304 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



stand certaine flexible eyeliddes. When they gape 

 wide with their mouth, and thrust forth their tongue, 

 theyr teeth seeme very much to resemble the teeth of 

 Wilde Swine : And theyr neckes have many times 

 grosse thicke hayre growing upon them, much like unto 

 the bristles of a Wylde Boare." 



Apart from looks, he does not give dragons, as a rule, 

 a very bad character, and says they do not attack men 

 unless their general food fails them : " They greatlie 

 preserve their health (as Aristotle affirmeth) by eating 

 of Wild lettice, for that they make them to vomit, and 

 cast foorth of theyr ' stomacke what soever meate of- 

 fendeth them, and they are most speciallie offended by 

 eating Apples, for theyr bodies are much subject to be 

 filled with winde, and therefore they never eate Apples, 

 but first they eate Wilde lettice. Theyr sight also (as 

 Plutarch sayth) doth many times grow weake and feeble, 

 and therefore they renew and recover the same againe 

 by rubbing their eyes against Fennel, or else by eating 

 it. Their age could never yet be certainely knowne, 

 but it is conjectured that they live long, and in great 

 health, like all other serpents, and therefore they grow 

 so great. 



" Neither have wee in Europe onely heard of Dra- 

 gons, and never scene them, but also even in our own 

 Country, there have (by the testimonie of sundry writers) 

 divers been discovered and killed. And first of all, 

 there was a Dragon, or winged Serpent, brought unto 

 Francis the French King, when hee lay at Sancton, by a 

 certaine Country man, who had slaine the same Serpent 

 himselfe with a Spade, when it sette upon him in the fields 

 to kill him. And this thinge was witnessed by many 



