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Folkestone has a fiery serpent all to itself among its folk lore, 

 and this also partakes of the nature of a dragon, at all events by 

 report, and yet there are people bold enough to assert that such 

 reptiles were never seen. 



THE DRAGON, 



In the birthtime of the dragon-myth, the primitive Aryan, 

 suffering under the manifold ills of life, attributed them all, we 

 cannot doubt, to the operation of a malevolence not unlike to his 

 own, and sought a shape — monstrum, horrendnm, infonne, ingens 

 — in which they should be abhorred, and, it might be, slain. 

 He projected his own personality into the operations of nature, of 

 which he felt himself to be the plaything ; and gave, as Shelley 

 phrases it," " a human heart to what we cannot know." In the 

 cloudy strongholds of darkness his enemy was sheltered, a mon- 

 strous shape, " if shape it might be called that shape had none," 

 from whose terrors he suffered most cruelly when the drought came, 

 and famine and pestilence were spread abroad through the plains. 

 This is no mere poetical view of the matter for in the Veda the 

 earliest presentation of the enemy of Aryan man is Vritra or Ahi, 

 the throttling snake, who is not only the universal enemy, but is 

 also in a special manner the chief, and the black with-holder of the 

 rain; and conversely, Indra himself, the sustainer of the universe, 

 the wonder worker and the old guide of man, is in special degree 

 the light maker and rain bringer. Everywhere in the Veda the 

 elemental conflict between these two goes on. Indra, youthful, 

 agile, ruddy, and strong, goes forth in his chariot, the thunderbolt 

 forged by Tvashtri in his hand, his steeds snorting and neighing, 

 to battle with Ahi or Vritra, the enemy. He is accompanied by 

 clouds of Maruts, and the whole artillery of heaven is discharged ; 

 the earth and the sky crash with his thunderbolt, the cloud castles 

 of the monster are shattered and broken, the celestial fountains 

 are loosed, and the rain flows plenteously on the earth below. 



To the Chinese and Japanese belongs the credit of having 

 conceived the dragon in the most terrific shape that has ever been 

 given io it ; and it would probably be impossible to express in 

 animal form greater fierceness and malignity than are depicted in 

 the emblem of Chinese royalty. It is also in China that the dragon 

 reaches the highest pinnacle as an object of reverence ; for not only 

 is it emblazoned on imperial standards and figured in almost every 

 prominent position as a decoration, but it is markedly an object 

 of propitiation, and festivals are held in its honour. Yet its con- 

 nection with the root idea of the Hindoos is never lost, for it is a 

 monster of mists and waters, and is painted issuing from clouds. 

 Ling Wong, the dragon king, has in his keeping the foundations of 



