306 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



the fire, with all the might, Art, and power they could 

 raise. And it was further observed, that about the time 

 there were many dragons scene washing themselves in a 

 certaine Fountaine or Well neere the towne, and if any 

 of the people did by chance drinke of the water of that 

 Well, theyr bellyes did instantly begin to swell, and 

 they dyed as if they had been poysoned. Whereupon 

 it was publicly decreed, that the said well should be 

 filled up with stones, to the intent that never any man 

 should afterwards be poisoned with that water ; and so 

 a memory thereof was continued, and these thinges are 

 written by Justinus Goblerus, in an Epistle to Gesner, 

 affirming that he did not write fayned things, but such 

 things as were true, and as he had learned from men 

 of great honesty and credite, whose eyes did see and 

 behold both the dragons, and the mishaps that followed 

 by fire." 



Hitherto we have only seen that side of a Dragon's 

 temperament that is inimical to man, but there are stories, 

 equally veracious, of their affection and love for men, 

 women, and children : how they, by kindness, may be 

 tamed, and brought into kindly relations with the human 

 species. 



Pliny, quoting Democritus, says that "a Man, called 

 Thoas, was preserved in Arcadia by a Dragon. When a 

 boy he had become much attached to it, and had reared it 

 very tenderly ; but his father, being alarmed at the nature 

 and monstrous size of the reptile, had taken and left it 

 in the desert. Thoas being here attacked by some 

 robbers, who lay in ambush, he was delivered from them 

 by the Dragon, which recognised his voice, and came 

 to his assistance." 



Topsell tells us that "there be some which by cer- 



