616 
Fabulous Animals. 
THE GRYPHON, OR GRIFFIN, 
Was originally an emblem of life. It was used to adorn 
funeral monuments and sepulchres. The upper part of 
this allegorical animal resembles the eagle, the king of 
the birds, and the rest the lion, the king of beasts ; which 
is said to imply that man, who lives upon the earth, can- 
not subsist without air. In later times it was supposed 
that the Gryphon was posted as a jailor at the entrance 
of enchanted castles and caverns where subterraneous 
treasures were concealed. Milton compares Satan in 
his flight to the Gryphon, in the following beautiful 
passage : 
" As when a Gryphon through the wilderness, 
With winged course o'er hill or moory dale, 
Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth, 
Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
The guarded gold ; so eagerly the fiend, 
O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. 
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 
The Arimaspians were Asiatic wizards, who, by magic, 
used to obtain a knowledge of the .places where treasures 
lay hidden. Their incessant wranglings with the Gry- 
phons about gold-mines are mentioned by Herodotus and 
Pliny. Lucan says that they inhabited Scythia, and 
adorned their hair with gold ; that they had but one eye 
in the middle of the forehead, and lived on the banks of 
the gold-sanded river Arimaspes. 
