DRAGONS, FABLED AND REAL. 



809 



chimseras, and dragons. St. Michael the archangel, with the 

 wings of a bird, lies low and slays the fallen angel Lucifer, 

 having bats' wings. Dragons have also had their contests with 

 saints. St. George defeated a monstrous dragon ; other holy per- 

 sonages followed his example, and the times became very hard 

 for gargoyles, tarasques, and guivres. Many of the dragons were 



Fig. 1. Winged Dragons. (From a MS. of the Fourteenth Century. Book of the " Wonders 



of the World.") 



slain, and an old monkish chronicle tells how the skin of one of 

 them was hung from an arch in a church. The historians and 

 wise men of antiquity did not forget to describe these monsters. 

 Pliny speaks of a precious stone, called dracontias, which could 

 only be found in the head of a dragon. St. Augustine informs 

 us that " the dragon often rests in his den ; but whenever he feels 

 the moisture of the air he is able to rise on his wings and fly with 

 great impetuosity." Other authors exhibit dragons ejecting fire 

 and smoke from their burning throats, and enveloping in flames 

 the audacious enemy who ventures to attack them. Such fables 

 found credence as late as the sixteenth century. Even the grave 

 Gessner believed in the existence of these creatures, and has 

 said : " Numerous dragons are found in Ethiopia, a fact to be 

 attributed to the heat that prevails in that country. They are 

 also to be found in India and Libya, where they reach a length 

 of fifteen feet, and the thickness of the trunk of a tree ; but they 

 are generally larger in India than in any other country. Two 

 kinds of dragons are known : those that live in the mountainous 

 country are large, alert, and swift, and have a crest, while those 

 that live in marshy regions are sluggish and idle. The former 

 have wings, and the latter have not ; some have feet, and can get 

 rapidly over the ground. Their vision is sharp, their hearing 

 delicate. They rarely sleep, and for that reason the poets have 

 made them guardians of treasures that man can not get. Near 

 their abodes the air is noisome with their breath, and rings with 

 their hissings." 



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