“He had remarked that the Indians of the north-west coast frequently repeat in their well-known blackstone carvings the dragon, the lotus flower, and the alligator.”—C. G. Leland,Fusang, London, 1875.
[140]“Dragon, an imaginary animal something like a crocodile.”—Rev. Dr. Brewer,Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 243.
[141]“In the woods of Java are certain flying snakes, or rather drakes; they have four legs, a long tail, and their skin speckled with many spots, their wings are not unlike those of a bat, which they move in flying, but otherwise keep them almost unperceived close to the body. They fly nimbly, but cannot hold it long, so that they fly from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty paces’ distance. On the outside of the throat are two bladders, which, being extended when they fly, serve them instead of a sail. They feed upon flies and other insects.”—Mr. John Nieuhoff’s Voyage and Travels to the East Indies, contained in a collection ofVoyages and Travels, in 6 vols., vol. ii. p. 317; Churchill, London, 1732.
[142]Chambers’ Encyclopædia, vol. iii. p. 635.
[143]The following is the nearest approach to such an assertion I have met with, but appears from the context to apply to geologic time prior to the advent of man. “When all those large and monstrous amphibia since regarded as fabulous still in reality existed, when the confines of the water and the land teemed with gigantic saurians, with lizards of dimensions much exceeding those of the largest crocodiles of the present day: who to the scaly bodies of fish, added the claws of beasts, and the neck and wings of birds: who to the faculty of swimming in water, added not only that of moving on the earth but that of sailing in air: and who had all the characteristics of what we now call chimeras and dragons, and perhaps of such monsters the remains, found among the bones and skeletons of other animals more resembling those that still exist and propagate, in the grottos and caverns in which they sought shelter during the deluges that affected the infancy of the globe, gave first rise to the idea that these dens and caves were once retreats whence such monsters watched and in which they devoured other animals.”—Thomas Hope,On the Origin and Prospects of Man, vol. ii. p. 346; London, 1831.
Southey, in his Commonplace Book, pityingly alludes to this passage, saying, “He believes in dragons and griffins as having heretofore existed.”
[144]From the context, Lanuvium appears to have been on the Appian Road, in Latium, about twenty-fives miles from Rome.
[145]Propertius,Elegy VIII.; Bohn, 1854.
[146]History of Animals, Book ix., chap. ii. § 3; Bohn.
[147]Ibid., Book vi., chap. xx. § 12.
[148]Ibid., Book i., § 6.
[149]History of Animals, Book ix., chap. vii. § 4.
[150]Natural History of Pliny, Book viii., chap. xli., translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley; London, 1855.
[151]Anim. Nat., Book vi., chap. iv.
[152]Natural History, Book viii., chap. xxii.
[153]“On the contrary, towards ourselves they were disappointingly undemonstrative, and only evinced their consciousness of the presence of strangers by entwining themselves about the members of the family as if soliciting their protection.... They were very jealous of each other, Mr. Mann said; jealous also of other company, as if unwilling to lose their share of attention.... Two sweet little children were equally familiar with the other boas, that seemed quite to know who were their friends and playfellows, for the children handled them and petted them and talked to them as we talk to pet birds and cats.”—Account of Snakes kept by Mr. and Mrs. Mann, of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, inSnakes, by C. C. Hopley; London, 1882.
[154]Natural History, Book xxix., chap. xx.
[155]“It is probable that the island of Zanig described by Qazvinius, in his geographical work (for extracts from which videScriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula inedita, by I. Gildemeister, Bonnæ, 1838), as the seat of the empire of the Mahraj, is identical with Zaledj. He says that it is a large island on the confines of China towards India, and that among other remarkable features is a mountain called Nacan (Kini Balu?), on which are serpents of such magnitude as to be able to swallow oxen, buffaloes, and even elephants. Masudi includes Zanig, Kalah, and Taprobana among the islands constituting the territory of the Mahraj.”—P. Amédée Jaubert,Géographie d’Edrisi, vol. i. p. 104; Paris, 1836.
[156]Book vi., chap. iv. § 16.
[157]Serpent Worship, p. 35; Welder, New York, 1877.
[158]Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xi., translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley; Bohn, London, 1855.
[159]Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xii.
[160]Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiii.
[161]Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiv.
[162]“At the present day the longest Italian serpents are the Æsculapian serpent (a harmless animal) and theColubes quadrilineatus, neither of which exceeds ten feet in length.”—Nat. Hist., Book viii., chap. xiv.
[163]Aristotle’s History of Animals, Book viii., chap. xxvii. § 6, by R. Cresswell, Bohn’s Series; Bell, London, 1878.
[164]An abridgment of these travels is contained inVoyages par Pierre Bergeron, à la Haye, 1735. They were originally written in Hebrew, translated into Latin by Benoit Arian Montare, and subsequently into French. [The introduction refers to his return to Castille in 1173, presumably after the termination of his voyages; but in the opening paragraph there is a marginal note giving the same date to his setting out from Sarragossa.] Sir John Mandeville gives a similar account in speaking of the tower of Babylon; he says, “but it is full long sithe that any man durste neyhe to the Tour: for it is all deserte and fulle of Dragouns and grete serpents, and fulle of dyverse venemous Bestes alle about he.”—The Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, Kt., p. 40; J. O. Halliwell, London, 1839.
[165]Harris’s Voyages, vol. i. p. 360.
[166]Ibid., vol. i. p. 392.
[167]Encyclopædia of Arts and Sciences, first American edition, Philadelphia, 1798.
[168]SeeVoyage to the East Indies, by Francis Leguat; London, 1708. Leguat hardly makes the positive affirmation stated in the text. In describing Batavia he says there is another sort of serpents which are at least fifty feet long.
[169]Broderip,Leaves from the Note Book of a Naturalist, p. 357.
[170]Australasia, p. 273.
[171]Quedah; London, 1857.
[172]Perak and the Malays, p. 77.
[173]Figuier, Reptiles and Birds, p. 51.
[174]La Chine Illustré, d’Athase Keichere, chap. x. p. 272. Amsterdam,CIↄICↄ LXX.
[175]Vol. i. p. 601.
[176]SeeProceedingsof Royal Society of Tasmania, September 13, 1880. Mr. C. M. Officer states—“With reference to the Mindi or Mallee snake, it has often been described to me as a formidable creature of at least thirty feet in length, which confined itself to the Mallee scrub. No one, however, has ever seen one, for the simple reason that to see it is to die, so fierce it is, and so great its power of destruction. Like the Bunyip, I believe the Mindi to be a myth, a mere tradition.”
[177]Pinkerton’sVoyages, vol. xiv. p. 247.
[178]Ibid., vol. xiv. p. 514.
[179]It is interesting to compare this belief with stories given elsewhere, by Pliny, Book viii. chap. xiv., and Ælian, Book ii. chap. xxi., of the power of the serpents or dragons of the river Rhyndacus to attract birds by inhalation.
[180]Pinkerton’sVoyages, vol. xiv. p. 713.
[181]Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cvii., cviii.
[182]Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cviii.
[183]Herodotus, Book ii., chap. lxxv.
[184]Ibid., Book ii., chap. lxxvi.
[185]Ibid., Book i., chap. v.
[186]Antiquities of the Jews, Book ii., chap. x.
[187]Book viii. chap. xxxv.
[188]Pharsalia, Book ix.
[189]Herodotus, Book iv. chap. cv.
[190]Book iii. chap. xx.
[191]“It may be some comfort to graziers and selectors who are struggling, under many discouragements, to suppress the rabbit plague in Victoria, to learn that our condition, bad as it is, is certainly less serious than that of New Zealand. There, not only is an immense area of good country being abandoned in consequence of the inability of lessees to bear the great expense of clearing the land of rabbits, but, owing to the increase of the pest, the number of sheep depastured is decreasing at a serious rate. Three years ago the number exceeded thirteen millions; but it is estimated that they have since been diminished by two millions, while the exports of the colony have, in consequence, fallen off to the extent of £500,000 per annum. A Rabbit Nuisance Act has been in existence for some time, but it is obviously inefficient, and it is now proposed to make its provisions more stringent, and applicable alike to the Government as well as to private landowners. A select committee of both Houses of the Legislature, which has recently taken a large amount of evidence upon this subject, reports in the most emphatic terms its conviction that unless immediate and energetic action is taken to arrest the further extension of, and to suppress the plague, the result will be ruinous to the colony. A perusal of the evidence adduced decidedly supports this opinion. Many of the squatters cannot be accused of apathy. Some of them have employed scores of men, and spent thousands of pounds a year in ineffectual efforts to eradicate the rabbits from their runs. One firm last year is believed to have killed no less than 500,000; but the following spring their run was in as bad a state as if they had never put any poison down. Similar instances of failure could be easily multiplied. It is found, as with us, that one of the chief causes of non-success is the fact that the Government do not take sufficient steps to destroy the rabbits on unoccupied Crown lands. This foolish policy, of course, at once diminishes the letting value of the adjacent pastoral country—to such an extent, indeed, that instances have occurred in which 34,000 acres have been leased for £10 a year. Poison is regarded as the most destructive agent that can be employed, and it is especially effective when mixed with oats and wheat, a striking testimony to the value of Captain Raymond’s discovery. Most of the witnesses examined were strongly of opinion that the Administration of the Rabbit Suppression Act should not be left to private and, perhaps, interested persons, as at present, but should be conducted by officers of the Government, probably the sheep inspectors, on a principle similar to that by which the scab was eradicated from the flocks of the colony. The joint committee adopted this view, and also recommended the Legislature to enact that all unoccupied Crown land, as well as all native, reserved, or private land, should bear a proportionate share of the cost of destroying the rabbits, and of administering the act. It is to be hoped that, in the midst of the party conflicts which have so impeded practical legislation this session, the Parliament will yet find time to give effect to the useful recommendations of the Rabbit Nuisance Committee.”—Australasian, 10th September 1881.
[192]Book xv. chap. i. § 37.
[193]See Smith’sDictionary of the Bible, p. 145-47. Murray, 1863.
[194]Æneid, Book vii. 561.
[195]
Non Arabum volucer serpens, innataque rubrisÆquoribus custos pretiosæ vipera conchæAut viventis adhuc Lybici membrana cerastæ.—Pharsalia, Book vi. 677.
[196]The popular illustrations of the Story of the Black and White Snakes given by him, a favourite story among the Chinese, always represent them as winged.Folk Lore of China, N. P. Dennys, Ph.D.
[197]Broderip,Zoological Recreations, p. 333.
[198]Compare Shakspeare, “Peace, Kent. Come not between the Dragon and his wrath.”
[199]Metamorphoses, Book iii. 35, translated by H. J. Riley; London, 1872.
[200]In reference to colours so bright as to be inconsistent with our knowledge of the ordinary colours of reptiles, it may be of interest to compare the description by D’Argensola—who wrote the history of the successive conquests of the Moluccas, by the Spaniards, Portuguese and Dutch—of a blue and golden saurian existing upon a volcanic mountain in Tarnate. “Il y a aussi sur cette montagne un grand lac d’eau douce, entouré d’arbres, dans lequel on voit de crocodiles azurés et dorés qui ont plus d’un brasse de longueur, et qui se plongent dans l’eau lors qu’ils entendent des hommes.”—D’Argensola, vol. iii. p. 4, translated from the Spanish, 3 vols.; J. Desbordes, Amsterdam, 1706. And Pliny,Nat. Hist., Book viii. chap. xxviii., speaks of lizards upon Nysa, a mountain of India, twenty-four feet long, their colour being either yellow, purple, or azure blue.
[201]Ovid,Fasti, Book iv. 501.
[202]These wood-cuts occur onpp. 239, 240.
[203]Broderip,Zoological Recreations, p. 332.
[204]Lucan,Pharsalia, Book ix. 726-32.
[205]Book xvi. chap. x.
[206]Book xv. chap. v.;A.D.355.
[207]Lord Lytton,King Arthur, Book i. Stanza 4.
[208]Chamber’s Cyclopædia, 1881.
[209]J. Grimm,Deutsche Mythologie, vol. ii. p. 653.
[210]A dragon without wings is called a lintworm or lindworm, which Grimm explains to mean a beautiful or shining worm (here again we have a corroboration of the idea of the gold and silver dragon givenante.)
[211]Brewer’sDictionary of Phrase and Fable.
[212]Rev. Dr. Brewer,Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, London.
[213]The Harleian Collection of Travels, vol. ii. p. 457. 1745.
[214]The italics are mine.
[215]Churchill,Collection of Voyages, vol. v. p. 213; London, 1746.
[216]Ulyssis AldrovandiSerpentum et Draconum Historiæ; Bononiæ, 1640.
[217]Scaliger, lib. iii. Miscell. cap. i. Seeante, p. 182, “Winged Serpents.”
[218]De Naturâ Rerum, lib. vii., cap. 29.
[219]Athanasii KircheriMundus Subterraneus, Book viii. 27.
[220]Probably many of my readers are acquainted with Schiller’s poem based on this story, and with the beautiful designs by Retsch illustrating it.
[221]Harris,Collection of Voyages, vol. i. p. 474; London, 1764.
[222]De Moribus Brachmanorum, p. 63. Strabo, lib. 16, p. 75. Bochart Hieroz, p. 11, lib. 3, cap. 13.
[223]Ælian,De Animal., lib. xv. cap. 21.
[224]Strabo, lib. xvi.
[225]Gosse tells us that it is still a common belief in Jamaica that crested snakes exist there which crow like a cock.
[226]Strabo, lib. xvi.
[227]Jonston,Theatr. Animal., tome ii. p. 34, “De Serpentibus.” Note.—It is interesting to record that in China, to the present day, the tradition of the gold and silver scaled species of dragons remains alive. Two magnificent dragons, 200 feet and 150 feet long, representing respectively the gold and silver dragon, formed part of the processions in Hongkong in December 1881, in honour of the young princes.
[228]Strabo, lib. xvi.
[229]In China the dragon is peculiarly the emblem of imperial power, as with us the lion is of the kingly. The Emperor is said to be seated on the dragon throne. A five-clawed dragon is embroidered on the Emperor’s court-robes. It often surrounds his edicts, and the title-pages of books published by his authority, and dragons are inscribed on his banners. It is drawn stretched out at full length or curled up with two legs pointing forwards and two backwards; sometimes holding a pearl in one hand, and surrounded by clouds and fire.
[230]TheYih King—extracts from papers by Monsieur De la Couperie, in theJournalof the Royal Asiatic Society.
“TheYih Kingis the oldest of the Chinese books, and is the mysterious classic which requires ‘a prolonged attention to make it reveal its secrets’; it has peculiarities of style, making it the most difficult of all the Chinese classics to present in an intelligible version.”
“We have multifarious proofs that the writing, first known in China, was already an old one, partially decayed, but also much improved since its primitive hieroglyphic stage. We have convincing proofs (videmy ‘Early History of Chinese Civilization,’ pp. 21-23, and the last section of the present paper) that it had been borrowed, by the early leaders of the Chinese Bak families [Poh Sing] in Western Asia, from an horizontal writing traced from left to right, the pre-cuneiform character, which previously had itself undergone several important modifications.
“At that time the Ku-wen was really the phonetic expression of speech. (By an analysis of the old inscriptions and fragments, and by the help of the native works on palæography, some most valuable, I have compiled a dictionary of this period.)
“If thekwas, which were a survival of the arrows of divination known to the ancestors of Chinese culture before their emigration eastward,” &c. &c.—Vol. xiv. part 4.
“This mysterious book is still avowedly not understood, and we assist, now-a-days, at a most curious spectacle. There are not a few Chinese of education among those who have picked up some knowledge in Europe or in translations of European works of our modern sciences, who believe openly that all these may be found in theirYih. Electricity, steam power, astronomical laws, sphericity of the earth, &c., are all, according to their views, to be found in theYih King; they firmly believe that these discoveries were not ignored by their sages, who have embodied them in their mysterious classics, of which they will be able to unveil the secrets when they themselves apply to its study a thorough knowledge of the modern sciences. It is unnecessary for any European mind to insist upon the childishness of such an opinion. Even in admitting, what seems probable, that the early leaders of the Bak people (Poh Sing) were not without some astronomical and mathematical principles, which have been long since forgotten, there is no possible comparison between their rude notions and our sciences.
“It is not a mysterious book of fate and prognostics. It contains a valuable collection of documents of old antiquity, in which is embodied much information on the ethnography, customs, language, and writing of early China.
“Proofs of various kinds—similitude of institutions, traditions and knowledge, affinities of words of culture; and, in what concerns the writing, likenesses of shapes of characters, hieroglyphic and arbitrary, with the same sounds (sometimes polyphons) and meanings attached to them, the same morphology of written words, the same phonetic laws of orthography—had led me, several years ago, to no other conclusion than that (as the reverse is proved impossible by numerous reasons), at an early period of their history, and before their emigration to the far East, the Chinese Bak families had borrowed the pre-cuneiform writing and elements of their knowledge and institutions from a region connected with the old focus of culture of south-western Asia.
“Numerous affinities of traditions, institutions, and customs, connect the borrowing of script and culture by the Chinese Bak families with the region of Elam, the confederation of states of which Susa was the chief town, and the Kussi the principal population.
“What are the historical facts of this connection we do not know. Has the break-up which happened in those states and resulted in the conquest of Babylonia by the Elamite king, Kudur Nakhunta, at the date, which is certain, of 2285B.C., been also the cause of an eastern conquest and a settlement in Bactria? and would this account for the old focus of culture coeval with the earlier period of Assyrian monarchy said to have existed in Central Asia?
“The two ethnic names, which, as we have pointed out, were those of the Chinese invaders, Bak and Kutti or Kutta, are not altogether foreign to those regions. The Chinese Kutti and the Kussi, the Chinese Bak and Bakh, the ethnic of Bakhdi (Bactria), will be, most likely, one day proved to be the same ethnic names. Had not the Chinese, previous to my researches, and quite on different reasons, been traced back westerly to the regions of Yarkand and Khotan? This is not far distant from the old focus of culture of Central Asia, and the connection cannot be objected to by geographical reasons.”—Vol. xv. part 2.
[231]Dr. Williams,Hien-ning.
[232]Williams,Shi-Wéi.
[233]Williams,Liu-Léi.
[234]Williams,Shu King.
[235]Williams,Yih and Ts‘ih.
[236]I am under the impression that the dragons to which Mencius refers were probably alligators, of which one small species still exists, though rare, in the Yang-tsze-kiang. So also we may regard as alligators the dragons referred to above in the annals of the Bamboo Books on the passage of the Kiang by Yu. Mr. Griffis, in his work on Corea, says, “The creature calleda-ke, or alligator, capable of devouring a man, is sometimes found in the largest rivers.”
[237]For a full account of this work, see an Article by E. C. Bridgman inChinese Repository, xviii. (1849), p. 169; andBotanicon Sinicum, by Dr. E. Bretschneider, in theJournalof the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series, vol. xvi. 1881.
[238]Notes on Chinese Literature, A. Wylie, Shanghai and London, 1867.
[239]“Bot. Sin.” inJournalof N. China Branch R. A. S., 1881.
[240]Journal Asiatique, Extr.No. 17 (1839).
[241]The three prefaces by these authors are given inextensoin the Appendix to this Chapter.
[242]The reader is referred, for a carefulprécisof the contents of this valuable work, to an exhaustive paper entitled “Botanicon Sinicum,” in theJournalof North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, 1881, by E. Bretschneider, M.D.
[243]The character for a hare is very like the character for a devil. The Japanese, in quoting this passage, have fallen into this error.
[244]The dragons’ bones sold by apothecaries in China consist of the fossilized teeth and bones of a variety of species, generally in a fragmentary condition. The white earth striæ, or dragons’ brains, here referred to, are probably asbestos. The asbestos sold in Chefoo market, under the name of Lung Ku or dragons’ bones, is procured at O-tzu-kung.
[245]Theboletus, supposed to possess mystic efficacy.
[246]The first two stories are from theKo Ku Shi Riyăh, a recent history of Japan, from the earliest periods down to the present time, by Matsunai, with a continuation by a later author. They are contained in the first chapter of the first volume. The third is given as an ordinary item of news in the journal called theChin-jei-Nippo, April 30th, 1884.
[247]The idea of the eight heads probably originated in China; thus, in the caves in Shantung, near Chi-ning Chou, among carvings of mythological figures and divinities, dating fromA.D.147, we find a tiger’s body with eight heads, all human.
[248]Mourakoumomeans “clouds of clouds”;amameans “heaven”;tsurogimeans “sword.”
[249]White snakes are occasionally, although rarely, seen in Japan. They are supposed to be messengers from the gods, and are never killed by the people, but always taken and carried to some temple. The white snake is worshipped in Nagasaki at a temple called Miyo-ken, at Nishi-yama, which is the northern part of the city of Nagasaki.
[250]Mémoires sur les Contrées occidentales, traduits du Sanscrit en Chinois en l’an 648; et du Chinois en Francais, par M. Stanislas Julien. 2 vols., Paris, 1857.
[251]Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, ou Relation des Royaumes Bouddhiques, par Chĕ Fa Hien.Translated from the Chinese by M. Abel Remusat; Paris, 1836. This volume contains a number of very interesting dragon legends, and quaint conceits about them; but I find nothing in it to supplement my materialistic argument.
[252]Montaigne,Essays, chap. xxvi.
[253]“I fully believe in this great marine monster. I have as much evidence as to its existence as of anything not seen. Some years ago, Captain Austin Cooper and the officers and crew of theCarlisle Castle, on a voyage to Melbourne, saw the ‘varmint.’ A description and sketch of it were published in theArgus. This, when it arrived in London, it being the ‘silly season’ in journalism, was seized and torn to pieces by one of the young lions of theDaily Telegraph, in a leading article, in which much fun was poked at the gallant sailor. ‘I don’t see any more sea-serpents,’ said my Irish friend to me. ‘It is too much to be told that one of Green’s commanders can’t tell the difference between a piece of sea-weed and a live body in the water. If twenty serpents come on the starboard, all hands shall be ordered to look to port. No London penny-a-liner shall say again that Austin Cooper is a liar and a fool.’ After this we softened down over some Coleraine whiskey. Again, some three years ago, the monster was plainly seen off the great reef of New Caledonia by Commandant Villeneuve, and the officers of the French man-of-war, theSeudre. Chassepots were procured to shoot it, but before it came within easy range it disappeared. During my late visit to Fiji, Major James Harding, who was an officer in Cakoban’s army when that chief, ‘by the grace of God’ was king of Fiji, described exactly the same creature as passing within a few yards of his canoe on a clear moonlight night in the Bay of Suva. It swam towards a small island outside the reef, which is known amongst Fijians as the ‘Cave of the Big Snake.’ Major Harding is a cool, brave soldier, who saw much hot work with Cakoban’s men against the hill tribes of Vonua Levu. He was once riddled by bullets, and left for dead. Accustomed for years to travel about the reefs in canoes, every phase of the aspect of the waters was known to him, and he was not likely to be frightened with false fire. The extraordinary thing is, that the English sailor, the French commander, and the Fijian soldier, all gave the same account of this monster. It is something with a head slightly raised out of the water, and with a sort of mane streaming behind it, whilst the back of a long body is seen underneath the water. So, from these instances, in which I know the witnesses, I fully believe in the sea-serpent. What is there very wonderful in it, after all? The whale is the largest living thing. Why shouldn’t the waters produce snakes of gigantic size.”The Vagabond, in Supplement to theAustralasian, September 10, 1881.
[254]Contained in Eden’sTravels.
[255]Connected with the breathing apparatus?
[256]Pinkerton,Voyages and Travels, vol. i. p. 376.
[257]A. de Brooke,Travels to the North Cape.
[258]1 ell = 2 feet.
[259]Transactionsof the Wernerian Society, vol. i. p. 442.
[260]No. 92, May 1873; London, Van Voorst.
[261]Shetland Islands, p. 565.
[262]Jardine’sNaturalist’s Library, vol. xxv.
[263]How this reminds one of the Chinese dragon.
[264]Within a few days of writing these lines I made one of a party of four to visit the waterfalls of Taki-kwannon, near Nagasaki. I asked for estimates of the height of the fall, which was variously guessed, by different members of the party, at from forty-three to one hundred and fifty feet.
[265]Folklore of China, p. 113.
[266]Vide Verhandelingen van Het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Weten Schappen, Deelxxxix., 1ere Stuk., Batavia, 1877.
[267]About 1⅓ lb. avoirdupois.
[268]Contributions to Materia Medica and Natural History of China, by F. P. Smith, M.B., London; Shanghai and London, 1871.
I give, in the appendix to this chapter, some accounts of a reputed monster, the Shan, the description of which by Chinese authors, although vague, appears to me to point to the sea-serpent. I only insert a portion of the latter part of the legends regarding it which I find in my authority, as they are perfectly valueless. The sample given may, however, be interesting as an example of how the Taouists compiled their absurd miraculous stories.
[269]Forsea-serpentreadoctopus.
[270]I must also add, on the information of Mr. H. C. Syers, of Selangor, that Captain Douglas, late Resident of Perak, had a large sea-serpent rise close to him, somewhere off Perak, when in a boat manned by Malays. Mr. Syers had the account both from Captain Douglas and from the crew; and he tells me that there is a universal belief in the existence of some large sea-monster among the Malays of the western coast of the Peninsula.
[271]This is one of the fleet of the important Japanese Mitsu Bish Company, the equivalent of the P. and O. Company in Japan.
[272]Pop. Sci. Monthly, No. 56, December 1876, p. 234.
[273]It must be remembered that it is with a blow of its powerful tail that the alligator stuns its prey and knocks it into the water (when any stray animal approaches the bank), and it is with the tail that the dragon, in the fable related by Ælian, chastises, although gently, its mistress, and constricts, according to Pliny, the elephant in its folds.
[274]Nineteenth Century, March 1877, p. 20. Article on “Authority in Matters of Opinion,” by G. Cornewall Lewis. Reviewed by W. E. Gladstone.
[275]From theDaheim, No. 17, Supplement. January 27th, 1883. Leipzig.
[276]41° Fahrenheit.
[277]A Collection of Voyages, in 4 volumes. J. J. Knapton, London, 1729.
[278]A Voyage to the East Indies, by Francis Leguat. London, 1708.
[279]I find the following note inMaclean’s Guide to Bombay, for 1883: “Since the first edition of this Gazette was published, Captain Dundas, of the P. and O. Company’s steamerCathay, has informed me that the statements of old travellers regarding these serpents are quite accurate. The serpents are not seen excepting during the south-west monsoon the season in which alone voyages used to be made to India. In Horsburgh’sSailing Directions, shipmasters are warned to look out for the serpents, whose presence is a sign that the ship is close to land. Captain Dundas says that the serpents are yellow or copper-coloured. The largest ones are farthest out to sea. They lie on the surface of the water, and appear too lazy even to get out of a steamer’s way.”
[280]TheRomance of Natural History, P. H. Gosse, F.R.S., First Series, London, 1880, 12th edition; Second Series, 1875, 5th edition.
[281]“At length, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were thrown open for examination by the desire which then existed in Germany to possess theebur fossile, or ‘unicorn’s horn,’ a supposed infallible specific for the cure of many diseases. The unicorn horn was to be found in the caves, and the search for it revealed the remains of lions, hyænas, elephants, and many other tropical and strange animals.”Pop. Sci. Monthly, No. 32.
[282]Book iv. ch. cxci. and cxcii.
[283]Book ii. ch. ii. § 8.
[284]Book viii. ch. xxxii.
[285]Book xi. ch. cvi.
[286]Ibid.
[287]Ælian,De Naturâ Animalium, Book xvi. ch. xx.
[288]De Bello Gallico, ch. ii. p. 26.
[289]VideCharton’sVoyageurs du Moyen Ages, vol. ii. p. 25.
[290]Harris’Voyages, vol. i. p. 362; “Africa,” by John Leo.
[291]Pinkerton’sVoyages, vol. i. p. 392; “Ethiopia,” by Jobus Ludolphus.
[292]The Navigation and Voyage of Lewes Vertomannus, of Rome, into Arabia, Egypt, &c., in 1503, contained in “The History of Travayle in the East and West Indies,” done into English by Richard Eden. London, 1577.
[293]Berynto, a city on the seacoast of Syria, Phœnicia.
[294]Sining is on the western frontier of Kansuh, towards Kokonor.
[295]Pinkerton’sVoyages, vol. xv. p. 23.
[296]Pinkerton’sVoyages, vol. vii. p. 333.
[297]Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China.Huc and Gabet. Translated by W. Hazlitt, vol. ii. p. 245.
[298]Gosse,Romance of Natural History.
[299]Prejevalski’sMongolia, vol. ii. p. 207; London, 1876.
[300]See’Rh YaandYuen Keen Luy Han, vol. ccccxxix. p. 1.
[301]This height will have to be reduced in accordance with the difference between the magnitude of old and new standards of measurement.
[302]A poet, native of Hang Cheu.
[303]Videthe translation into French by L. Serrurier, Leyden, 1875.
[304]“The Chinese have a tradition that this animal skips, and is so holy or harmless that it won’t even tread upon an insect, and that it is to come in the shape of an incomparable man, a revealer of mysteries, supernatural and divine, and a great lover of all mankind, who is expected to come, about the time of a particular constellation in the heavens, on a special mission for their benefit. The Japanese unicorn answers the description of the animal bearing that name, and supposed to be still extant in Ethiopia, and which is equal to the size of a small horse, reddish in colour, and slender as a gazelle, the male having one horn. The unicorn is the ancient crest of the kings of Israel, and is still retained by the Mikado.”Epitome of the Ancient History of Japan, p. 116; N. McLeod, Nagasaki, 1875.
[305]Vol. ccccxxx. p. 18.
[306]Vol. ccccxxxii. p. 38.
[307]This will have to be reduced by nearly one-half, to equate it with the present measures of length.
[308]San Li T’u, vol. viii. p. 3. TheSan Li T’uis an illustrated, modern, edition by Nieh Tsung I. of the oldSan Li; it was written during the reign of the great patron of literature, Kang Hi (A.D.1661 to 1723).
[309]Vol. vii. No. 1, p. 72.
[310]Harris,Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa. The Oryx Capensis—The Gemsbock.
“The figure of the renowned unicorn can be traced in all the ancient ear-rings, coins, and Latin heraldic insignia, to some one of the members of the oryxine family; of all the whimsies of antiquity, whether emanating from the unbridled and fertile fancies of the people of Egypt and Persia, or devised by the more chaste and classic taste which distinguished Greece and Rome, the unicorn—unquestionably the most celebrated—is the chimera which has in modern ages engrossed the largest portion of attention from the curious.
“The rhinoceros is supposed to be the animal so often alluded to in Scripture under the name ofreemor unicorn, yet the combination presented in the oryx of the antelopine and equine characters, the horns and cloven hoof of the one, blended with the erect mane, general contour and long switch tail of the other, corresponds in all essential particulars with the extant delineations and descriptions of the heraldic unicorn, which is universally represented to have been possessed of a straight slender horn, ringed at the base, and to have the hoof divided; to have worn a mane reversed, a black flowing tail, and a turkey-like tuft on the larynx, whilst both the size and ground colour were said to be those of the ass, with the addition of sundry black markings, imparting to the face and forehead a piebald appearance.
“The alterations required to reduce the African oryx to the standard of this model, are slight and simple, nor can it be doubted that they have been gradually introduced by successive copyists; the idea of the single horn having been derived in the first instance from profile representations of that animal given in bas-relief on the sculptured monuments of ancient Egypt and Nubia.... They have in their aspect a certain bovine expression; and Arabs and other natives never consider them as antelopes but as a species of buffalo.... The oryx boldly defends itself when pressed by the hunters, is quarrelsome during the rutting season, and it is said that even the lion dreads an encounter with it.”
[311]Even the patient ass, in a state of nature, is endowed with great courage. Baharan, one of the early Persian monarchs, received the surname Baharan Guz from his transfixing, with one arrow, a wild ass and a lion engaged in active combat.
[312]Black, red, azure (green, blue, or black), white, yellow.
[313]Many species of bird do not attain their mature plumage until long after they have attained adult size, as some among the gulls and birds of prey. I think I am right in saying that some of these latter only become perfect in their third year. We all know the story of the ugly duckling, and the little promise which it gave of its future beauty.
[314]According to Dr. Williams, the Lwan was a fabulous bird described as the essence of divine influence, and regarded as the embodiment of every grace and beauty, and that the argus pheasant was the type of it.
Dr. Williams says that it was customary to hang little bells from the phœnix that marked the royal cars.
[315]In reference to Hwang Ti (?) writing the Bamboo Books?
[316]The Wu Tung is theEleococca verrucosa, according to Dr. Williams; others identify it with theSterculia platanifolia. There is a Chinese proverb to the effect that without having Wu Tung trees you cannot expect to see phœnixes in your garden.
[317]Berosus lived in the time of Alexander the Great, or aboutB.C.330-260, or 300 years after the Jews were carried captive to Babylon.
[318]Encyclopædia Britannica.
[319]Jăn-jănmeans a gradual but imperceptible advance.
[320]Defined by Williams “as the dragon of morasses and thickets, which has scales and no horn, corresponding very nearly to the fossil iguanodon.”Videthe description (ante) from thePan-Tsaou-Kang-mu, &c.
[321]Ying—correct, true.
[322]According to Williams, this is a young dragon without a horn, although others, as in the text, say with one.
[323]P’an—to curl up, to coil.
[324]The male and female principle.
[325]See the notices in the body of the work from theShan Hai King.
[326]See the description of the dragon from theP’au-Tsaou-Kang-mu.
[327]Waters of such specific gravity that even a feather would sink.
[328]Probably a pair from each stream.
[329]In Foh-kien.
[330]Probably equivalent to “abbot.”
[331]Extract from theYuen Keen Lei Han, vol. ccccxxxviii., p. 23.
[332]In drilling an army there are names for all positions of the army. Thus, the general says: “Arrange yourselves like a snake, or like a dragon, or any other imaginable shape.”
[333]Williams gives this translation only, but I think there must be another meaning; probably some sort of reptile is indicated.
Transcriber’s Note:
Foonote 128appears on page150of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.
Foonote 157appears on page168of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.
Foonote 326appears on page400of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.