r 
£796. | On the Dragon 
the fteam-pump and of the {pring-fhut- 
tle, thofe true founders of our moft {pread. 
ing cities; andto Smith, the law-giver’s 
beft inftructor, the author of the Wealth 
of Nations. 

. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EVAVING been perfuaded that to fuch 
animal exifted in reality, as that 
which we ufually denominate a Dragon, 
and yet obferving the term fo repeatedly 
eccurring in the facred writers, I felt 
myfelf frequently much embarraffed when 
perufing them; and as I] found that em- 
barraffment encreafed rather than dimi- 
nifhed, on confulting thofe authors from 
whom I expected the moft fatis‘actory 
elucidation, I was neceffitated to attempt 
an inveftigation myfelf, as to this terri- 
fic chimera; and in attempting fuch in- 
veftigation, I thought I had difcovered 
its origin among the hieroglyphics of 
ancient Keypt. ) 
To improve, is often eafier than to 
difcover : I therefore folicit permiffion to 
communicate, through the medium of 
your very inftructive Mifcellany, the fub- 
_ my of agriculture or hufbandry. 
tance of my refearches, in the hope that 
fome of your more learned corre{pondents 
may purfue the enquiry. 
Before the Egyptians were become ac- 
quainted with the exaét time of the peri- 
odical overflowing of the Nile, they fre- 
quently found their harvefts deftroyed by 
the then uniooked for inundation. They 
therefore regarded that river as the ene- 
y. Agri- 
culture or hufbandry was fymbolized as a 
child, the fon of Ofjis and Tfs, or the Sun 
and Earth; and, thus perfonifed, was 
denominated Horus. The Nile was cha- 
acterized by a crocodile, &c. ‘The cha. 
racter of a crocodile was hence confidered 
as the fymbol of any enemy. 
In commemorating the general deluge, 
they alfo fymbolized that event DY @ wa- 
ter-monfter killing Ofris, or the Sun.— 
Eience the water-monfter, the crocodile, 
er dragon, became the reprefentation of 
the enemy of the Sun. The Sun the 
Egyptians confounded with Ham, and 
Ham they confounded with the Almighty; 
hence thofe figns became indicative of 
the enemy of che Almighty, or of the 
evil principle, or the devil, 
Mofes, we are told, was learned in al] 
the wifdom of the Eeyptians ; and almoft 
every page of the pentateuch reminds us 
of the idolatry of the Ifraelites. And 
‘mention is exprefsly made by the pro- 
phet Amos (chapv. 25, 26) and from 
MonTuLY Mac. No. X, 
of the Ancients, 479 
hiny by St. Stephen (A&és, ii.- 479 
43) of the images, the types, or fymbols, 
which they brought out of Egypt. 
The convertible ule of the terms, Od 
Peten, Python, Typbon, &c. fo often made, 
both by the facred and prophane writers, 
corrobates this idea. 
The words Satan and Déwil (Aia6or@») 
alfo fignifying an enemy, accuter, or ad- 
verfary, and fo frequently occurring in 
the fcriptures, and which are applied 
evento men (fee, among other inftances, 
2. Sam. xix. 223 ‘and, “fobn, byi." 4 ; 
2 Tim. iii. 3, &c.) add ftrength to 
our conjectures. 
The crocodile was peculiarly defcrip- 
tive of the Nile; and was, therefore, 
more generally and longer adopted as the 
reprefentative of that river, the original 
foe. The emblem of the winds was, 
abird; or in compound fymbols, the 
wings of one. When the Egyptians had 
at length afcertained the annua! iaun- 
dation of the Nile, they exhibited to the 
public view, the fymbol of a crocodile 
with wings upon his back, in order to in- 
dicate to the people, that the Etefian 
winds had fet in,and that, in confequence, 
the Nile was about to overflow. 
The crocodile with wings, ftrongly 
agrees with our reprefentation of the dra- 
gon ; and the crocodile is evidently the 
Tannim, the Leviathan, &c. of the icrip- 
tures. The name of the Levia/han has 
allufion to its feales : now the whale (as 
we frequently render the werd) has no 
{cales ; but the fcales of ihe crocodile are 
proverbial. ‘ A flame goeth out of his 
*“ mouth,” fays Job. 
frem long vepreffion of breath in the 
water, is remarked by naturalifts, as 
emitting it fo as to refemble fmoke: and 
is not the dragon of romance repre- 
ented as belching out fire? The Tan- 
nim of Ezekiel too has feet; and fo, it 
fhould feem, had the Leviathan of Job 
(ch. xli, ver. 30). The feet of the crocos 
dile refemble thofe of the imaginary dra . 
gon; but whales have no feet. 
Again, the Tannim of Ezekiel are de- 
{cribed as being in “ rhe river of Ep ypt,”’ 
where whales are not known, but croco- 
diles are proverbially numerous. 
Eve, Heva, Chavah, the name of the 
firft woman, fignified in feveral of the 
oriental languages, a ferpent: it alfo fig- 
nified “fe or to caufe to live; and fo Moles 
himfelf interprets it: “‘ And he called 
“ her name Eve, becaufe foe was the nio- 
“* ther of all hving.’? Tence the Mofaic 
Allegory of the fall. The ferpent be- 
came the fymbol of the tempter, or ene- 
my. it had before been confidered as 
J 
The crocodile, , 





5G the 


