I02 



ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



and of mysterious evil. Malignant spirits and the devil are 

 usually shown with bats' wings in contrast to good and kindly 

 spirits and angels, which are depicted with birds' wings. 



Optimism, or a ten- 

 dency to look upon 

 the cheerful side of 

 things, is one of the 

 most fundamental 

 traits of human na- 

 ture. Wherever we 

 have in our language 

 two contrasting words 

 differing from each 

 other in the occur- 

 rence or absence of 

 the prefix "un-" 

 meaning ''not" this 

 prefix is always 

 placed before a word 

 of good import and 

 never before a word 

 of evil import, show- 

 ing that our habit is 

 always primarily to 

 contemplate the good 

 and only secondarily 

 to consider the bad 

 in the world about 

 us. This tendency 

 has brought about a 

 curious transforma- 



FiGS. 171-180. Various destructive Weevils. 

 For explanations of the figures see p. xvi. 



tion in the character of one of the oldest and most universally 

 present of all symbolic animals, the dragon. 



In all the ancient Asiatic and European civilizations the 

 flying dragon has played an important part. From very 

 early days, perhaps so long ago as 5000 B.C., to the present in 



