616 Fabulous Animals. 



THE GRYPHON, OE GKIFFIN, 



WAS originally an emblem of life. It was used to adorn 

 funeral monuments and sepulchres. The upper part of 

 this allegorical animal resembles the eagle, the king of 

 the birds, and the rest the lion, the king of beasts ; which 

 is said to imply that man, who lives upon the earth, can- 

 not subsist without air. In later times it was supposed 

 that the Gryphon was posted as a jailor at the entrance 

 of enchanted castles and caverns where subterraneous 

 treasures were concealed. Milton compares Satan in 

 his flight to the Gryphon, in the following beautiful 



" As when a Gryphon through the wilderness, 

 With winged course o'er hill or moory dale, 

 Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth, 

 Had from his wakeful custody purloined 

 The guarded gold ; so eagerly the fiend, 

 O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 



The Arimaspians were Asiatic wizards, who, by magic, 

 used to obtain a knowledge of the places where treasures 

 lay hidden. Their incessant wranglings with the Gry- 

 phons about gold-mines are mentioned by Herodotus and 

 Pliny. Lucan gays that they inhabited Scythia, and 

 adorned their hair with gold ; that they had but one eye 

 in the middle of the forehead, and lived on the banks of 

 the gold-sanded river Arimaspes. 



