The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1884-07-16
Mythical Beasts.

the earth, sea and air with all sorts of
monsters and bugaboos. There were
then many worlds for science to con-
quer, and when the Marco Polos. Cap
tain Magelans and Lord Monboddos,
and people who had been in far coun-
tries for to see. came back with warns OF
incredibly fierce and ferocious monsters,
why, the stayat- Themes had nothing to
do but believe. There are no more
Abyssnias for ingenious DR.. Johnsons
to improvise happy valleys out of and
to people with RasselaSes and other hap
py mortals. India and the Perus are
explored, the Amazon is no longer a
mystery. we know where the Nile rises,
and nearly all the earth has yielded up
lis mysteries to man, excepting, of
course, S,mmcs Hole and the mpene-
trable North Pole. The ignorance of
our early writers upon subjects of nat
ural history seems at this day astonish-
ing; vet cannot fail to be amusing. The
sea especially was pcoplcd with queer
monsters. There was the kraken,
whom Pontoppeden, in his Natural His
tory of Norway, describes at length. 1t
was not "A serpent, i'll fact had not an
elongated body, but was round, like an
island. The Norwegian fishermen had
frequently seen it, and many were the
tales they told of its presence in warm
seas. They knew of its presence by the
| shadowing of the water from one hun
drcd fathoms to twenty. His back was
mile and Il half long and his arms as
big as the masts of ships.
The dragon was another monster that
our forcfathers placed implicit faith in
| the existence of. Some early poet gives
| this description of him:
| "Ilc is black rs any coal,
Rugged aS Il rough fOHl;
| His neck is great as any Sommese (Sumptei
hOrSr)
| He runnclh swift rs any dcstrcse.
| Paws he hath rs II lion;
| All that he touChcth he savcth dead down.
| Great wings he hath to flight;
| There is no man that bear him might.
Sir Bevis of Hampton. 81. Michael, st
George. and other knights and saint
all killed dragons. In the age of Queer
| Elizabeth the monster was fifty fec
long from shoulder to tail, with glitter
ing scales bright rs silver, but TOUCHES
than brass, except Just under the wing
where, according to Piercys Reliques
St George sent his good sword Arcalol
clear up to the hilt. Li0y spea ks of on'
that stopped the progress of the whole
Roman army and Dcodorus tells o
one captured in Africa that was siXt.
feet long.
The HYDRA was another terrible ser
pent that Hercules killed, which ha
seven, nine. or fifty heads, according t
} the pleasure of the poet and when on
was cut of another sprouted, like I'll
star-tish's legs, though Hudbras di
putes this point
This truth is maintained by philosophe
That the hair grows again. but the head new
The hydra is supposed to have been
brother of the chmera.
2 There are two animals mentioned b
q Shakespeare. The first is often repre-
scented in heraldc designs. 1t is IL,
inc serpent, the forepart as drago
r with wings. and the latter part ~
snake, but differing from the dragon
only having two legs. The cockatric'
or basilisk. was a oort of missing lin
between birds and reptiles. The Scotc
. claimed that he came from an egg lai
i by cock after he was seven years OLE
Plinv describes it under the name I
buslisk, and claims that its very odor
death to man and animals. Serpen
fly from it, and the mortal whom
looked upon died
First came the great roc. whom OF
reads of in the adventures of "Sinba
h the Sailor Marco Polo heard of hi
y in Madagascar, and declares that it W,
! like the eagle, measuring sixteen pace
. from wing to wing. But the Persia
: authorities give the widest accoun
a They represent him rs carrying an ell
h phant in his beak, and one in each
!. his claws The Christian Fathers b
e leved in the existence of the phoenix
q typical of the resurrection, and Il
e Roman Senator Nautilus told the r
" mans he had lived five hundred al
IS nine years, and built n nest Of CHM
e, mon and incense. and then died. O
c. of its bones came a worm which pc
A. formed funeral rites for its parent
,c placing the nest on an altar OF the u
t, of the sun in Egypt
= There are hosts of other mythical al
IS mails, the centaurs, gritins, saty,
2. harpies, cerbcruS and unicorn, to 5
= nothing of were-wolves and the horn
ID monsters that AldroranduS described.
E,JIyjrpt