28 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



stings at the tip of their tail. We give up the stings, but 

 at the same time would urge that this error cannot be 

 considered as destructive of the truth of the legend. In 

 the present day it is popularly believed by the vulgar that 

 the larva known as the Devil's Coach Horse a creature 

 which when alarmed carries its tail in a threatening manner 

 over its head is, like the scorpion, armed with a sting. 

 In some countries, too, it is believed that dragon-flies are 

 similarly armed. If, then, such errors can exist in an age 

 of general enlightenment, it may well be that in older 

 times the dragon, a creature certainly rare as well as very 

 terrible, was by the popular fancy endowed with means of 

 defence even more formidable than those he possessed. 

 The breath of the creature is in all legends relating to it 

 described as foetid and poisonous. And as undoubtedly 

 snakes exhale a foetid odour, there is nothing improbable 

 in the assertion that the dragons also did so. 



No details whatever have come down to us as to the 

 domestic habits of the dragon. We only know that he 

 desolated whole provinces, and that the only method of 

 preserving the community from his attacks was the appease; 

 ment of his appetite by the offering of victims. These 

 victims are generally represented as being young females, 

 but it is not probable that the dragon himself was par- 

 ticular on this score. Women would be chosen for the 

 tribute, partly because it was supposed that their tender 

 flesh would be more gratefully received than that of tougher 

 victims; but much more because women were in those days 

 considered of smaller account than men, and could be 

 pounced upon and handed over to the monster with much 

 less fuss and trouble than would have been the case had 



