Chap, xvii] dragons' liONES AND TEETH. 365 



only very shortly gone out of general use amongst Englishmen ; 

 a rudiment of the English pigtail still exists on our court 

 dresses, and footmen of- Royal state carriages wear a shortened 

 pigtail still, on certain occasions at least. 



The women present at Chinese banquets, such as that de- 

 scribed, sit behind the chairs of the men, and receive no share 

 of the luxuries, but are supplied with dried melon seeds, in 

 the cracking and extraction of the kernels of which they 

 occupy their time. 



Whilst at Canton, I visited the shop of a wholesale Chinese 

 Chemist and Druggist, in order to try and select specimens of 

 Dragons' bones, which are, in Chinese Medicine, a highly-prized 

 specific for certain diseases. The wholesale dealer, whose 

 warehouse was very large and full of Chinese medicines in 

 bulk, had no " Dragons' bones and teeth " in stock, but I 

 bought a few specimens from retail druggists who sell them 

 by weight. 



The '• Dragons' teeth and bones " consist of the fossil teeth 

 and bones of various extinct Mammalia of tertiary age, such 

 as those of Rhhioceros tichorhinus. a Mastodon, an Elephant, 

 a Horse, two species of Hippotherium, two species of Stag, 

 and the teeth of a large Carnivorous animal* 



The drug is imported into Japan, and I saw samples exposed 

 in a collection of Materia Medica at the Kioto Exhibition. 



The chief interest in the " Dragons' bones and teeth " 

 seems to me to be that they explain the origin of the Dragon 

 itself, and very possibly of other mythical animals. All my- 

 thical animals have a strong foundation in fact and a develop- 

 mental history. In most instances, no doubt, the mythical 

 animal is derived from a traveller's description, or a description 

 passed on from mouth to mouth. From this eventually an 

 artist has drawn a picture of the wonderful animal, and this 

 has become the stereotyped representation of the beast, and 

 has been handed down with successive embellishments. 



The story of the Argus no doubt arose from a description 

 of the Argus pheasant or peacock. The Dugong (not the 

 Manatee) was long ago shown by Sir Emerson Tennant to 

 have given rise to the story of the Mermaid. No doubt the 

 original Mermaid was a black beauty, and only became white- 

 skinned as the story travelled westwards. 



* For a description of a collection of these objects, by Prof. Owen, 

 see "Quart. Journal of Geological Soc," 1870, p. 417. 



See also D. Hanbury, "On Chinese Materia Medica," p. 40, London, 

 1862. ^ , 



Swinhoe refers to a collection of Dragons' bones m "Chinese Zoology, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1870, p. 428. 



