Mythical Monsters

102

“The water of the twilight at break of day,” one of the personifications of rain.

103

The god of thunder.

104

The god of war and death.

105

The Chaldæo-Assyrian Hercules.

106

The superior heaven of the fixed stars.

107

Vases of the measure called in Hebrew Seäh. This relates to a detail of the ritualistic prescriptions for sacrifice.

108

These metaphorical expressions appear to designate the rainbow.

109

The god of epidemics.

110

It is probably as much from a superstitious sentiment as upon merely physical grounds that many of the deserted cities in Asia have been abandoned; while, as a noticeable instance, we may quote Gour, the ruined capital of Bengal, which is computed to have extended from fifteen to twenty miles along the bank of the river, and three in depth. The native tradition is that it was struck by the wrath of the gods in the form of an epidemic which slew the whole population. Another case is the reputed presence of a ruined city, in the vicinity of the populous city of Nanking, and at some distance from the right bank of the river Yangtsze, of which the walls only remain, and of the history of which those in the vicinity profess to have lost all record.

111

i. e. (according to the Historical Records) a carriage to travel along the dry land, a boat to travel along the water, a sledge to travel through miry places, and, by using spikes, to travel on the hills.

112

Balfour, North China Daily News, Feb. 11, 1881.

113

Dr. Schliemann found a vase in the lowest strata of his excavations at Hissarlik with an inscription in an unknown language.

Six years ago the Orientalist E. Burnouf declared it to be in Chinese, for which he was generally laughed at at the time.

The Chinese ambassador at Berlin, Li Fang-pau, has read and translated the inscription, which states that three pieces of linen gauze are packed in the vase for inspection.

The Chinese ambassador fixes the date of the inscription at about 1200 B.C., and further states that the unknown characters so frequently occurring on the terra cotta are also in the Chinese language, which would show that at this remote period commercial intercourse existed between China and the eastern shores of Asia Minor and Greece. —Pop. Sci. Monthly, No. 98, p. 176, June 1880.

114

Pierre Bergeron suggests that Solomon’s fleets, starting from Ezion-geber (subsequently Berenice and now Alcacu), arrived at Babelmandeb, and then divided, one portion going to Malacca, Sumatra, or Java, the other to Sofala, round Africa, and returning by way of Cadiz and the Mediterranean to Joppa.

115

There are various accounts of the circumnavigation of Africa in old times. For example, Herodotus (Melpomene, 42): “Libya shows itself to be surrounded by water, except so much of it as borders upon Asia. Neco, King of Egypt, was the first whom we know of that proved this; he, when he had ceased digging the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian gulf, sent certain Phœnicians in ships with orders to sail back through the pillars of Hercules into the Northern Sea, and so to return to Egypt. The Phœnicians accordingly, setting out from the Red Sea, navigated the Southern Sea; when autumn came they went ashore, and sowed the land, by whatever part of Libya they happened to be sailing, and waited for harvest; then, having reaped the corn, they put to sea again. When two years had thus passed, in the third, having doubled the pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt, and related what to me does not seem credible, but may to others, that as they sailed round Libya, they had the sun on the right hand.” Again, Pliny tells us (Book ii. chap. lxvii, Translation by Bostock and Riley), “While the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno published an account of a voyage which he made from Gades to the extremity of Arabia: besides, we learn from Cornelius Nepos, that one Eudoxus, a contemporary of his, when he was flying from King Lathyrus, set out from the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades. And long before him, Cœlius Antipater informs us, that he had seen a person who had sailed from Spain to Ethiopia for the purposes of trade. The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then proconsul in Gaul, had a present made to him by the King of the Suevi, of certain Indians, who, sailing from India for the purposes of commerce, had been driven by tempests into Germany.”

Ptolemy Lathyrus commenced his reign 117 B.C. and reigned for thirty-six years. Cornelius Nepos is supposed to have lived in the century previous to the Christian era, and Cœlius Antipater to have been born in the middle of the second century B.C.

116

Edrisi compiled, under the instruction of Roger, King of Sicily, Italy, Lombardy, and Calabria, an exhaustive geographical treatise comprising information derived from numerous preceding works, principally Arabic, and from the testimony of all the geographers of the day.

Vide the Translation into French by M. Amédée Jaubert, 2 vols. 4to, Paris, 1836, included in the Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires publié par la Société de Géographie.

“Ce pays touch celui de Wac Wac où sont deux villes misérables et mal peuplées à cause de la rareté des subsistances et du peu de ressource en tout genre; l’une se nomme Derou et l’autre Nebhena; dans son voisinage est un grand bourg nommé Da’rgha. Les naturels sont noirs, de figure hideuse, de complexion difformé; leur langage est une espèce de sifflement. Ils sont absolument nus et sont peu visités (par les étrangers). Ils vivent de poissons, de coquillages, et de tortues. Ils sont (comme il vient d’être dit) voisins de l’ile de Wac Wac dont nous reparlerons, s’il plait à Dieu. Chacun de ces pays et de ces iles est situé sur un grand golfe, on n’y trouve ni or, ni commerce, ni navire, ni bêtes de somme.” —El Edrisi, vol. i. p. 79.

117

The Agave Americane, which substance has as many uses among the Mexicans as the bamboo (the iron of China) among the Chinese, or the camel among nomads.

118

The Thousand and One Nights, vol. iii. chap. xxv. p. 480, Note 32, E. W. Lane, London, 1877.

A similar account is given by Quazvini. See Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis, J. Gildemeister, Bonn, 1838.

Jacks, in his report to the Queensland Government, published March or April of 1880, reports no paying gold in Yorke’s peninsula.

One hundred miles from Port Darwin and twenty-six miles from the Adelaide River a new rush occurred in July 1880: nuggets from 70 to 80 oz. of common occurrence; one found weighed 187 oz.

119

The diggings are seventy to one hundred and fifty miles from Port Darwin. There is gold on Victoria River.

120

Scientific American, Aug. 14, 1880.

121

E. J. Elliott, “The Age of Cave Dwellers in America,” Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. xv. p. 488.

122

Scientific American, Jan. 24, 1880.

123

Macmillan’s Magazine, quoted in Pop. Sci. Monthly, No. 82.

124

Œuvres, I. 7, pp. 197, 198.

125

Two Voyages to New England, p. 124; London, 1673.

126

Robert Knox, The Races of Men; London, 1850.

127

Principles of Geology, chap. xii.

128

It is given in great detail by Mr. Donelly; want of space forbids my including it.

129

I use the text of the edition of Diodorus Siculus of L. Rhodomanus, Amsterdam, 1746.

130

“Professor Virchow considers this an example how certain artistical or technical forms are developed simultaneously, without any connection or relation between the artists or craftsmen.” – Preface to Ilios, Schliemann. Murray, 1880.

131

Knivet’s description of the West Indies, Harris’ Voyages, vol. i. p. 705.

132

T. Wright, Marco Polo, p. 267. Bohn, 1854.

133

Harris’ Voyages, vol. i. p. 859.

134

Dr. J. le Conte describes a ceremonial of cremation among the Cocopa Indians of California, and it is an ancient practice among the Chinese, dating back beyond the Greek and Roman historical periods.

135

British Association, 1871.

136

Staunton, China, vol. ii. p. 455.

137

Humboldt, Researches in America, English Translation, vol. i. p. 133.

138

“In turning to the consideration of the primitive works of art of the American continent … when in the bronze work of the later iron period, imitative forms at length appear, they are chiefly the snake and dragon shapes and patterns, borrowed seemingly by Celtic and Teutonic wanderers, with the wild fancies of their mythology, from the far eastern land of their birth.” – D. Wilson, Prehistoric Man, 1862.

“He had remarked that the Indians of the north-west coast frequently repeat in their well-known blackstone carvings the dragon, the lotus flower, and the alligator.” – C. G. Leland, Fusang, London, 1875.

139

“Dragon, an imaginary animal something like a crocodile.” – Rev. Dr. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 243.

140

“In the woods of Java are certain flying snakes, or rather drakes; they have four legs, a long tail, and their skin speckled with many spots, their wings are not unlike those of a bat, which they move in flying, but otherwise keep them almost unperceived close to the body. They fly nimbly, but cannot hold it long, so that they fly from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty paces’ distance. On the outside of the throat are two bladders, which, being extended when they fly, serve them instead of a sail. They feed upon flies and other insects.” – Mr. John Nieuhoff’s Voyage and Travels to the East Indies, contained in a collection of Voyages and Travels, in 6 vols., vol. ii. p. 317; Churchill, London, 1732.

141

Chambers’ Encyclopædia, vol. iii. p. 635.

142

The following is the nearest approach to such an assertion I have met with, but appears from the context to apply to geologic time prior to the advent of man. “When all those large and monstrous amphibia since regarded as fabulous still in reality existed, when the confines of the water and the land teemed with gigantic saurians, with lizards of dimensions much exceeding those of the largest crocodiles of the present day: who to the scaly bodies of fish, added the claws of beasts, and the neck and wings of birds: who to the faculty of swimming in water, added not only that of moving on the earth but that of sailing in air: and who had all the characteristics of what we now call chimeras and dragons, and perhaps of such monsters the remains, found among the bones and skeletons of other animals more resembling those that still exist and propagate, in the grottos and caverns in which they sought shelter during the deluges that affected the infancy of the globe, gave first rise to the idea that these dens and caves were once retreats whence such monsters watched and in which they devoured other animals.” – Thomas Hope, On the Origin and Prospects of Man, vol. ii. p. 346; London, 1831.

Southey, in his Commonplace Book, pityingly alludes to this passage, saying, “He believes in dragons and griffins as having heretofore existed.”

143

From the context, Lanuvium appears to have been on the Appian Road, in Latium, about twenty-fives miles from Rome.

144

Propertius, Elegy VIII.; Bohn, 1854.

145

History of Animals, Book ix., chap. ii. § 3; Bohn.

146

Ibid., Book vi., chap. xx. § 12.

147

Ibid., Book i., § 6.

148

History of Animals, Book ix., chap. vii. § 4.

149

Natural History of Pliny, Book viii., chap. xli., translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley; London, 1855.

150

Anim. Nat., Book vi., chap. iv.

151

Natural History, Book viii., chap. xxii.

152

“On the contrary, towards ourselves they were disappointingly undemonstrative, and only evinced their consciousness of the presence of strangers by entwining themselves about the members of the family as if soliciting their protection… They were very jealous of each other, Mr. Mann said; jealous also of other company, as if unwilling to lose their share of attention… Two sweet little children were equally familiar with the other boas, that seemed quite to know who were their friends and playfellows, for the children handled them and petted them and talked to them as we talk to pet birds and cats.” – Account of Snakes kept by Mr. and Mrs. Mann, of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in Snakes, by C. C. Hopley; London, 1882.

153

Natural History, Book xxix., chap. xx.

154

“It is probable that the island of Zanig described by Qazvinius, in his geographical work (for extracts from which vide Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula inedita, by I. Gildemeister, Bonnæ, 1838), as the seat of the empire of the Mahraj, is identical with Zaledj. He says that it is a large island on the confines of China towards India, and that among other remarkable features is a mountain called Nacan (Kini Balu?), on which are serpents of such magnitude as to be able to swallow oxen, buffaloes, and even elephants. Masudi includes Zanig, Kalah, and Taprobana among the islands constituting the territory of the Mahraj.” – P. Amédée Jaubert, Géographie d’Edrisi, vol. i. p. 104; Paris, 1836.

155

Book vi., chap. iv. § 16.

156

Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xi., translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley; Bohn, London, 1855.

157

Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xii.

158

Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiii.

159

Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiv.

160

“At the present day the longest Italian serpents are the Æsculapian serpent (a harmless animal) and the Colubes quadrilineatus, neither of which exceeds ten feet in length.” —Nat. Hist., Book viii., chap. xiv.

161

Aristotle’s History of Animals, Book viii., chap. xxvii. § 6, by R. Cresswell, Bohn’s Series; Bell, London, 1878.

162

An abridgment of these travels is contained in Voyages par Pierre Bergeron, à la Haye, 1735. They were originally written in Hebrew, translated into Latin by Benoit Arian Montare, and subsequently into French. [The introduction refers to his return to Castille in 1173, presumably after the termination of his voyages; but in the opening paragraph there is a marginal note giving the same date to his setting out from Sarragossa.] Sir John Mandeville gives a similar account in speaking of the tower of Babylon; he says, “but it is full long sithe that any man durste neyhe to the Tour: for it is all deserte and fulle of Dragouns and grete serpents, and fulle of dyverse venemous Bestes alle about he.” —The Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, Kt., p. 40; J. O. Halliwell, London, 1839.

163

Harris’s Voyages, vol. i. p. 360.

164

Ibid., vol. i. p. 392.

165

Encyclopædia of Arts and Sciences, first American edition, Philadelphia, 1798.

166

See Voyage to the East Indies, by Francis Leguat; London, 1708. Leguat hardly makes the positive affirmation stated in the text. In describing Batavia he says there is another sort of serpents which are at least fifty feet long.

167

Broderip, Leaves from the Note Book of a Naturalist, p. 357.

168

Australasia, p. 273.

169

Quedah; London, 1857.

170

Perak and the Malays, p. 77.

171

Figuier, Reptiles and Birds, p. 51.

172

La Chine Illustré, d’Athase Keichere, chap. x. p. 272. Amsterdam, CIↄ ICↄ LXX.

173

Vol. i. p. 601.

174

See Proceedings of Royal Society of Tasmania, September 13, 1880. Mr. C. M. Officer states – “With reference to the Mindi or Mallee snake, it has often been described to me as a formidable creature of at least thirty feet in length, which confined itself to the Mallee scrub. No one, however, has ever seen one, for the simple reason that to see it is to die, so fierce it is, and so great its power of destruction. Like the Bunyip, I believe the Mindi to be a myth, a mere tradition.”

175

Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv. p. 247.

176

Ibid., vol. xiv. p. 514.

177

It is interesting to compare this belief with stories given elsewhere, by Pliny, Book viii. chap. xiv., and Ælian, Book ii. chap. xxi., of the power of the serpents or dragons of the river Rhyndacus to attract birds by inhalation.

178

Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv. p. 713.

179

Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cvii., cviii.

180

Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cviii.

181

Herodotus, Book ii., chap. lxxv.

182

Ibid., Book ii., chap. lxxvi.

183

Ibid., Book i., chap. v.

184

Antiquities of the Jews, Book ii., chap. x.

185

Book viii. chap. xxxv.

186

Pharsalia, Book ix.

187

Herodotus, Book iv. chap. cv.

188

Book iii. chap. xx.

189

“It may be some comfort to graziers and selectors who are struggling, under many discouragements, to suppress the rabbit plague in Victoria, to learn that our condition, bad as it is, is certainly less serious than that of New Zealand. There, not only is an immense area of good country being abandoned in consequence of the inability of lessees to bear the great expense of clearing the land of rabbits, but, owing to the increase of the pest, the number of sheep depastured is decreasing at a serious rate. Three years ago the number exceeded thirteen millions; but it is estimated that they have since been diminished by two millions, while the exports of the colony have, in consequence, fallen off to the extent of £500,000 per annum. A Rabbit Nuisance Act has been in existence for some time, but it is obviously inefficient, and it is now proposed to make its provisions more stringent, and applicable alike to the Government as well as to private landowners. A select committee of both Houses of the Legislature, which has recently taken a large amount of evidence upon this subject, reports in the most emphatic terms its conviction that unless immediate and energetic action is taken to arrest the further extension of, and to suppress the plague, the result will be ruinous to the colony. A perusal of the evidence adduced decidedly supports this opinion. Many of the squatters cannot be accused of apathy. Some of them have employed scores of men, and spent thousands of pounds a year in ineffectual efforts to eradicate the rabbits from their runs. One firm last year is believed to have killed no less than 500,000; but the following spring their run was in as bad a state as if they had never put any poison down. Similar instances of failure could be easily multiplied. It is found, as with us, that one of the chief causes of non-success is the fact that the Government do not take sufficient steps to destroy the rabbits on unoccupied Crown lands. This foolish policy, of course, at once diminishes the letting value of the adjacent pastoral country – to such an extent, indeed, that instances have occurred in which 34,000 acres have been leased for £10 a year. Poison is regarded as the most destructive agent that can be employed, and it is especially effective when mixed with oats and wheat, a striking testimony to the value of Captain Raymond’s discovery. Most of the witnesses examined were strongly of opinion that the Administration of the Rabbit Suppression Act should not be left to private and, perhaps, interested persons, as at present, but should be conducted by officers of the Government, probably the sheep inspectors, on a principle similar to that by which the scab was eradicated from the flocks of the colony. The joint committee adopted this view, and also recommended the Legislature to enact that all unoccupied Crown land, as well as all native, reserved, or private land, should bear a proportionate share of the cost of destroying the rabbits, and of administering the act. It is to be hoped that, in the midst of the party conflicts which have so impeded practical legislation this session, the Parliament will yet find time to give effect to the useful recommendations of the Rabbit Nuisance Committee.” —Australasian, 10th September 1881.

190

Book xv. chap. i. § 37.

191

See Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, p. 145-47. Murray, 1863.

192

Æneid, Book vii. 561.

193

Non Arabum volucer serpens, innataque rubrisÆquoribus custos pretiosæ vipera conchæAut viventis adhuc Lybici membrana cerastæ. — Pharsalia, Book vi. 677.

194

The popular illustrations of the Story of the Black and White Snakes given by him, a favourite story among the Chinese, always represent them as winged. Folk Lore of China, N. P. Dennys, Ph.D.

195

Broderip, Zoological Recreations, p. 333.

196

Compare Shakspeare, “Peace, Kent. Come not between the Dragon and his wrath.”

197

Metamorphoses, Book iii. 35, translated by H. J. Riley; London, 1872.

198

In reference to colours so bright as to be inconsistent with our knowledge of the ordinary colours of reptiles, it may be of interest to compare the description by D’Argensola – who wrote the history of the successive conquests of the Moluccas, by the Spaniards, Portuguese and Dutch – of a blue and golden saurian existing upon a volcanic mountain in Tarnate. “Il y a aussi sur cette montagne un grand lac d’eau douce, entouré d’arbres, dans lequel on voit de crocodiles azurés et dorés qui ont plus d’un brasse de longueur, et qui se plongent dans l’eau lors qu’ils entendent des hommes.” – D’Argensola, vol. iii. p. 4, translated from the Spanish, 3 vols.; J. Desbordes, Amsterdam, 1706. And Pliny, Nat. Hist., Book viii. chap. xxviii., speaks of lizards upon Nysa, a mountain of India, twenty-four feet long, their colour being either yellow, purple, or azure blue.

199

Ovid, Fasti, Book iv. 501.

200

These wood-cuts occur on pp. 239, 240.

201

Broderip, Zoological Recreations, p. 332.

202