FABULOUS CREATURES. 231 



but this is more like a turtle minus the feet. Its little ones 

 \vhen alarmed take refuge in a pouch with which the mother 

 is provided. 



There is a connexion, not entirely explained to man's 

 full satisfaction even yet, between the jackal and the lion. 

 The smaller animal is sometimes called the "lion's provider," 

 but many people have a shrewd suspicion that most of the 

 providing is done by the larger, and that the jackal follows 

 only that he may partake of the crumbs from the royal 

 table. In China this relationship exists between a sort of 

 hermit crab and a shrimp. The crab rejoices in the name 

 of the Water Mirror, and wherever it goes the shrimp goes 

 with it, being in fact carried in the stomach of its big friend. 

 When the crab is hungry the shrimp issues forth to forage, 

 and when it has satisfied its hunger comes back again to its 

 living home. Ensconced there, the shrimp seems to supply 

 nourishment as freely to the crab as to itself. If it should 

 happen that the shrimp is killed or unable to return, the 

 crab dies. 



Other curious fish stories are those which tell of the 

 Indestructible Winkle, which though it may seem dead of 

 drought will revive on being put into vinegar; of the Sih-Sih 

 fish which has an appearance something like that of a mag- 

 pie with ten wings, and of the Ho-lo fish with one head 

 but teq bodies. 



Snakes and other reptiles, even more than fish, would 

 be likely to lend themselves to the vivid imagination of an 

 ignorant country people. It is so in all lands, and of course 

 it is so in China, which is rich in reptilia. Thus we have the 

 Round Snake of Kwei-chow, which takes its name from 

 being egg-shaped, and so streaked and painted with five 

 different colours as to resemble a painted landscape. People 

 \vho see it, unless they know its deadly nature, are 

 irresistibly tempted to pick it up on account of its beauty, 

 thinking it to be merely a beautiful stone. But with the 

 warmth of the body the creature becomes lively, and puts 

 out its head. Then is the danger, for he who is bitten dies. 

 The poison is so virulent that if any of it is spilt on the 

 ground no grass will grow near the place for three years, 

 and all that is necessary to poison arrows effectually is to 

 stick them in the soil there. 



Then there is the Square Snake of Kiangsi, which takes 

 the shape of a trunk, squirts an inky fluid at people, and so 

 kills them at once. 



Still more marvellous is the Splitter. In England there 

 is a belief not unlike that of the Chinese in this respect. 

 Some English country people probably hold to this day that 

 a snake when cut to pieces has sometimes the power of 



