Ælian describes their length
as being from thirty or forty to a hundred cubits; and Posidonius mentions
one, a hundred and forty feet long, that haunted the neighbourhood of
Damascus; and another, whose lair was at Macra, near Jordan, was an acre
in length, and of such bulk that two men on horseback, with the monster
between them, could not see each other.
Ignatius states that there was in the library of Constantinople the
intestine of a dragon one hundred and twenty feet long, on which were
written the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ in letters of gold. There is no
ambiguity in Lucan's[204] description of the Æthiopian dragon: "You also,
the dragon, shining with golden brightness, who crawl in all (other) lands
as innoxious divinities, scorching Africa render deadly with wings; you
move the air on high, and following whole herds, you burst asunder vast
bulls, embracing them with your folds. Nor is the elephant safe through
his size; everything you devote to death, and no need have you of venom
for a deadly fate." Whereas the dragon referred to by Pliny (_vide ante_,
p. 169), as also combating the elephant, is evidently without wings, and
may either have been a very gigantic serpent, or a lacertian corresponding
to the Chinese idea of the dragon.
Descending to later periods, we learn from Marcellinus[205] that in his
day dragon standards were among the chief insignia of the Roman army; for,
speaking of the triumphal entry of Constantine into Rome after his triumph
over Magnentius, he mentions that numbers of the chief officers who
preceded him were surrounded by dragons embroidered on various points of
tissue, fastened to the golden or jewelled points of spears; the mouths of
the dragons being open so as to catch the wind, which made them hiss as
though they were inflamed with anger, while the coils of their tails were
also contrived to be agitated by the breeze. And again he speaks of
Silvanus[206] tearing the purple silk from the insignia of the dragons
and standards, and so assuming the title of Emperor.
Several nations, as the Persians, Parthians, Scythians, &c., bore dragons
on their standards: whence the standards themselves were called dracones
or dragons.
It is probable that the Romans borrowed this custom from the Parthians,
or, as Casaubon has it, from the Dacae, or Codin, from the Assyrians; but
while the Roman dracones were, as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus,
figures of dragons painted in red on their flags, among the Persians and
Parthians they were, like the Roman eagles, figures in relievo, so that
the Romans were frequently deceived and took them for real dragons.
The dragon plays an important part in Celtic mythology. Among the Celts,
as with the Romans, it was the national standard.
While Cymri's dragon, from the Roman's hold
Spread with calm wing o'er Carduel's domes of gold.[207]
The fables of Merllin, Nennius, and Geoffry describe it as red in colour,
and so differing from the Saxon dragon which was white. The hero Arthur
carried a dragon on his helm, and the tradition of it is moulded into
imperishable form in the _Faerie Queen_. A dragon infested Lludd's
dominion, and made every heath in England resound with shrieks on each
May-day eve. A dragon of vast size and pestiferous breath lay hidden in a
cavern in Wales, and destroyed two districts with its venom, before the
holy St. Samson seized and threw it into the sea.
In Celtic chivalry, the word dragon came to be used for chief, a Pendragon
being a sort of dictator created in times of danger; and as the knights
who slew a chief in battle were said to slay a dragon, this doubtless
helped to keep alive the popular tradition regarding the monster which
had been carried with them westward in their migration from the common
Aryan centre.
The Teutonic tribes who invaded and settled in England bore the effigies
of dragons on their shields and banners, and these were also depicted on
the ensigns of various German tribes.[208] We also find that Thor himself
was a slayer of dragons,[209] and both Siegfried and Beowulf were
similarly engaged in the Niebelungen-lied and the epic bearing the name of
the latter.[210] The Berserkers not only named their boats after the
dragon, but also had the prow ornamented with a dragon figure-head; a
fashion which obtains to the present day among the Chinese, who have an
annual _dragon-boat festival_, in which long snaky boats with a ferocious
dragon prow run races for prizes, and paddle in processions.
So deeply associated was the dragon with the popular legends, that we find
stories of encounters with it passing down into the literature of the
Middle Ages; and, like the heroes of old, the Christian saints won their
principal renown by dragon achievements. Thus among the
dragon-slayers[211] we find that--
1. St. Phillip the Apostle destroyed a huge dragon at Hierapolis in
Phrygia.
2. St. Martha killed the terrible dragon called Tarasque at Aix (la
Chapelle).
3. St. Florent killed a similar dragon which haunted the Loire.
4. St. Cado, St. Maudet, and St. Paul did similar feats in Brittany.
5. St. Keyne of Cornwall slew a dragon.
6. St. Michael, St. George, St. Margaret, Pope Sylvester, St. Samson,
Archbishop of Dol, Donatus (fourth century), St. Clement of Metz, killed
dragons.
7. St. Romain of Rouen destroyed the huge dragon called La Gargouille,
which ravaged the Seine.
Moreover, the fossil remains of animals discovered from time to time, and
now relegated to their true position in the zoological series, were
supposed to be the genuine remains of either dragons or giants, according
to the bent of the mind of the individual who stumbled on them: much as in
the present day large fossil bones of extinct animals of all kinds are in
China ascribed to dragons, and form an important item in the Chinese
pharmacopœia. (_Vide_ extract on Dragon bones from the
_Pen-tsaou-kang-mu_, given on pp. 244-246.)
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--SKELETON OF AN IGUANODON.]
The annexed wood-cut of the skeleton of an Iguanodon, found in a coal-mine
at Bernissant, exactly illustrates the semi-erect position which the
dragon of fable is reported to have assumed.
Among the latest surviving beliefs of this nature may be cited the dragon
of Wantley (Wharncliffe, Yorkshire), who was slain by More of More Hall.
He procured a suit of armour studded with spikes, and, proceeding to the
well where the dragon had his lair, kicked him in the mouth, where alone
he was vulnerable. The Lambton worm is another instance.
The explanations of these legends attempted by mythologists, based on the
supposition that the dragons which are their subjects are simply symbolic
of natural phenomena, are ingenious, and perhaps in many instances
sufficient, but do not affect, as I have before remarked, the primitive
and conserved belief in their previous existence as a reality.
Thus, the author of _British Goblins_ suggests that for the prototype of
the red dragon, which haunted caverns and guarded treasures in Wales, we
must look in the lightning caverns of old Aryan fable, and deduces the
fire-darting dragons of modern lore from the shining hammer of Thor, and
the lightning spear of Odin.
The stories of ladies guarded by dragons are explained on the
supposition[212] that the ladies were kept in the secured part of the
feudal castles, round which the walls wound, and that an adventurer had to
scale the walls to gain access to the ladies; when there were two walls,
the authors of romance said that the assaulter overcame two dragons, and
so on. St. Romain, when he delivered the city of Rouen from a dragon which
lived in the river Seine, simply protected the city from an overflow,
just as Apollo (the sun) is symbolically said to have destroyed the
serpent Python, or, in other words, dried up an overflow. And the dragon
of Wantley is supposed by Dr. Percy to have been an overgrown rascally
attorney, who cheated some children of their estates, but was compelled to
disgorge by a gentleman named More, who went against him armed with the
"spikes of the law," whereupon the attorney died of vexation.
Furthermore, our dragoons were so denominated because they were armed with
dragons, that is, with short muskets, which spouted fire like dragons, and
had the head of a dragon wrought upon their muzzle.
This fanciful device occurs also among the Chinese, for a Jesuit, who
accompanied the Emperor of China on a journey into Western Tartary in
1683, says, "This was the reason of his coming into their country with so
great an army, and such vast military preparations; he having commanded
several pieces of cannon to be brought, in order for them to be discharged
from time to time in the valleys; purposely that the noise and fire,
issuing from the mouths of the dragons, with which they were adorned,
might spread terror around."
Though dragons have completely dropped out of all modern works on natural
history, they were still retained and regarded as quite orthodox until a
little before the time of Cuvier; specimens, doubtless fabricated like the
ingeniously constructed mermaid of Mr. Barnum, were exhibited in the
museums; and voyagers occasionally brought back, as authentic stories of
their existence, fables which had percolated through time and nations
until they had found a home in people so remote from their starting point
as to cause a complete obliteration of their passage and origin.
For instance, Pigafetta, in a report of the kingdom of Congo,[213]
"gathered out of the discourses of Mr. E. Lopes, a Portuguese," speaking
of the province of Bemba, which he defines as "on the sea coast from the
river Ambrize, until the river Coanza towards the south," says of
serpents, "There are also certain other creatures which, being as big as
rams, have wings like dragons, with long tails, and long chaps, and divers
rows of teeth, and feed upon raw flesh. Their colour is blue and green,
their skin painted like scales, and they have _two feet but no more_.[214]
The Pagan negroes used to worship them as gods, and at this day you may
see divers of them that are kept for a marvel. And because they are very
rare, the chief lords there curiously preserve them, and suffer the people
to worship them, which tendeth greatly to their profits by reason of the
gifts and oblations which the people offer unto them."
And John Barbot, Agent-General of the Royal Company of Africa, in his
description of the coasts of South Guinea,[215] says: "Some blacks
assuring me that they (_i.e._ snakes) were thirty feet long. They also
told me there are winged serpents or dragons having a forked tail and a
prodigious wide mouth, full of sharp teeth, extremely mischievous to
mankind, and more particularly to small children. If we may credit this
account of the blacks, they are of the same sort of winged serpents which
some authors tell us are to be found in Abyssinia, being very great
enemies to the elephants. Some such serpents have been seen about the
river Senegal, and they are adorned and worshipped as snakes are at Wida
or Fida, that is, in a most religious manner."
Ulysses Aldrovandus,[216] who published a large folio volume on serpents
and dragons, entirely believed in the existence of the latter, and gives
two wood engravings of a specimen which he professes to have received in
the year 1551, of a true dried Æthiopian dragon.
He describes it as having two feet armed with claws, and two ears, with
five prominent and conspicuous tubercles on the back. The whole was
ornamented with green and dusky scales. Above, it bore wings fit for
flight, and had a long and flexible tail, coloured with yellowish scales,
such as shone on the belly and throat. The mouth was provided with sharp
teeth, the inferior part of the head, towards the ears, was even, the
pupil of the eye black, with a tawny surrounding, and the nostrils were
two in number, and open.
He criticises Ammianus Marcellinus for his disbelief in winged dragons,
and states in further justification of his censure that he had heard, from
men worthy of confidence, that in that portion of Pistorian territory
called Cotone, a great dragon was seen whose wings were interwoven with
sinews a cubit in length, and were of considerable width; this beast also
possessed two short feet provided with claws like those of an eagle. The
whole animal was covered with scales. The gaping mouth was furnished with
big teeth, it had ears, and was as big as a hairy bear. Aldrovandus
sustains his argument by quotations from the classics and reference to
more recent authors. He quotes Isidorus as stating that the winged Arabian
serpents were called Sirens, while their venom was so effective that their
bite was attended by death rather than pain; this confirms the account of
Solinus.
He instances Gesner as saying that, in 1543, he understood that a kind of
dragon appeared near Styria, within the confines of Germany, which had
feet like lizards, and wings after the fashion of a bat, with an incurable
bite, and says these statements are confirmed by Froschonerus in his work
on Styria (_idque Froschonerus ex Bibliophila Stirio narrabat_). He
classes dragons (which he considers as essentially winged animals) either
as footless or possessing two or four feet.
He refers to a description by Scaliger[217] of a species of serpent four
feet long, and as thick as a man's arm, with cartilaginous wings pendent
from the sides. He also mentions an account by Brodeus, of a winged dragon
which was brought to Francis, the invincible King of the Gauls, by a
countryman who had killed it with a mattock near Sanctones, and which was
stated to have been seen by many men of approved reputation, who thought
it had migrated from transmarine regions by the assistance of the wind.
Cardan[218] states that whilst he resided in Paris he saw five winged
dragons in the William Museum; these were biped, and possessed of wings so
slender that it was hardly possible that they could fly with them. Cardan
doubted their having been fabricated, since they had been sent in vessels
at different times, and yet all presented the same remarkable form.
Bellonius states that he had seen whole carcases of winged dragons,
carefully prepared, which he considered to be of the same kind as those
which fly out of Arabia into Egypt; they were thick about the belly, had
two feet, and two wings, whole like those of a bat, and a snake's tail.
It would be useless to multiply examples of the stories, no doubt fables,
current in mediæval times, and I shall therefore only add here two of
those which, though little known, are probably fair samples of the whole.
It is amusing to find the story of Sindbad's escape from the Valley of
Diamonds reappearing in Europe during the Middle Ages, with a substitution
of the dragon for the roc. Athanasius Kircher, in the _Mundus
Subterraneus_, gives the story of a Lucerne man who, in wandering over
Mount Pilate, tumbled into a cavern from which there was no exit, and, in
searching round, discovered the lair of two dragons, who proved more
tender than their reputation. Unharmed by them he remained for the six
winter months, without any other sustenance than that which he derived
from licking the moisture off the rock, in which he followed their
example. Noticing the dragons preparing for flying out on the approach of
spring, by stretching and unfolding their wings, he attached himself by
his girdle to the tail of one of them, and so was restored to the upper
world, where, unfortunately, the return to the diet to which he had been
so long unaccustomed killed him. In memory, however, of the event, he left
his goods to the Church, and a monument illustrative of his escape was
erected in the Ecclesiastical College of St. Leodegaris at Lucerne.
Kircher had himself seen this, and it was accepted as an irrefragable
proof of the story.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--THE DRAGONS OF MOUNT PILATE. (_From the "Mundus
Subterraneus" of Athanasius Kircher._)]
Another story is an account also given by A. Kircher,[219] of the fight
between a dragon and a knight named Gozione, in the island of Rhodes, in
the year 1349 A.D. This monster is described as of the bulk of a horse or
ox, with a long neck and serpent's head--tipped with mule's ears--the
mouth widely gaping and furnished with sharp teeth, eyes sparkling as
though they flashed fire, four feet provided with claws like a bear, and a
tail like a crocodile, the whole body being coated with hard scales. It
had two wings, blue above, but blood-coloured and yellow underneath; it
was swifter than a horse, progressing partly by flight and partly by
running. The knight, being solicited by the chief magistrate, retired into
the country, when he constructed an imitation dragon of paper and tow, and
purchased a charger and two courageous English dogs; he ordered slaves to
snap the jaws and twist the tail about by means of cords, while he urged
his horse and dogs on to the attack. After practising for two months,
these latter could scarcely retain their frenzy at the mere sight of the
image. He then proceeded to Rhodes, and after offering his vows in the
Church of St. Stephen, repaired to the fatal cave, instructing his slaves
to witness the combat from a lofty rock, and hasten to him with remedies,
if after slaying the dragon he should be overcome by the poisonous
exhalations, or to save themselves, in the event of his being slain.
Entering the lair he excited the beast with shouts and cries, and then
awaited it outside. The dragon appearing, allured by the expectation of an
easy prey, rushed on him, both running and flying; the knight shattered
his spear at the first onset on the scaly carcase, and leaping from his
horse continued the contest with sword and shield. The dragon, raising
itself on its hind legs, endeavoured to grasp the knight with his fore
ones, giving the latter an opportunity of striking him in the softer parts
of the neck. At last both fell together, the knight being exhausted by the
fatigue of the conflict, or by mephitic exhalations. The slaves, according
to instruction, rushed forward, dragged off the monster from their master,
and fetched water in their caps to restore him; after which he mounted his
horse and returned in triumph to the city, where he was at first
ungratefully received, but afterwards rewarded with the highest ranks of
the order, and created magistrate of the province.[220]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--THE DRAGON OF THE DRACHENFELDT. (_Athanasius
Kircher._)]
Kircher had a very pious belief in dragons. He says: "Since monstrous
animals of this kind for the most part select their lairs and
breeding-places in subterraneous caverns, I have considered it proper to
include them under the head of subterraneous beasts. I am aware that two
kinds of this animal have been distinguished by authors, the one with, the
other without, wings. No one either can or ought to doubt concerning the
latter kind of creature, unless perchance he dares to contradict the Holy
Scripture, for it would be an impious thing to say it when Daniel makes
mention of the divine worship accorded to the dragon Bel by the
Babylonians, and after the mention of the dragon made in other parts of
the sacred writings."
Harris, in his _Collection of Voyages_,[221] gives a singular _resumé_. He
says:--"We have, in an ancient author, a very large and circumstantial
account of the taking of a dragon on the frontiers of Ethiopia, which was
one and twenty feet in length, and was carried to Ptolemy Philadelphus,
who very bountifully rewarded such as ran the hazard of procuring him this
beast.--Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii.... Yet terrible as these were they
fall abundantly short of monsters of the same species in India, with
respect to which St. Ambrose[222] tells us that there were dragons seen in
the neighbourhood of the Ganges nearly seventy cubits in length. It was
one of this size that Alexander and his army saw in a cave, where it was
fed, either out of reverence or from curiosity, by the inhabitants; and
the first lightning of its eyes, together with its terrible hissing, made
a strong impression on the Macedonians, who, with all their courage, could
not help being frighted at so horrid a spectacle.[223] The dragon is
nothing more than a serpent of enormous size; and they formerly
distinguished three sorts of them in the Indies, viz. such as were found
in the mountains, such as were bred in caves or in the flat country, and
such as were found in fens and marshes.
"The first is the largest of all, and are covered with scales as
resplendent as polished gold.[224] These have a kind of beard hanging from
their lower jaw, their eyebrows large, and very exactly arched; their
aspect the most frightful that can be imagined, and their cry loud and
shrill;[225] their crests of a bright yellow, and a protuberance on their
heads of the colour of a burning coal.
"Those of the flat country differ from the former in nothing but in having
their scales of a silver colour,[226] and in their frequenting rivers, to
which the former never come.
"Those that live in marshes and fens are of a dark colour, approaching to
a black, move slowly, have no crest, or any rising upon their heads.[227]
Strabo says that the painting them with wings is the effect of fancy, and
directly contrary to truth, but other naturalists and travellers both
ancient and modern affirm that there are some of these species
winged.[228] Pliny says their bite is not venomous, other authors deny
this. Pliny gives a long catalogue of medical and magical properties,
which he ascribes to the skin, flesh, bones, eyes, and teeth of the
dragon, also a valuable stone in its head. 'They hung before the mouth of
the dragon den a piece of stuff flowered with gold, which attracted the
eyes of the beast, till by the sound of soft music they lulled him to
sleep, and then cut off his head.'"
I do not find Harris's statement in Diodorus Siculus, the author quoted,
but there is the very circumstantial description of a serpent thirty
cubits (say forty-five feet) in length, which was captured alive by
stratagem, the first attempt by force having resulted in the death of
several of the party. This was conveyed to Ptolemy II. at Alexandria,
where it was placed in a den or chamber suitable for exhibition, and
became an object of general admiration. Diodorus says: "When, therefore,
so enormous a serpent was open for all to see, credence could no longer be
refused the Ethiopians, or their statements be received as fables; for
they say that they have seen in their country serpents so vast that they
can not only swallow cattle and other beasts of the same size, but that
they also fight with the elephant, embracing his limbs so tightly in the
fold of their coils that he is unable to move, and, raising their neck up
underneath his trunk, direct their head against the elephant's eyes;
having destroyed his sight by fiery rays like lightning, they dash him to
the ground, and, having done so, tear him to pieces."
In an account of the castle of Fahender, formerly one of the most
considerable castles of _Fars_, it is stated--"Such is the historical
foundation of an opinion generally prevalent, that the subterranean
recesses of this deserted edifice are still replete with riches. The
talisman has not been forgotten; and tradition adds another guardian to
the previous deposit, a dragon or winged serpent; this sits for ever
brooding over the treasure which it cannot enjoy."
I shall examine, on a future occasion, how far those figures correspond to
the Persian ideas of dragons and serpents, the _azhdaha_ (اژدها = dragon)
and _már_ (مار = snake), which, as various poets relate, are constant
guardians of every subterraneous _ganj_ (گنج = treasure).
The _már_ at least may be supposed the same as that serpent which guards
the golden fruit in the garden of the Hesperides.