THE TRIUMPH OF LIPE 



great expanse of skin recalls the colored paper 

 dragons of our childhood. Between its extended 

 plates, which form a truly wonderful example of 

 a flying macliine of feather weight, there hangs 

 a tiny body with dwarfish deformed hind legs- 

 and an insignificant nut-cracker head, the abso-l 

 lutely toothless jaws of which can only snap buti 

 can not bite. These were of the species of the! 

 "toothless flyers," reptiles of the pterodactyl, 

 that for a time drove out all birds in the king- 

 dom of the air. 



Now the kiss of the hot sun touches the land. 

 "All sorts of dragons dwell within the caves." 

 Upon the light field of our cave wall there crawl 

 the hideous forms of dragons. These are colos- 

 sal forms of animals reaching thirty feet high 

 as they stand upon the hind legs, and waddl 

 about the shore of these inner seas. Every 

 step stamped a giant three-pointed track in th 

 quivering slime. The swaying stomach hanging 

 down recalled a fatted goose. An enormous flat, 

 crocodile tail behind maintained the balance 

 High up In the air on the curved neck hung a 

 camel-like head with a parrot bill reaching out 

 beyond the two jaws. The arms were short, 

 but every thumb was a dagger that could bore 

 through any opponent, who might be seized, 

 with the ferocity of that old feudal instrument 

 of murder, the "iron maiden." What sort of 

 a howl may have proceeded from the mouths of 

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