94 SHAKESPEARE'S [DRAGON. 



their factors tame the Dragon with certain songs, and, 

 sitting on his back, guide him with a bridle until they 

 come into Ethiopia. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. ii. ch. xlviii. 



[This last statement recalls Mr. Waterton's exploit with the 

 alligator.] 



IT was wont to be said, because Dragons are the greatest 

 serpents, that except a serpent eat a serpent, he shall never 

 be a Dragon. In Ethiopia they grow to be thirty yards 

 long. There are tame Dragons in Macedonia, where they 

 are so meek, that women feed them, and suffer them to 

 suck their breasts like little children, their infants also play 

 with them, riding upon them and pinching them, as they 

 would do with dogs. The apples of their eyes are precious 

 stones, and as bright as fire. The Africans believe that the 

 original of Dragons took beginning from the unnatural 

 conjunction of an eagle and a she-wolf. The Dragons of 

 Phrygia when they are hungry turn themselves towards the 

 west, and gaping wide, with the force of their breath do 

 draw the birds that fly over their heads into their throats. 

 They greatly preserve their health by eating of wild lettuce, 

 for that they make them to vomit, and they are most 

 specially offended by eating of apples. They renew and 

 recover their sight again by rubbing their eyes against 

 fennel, or else by eating of it. The Indians take a gar- 

 ment of scarlet, and picture upon it a charm in golden 

 letters, this they lay upon the mouth of the Dragon's 

 den, for with the red colour and the gold, the eyes of 

 the Dragon are overcome, and he falleth asleep, the Indians 

 in the mean season watching and muttering secretly words 

 of incantation ; when they perceive he is fast asleep, sud- 

 denly they strike off his neck with an axe, and so take 

 out the balls of his eyes, wherein are lodged those rare 

 and precious stones which contain in them virtues unutter- 

 able. Many times it falleth out, that the Dragon draweth 

 in the Indian both with his axe and instruments into his 

 den and there devoureth him, in the rage whereof he so 

 beateth the mountain that it shaketh. [Topsell gives several 

 long stories of the love of some Dragons for men and 

 women, and lastly the tale of Winckelried, who slew a 

 horrible Dragon, whereat for joy he lifted up his sword, 

 .and the blood of the Dragon dripped off the sword and 



