Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-07-03
Mlistellameuns &eadiua.
MYTHICAL BEASTS,

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MYTHICAL BEASTS.
The old authors, poets and orators, even
the divine bard Shakespeare, peopled the
earth, sea and air with all sorts of monsters
and bugaboos. There were then many
worlds for science to conquer and when the
Marco Polos, Captain Magellans and Lord
Monboddos, and people who had been far
countries for to see, came back with yarns
of incredibly fierce and ferocious monsters,
why, the stay-at homes had nothing to do
but believe. There are no more Abyssinias
for ingenious DR.. Johnsons to improvise hap
py valleys out of, and to people with Rasse-
lasses and other happy mortals. India and
the Perus are explored, the Amazon is no
longer mystery, we know where the Nile
rises, and nearly all the earth has yielded
up it's mysteries to science and man, except
ing, of course, Symmes' Hole, and the i'm
penetrable North Pole. The ignorance of
our early writers upon subjects of natural
history seems at this day astonishing, yet
cannot fail to be amusing. The sea especial
ly was peopled with queer monsters. There
was the kraken, which POntoppeden in his
Natural History Of Norway, describes at
length. 1t was not a serpent in fact, had
not an elongated body, but was round, like
frequently seen it, and many were the tales
they told of it's presence in warm seas.
They knew of it's presence by the shadow
ing of the water from one hundred fathoms
to twenty. His back was mile and a half
long and his arms as big as the masts of
ships.
The dragon was another monster that our
forefathers placed implicit faith in the eXis-
tence of. Sir Bevis of, Hampton, st. Mi
chael, St. George and other knights and
saints all killed dragons. In the age of
Queen Elizabeth the monster was fifty feet
long from shoulder to tail, with glittering
brass, except just under the wing, where,
according to Percy's Reliques, st. George
sent his good sword, Ascalon clear up to the
hilt Livy speaks of one that stopped pro-
gress of the whole Roman army, and Dio-
dorus tells of one captured in Africa that
was sixty feet long.
The hydra was another terrible serpent
that Hercules killed, which had seven, nine
or fifty heads, according to the pleasure Of
the poet and when one was cut off another
sprouted like the star-fsh's legs, though
Hudibras disputes this point. The hydra
is supposed to have been brother of the
chimera.
There are two animals mentioned by
in heraldic designs It is flying serpent,
the forepart as dragon with wings, and
the latter partas snake, but differing from
the dragon in only having two legs. The
cOckatrice, or basilisk, was a sort Of missing
link between birds and reptiles. The
Scotch claimed that he came from an egg,
laid by cock after he was seven years old.
Pliny describes it under the name Of BASIL
isk, and claims that its very odor is death
to man and animals. Sepents fly from it,
and the mortal whom it looked upon died.
First came the great roc, whom one reads
ofin the adventures of "Sinbad the Sailor"
Marco Polo heard Of him in Madagascar,
and declares that it was like the eagle,
But the Persian authorities give the widest
account. They represent him as carrying
an elephant in his beak and one in each Of
it's claws. The Christian Fathers believed
in the existence of the phoenix as typical of
the resurrection, and the Roman Senator
Nautilus told the Romans he had lived 500
years, and builta nest of cinnamon and in
cense and then died. Out of bones came
a worm which performed funeral rites for
it's parent by placing the nest on an altar of
the City of the Sun in Egypt.
TAKE OFF Your HAT.-The Hon. Phil.
Hoyne of Chicago, is responsible for the
following: 81 was going along the other
evening, when savage dog flew out at me,
evidently ready to rend me in pieces, Now
what dye suppose I did?" whipped
out your pistol, presume" "Not bit of
it. 1 simply lifted my hat. Don't laugh.
The dog stopped, looked at me, growled,
and finally crouched back to the doorstep
and began wagging his tail. I have done
the same thing over and over again with
the same result" "How do you account
for the result ?" "This is how I figure it
out" said Mr.. Hoyne. "Dogs, in my opin-
ion, think-in crude way. They see a
man, such as I, walking, say. with q plug
hat on his head, and so forth. To him
present complete picture just as dog
with tapping ears, swishing tail and four
legs, presents one equally complete. Now,
mark! The four footed picture can not, so
to speak, disintegrate. No dog ever saw
another dog take off it's tail or lay down its
ears, or throw away one of its hind legs.
This human apparition suddenly begins to
take himself to pieces. He lifts off his hat.
The dog doesn't know what is coming next,
perhaps He begins to think. He is over
aWed. He meets with a power, which is
beyond his comprehension, and he sue
cumbs. Mind you, this is only my theory,
but have tried it on several times, and
always found it to succeed"
REVOLUTIONARY MONUMENTS. "A recent
visitor to the battle-felds of Kings Noun
tain and the Cowpens, in South Carolina,
reports that the monuments placed there
many years ago, are ruined by relic-hunters.
The facing of the CoWpens monument,
"Erected by the Washington Light Infant
ryof Charleston in 1885," is nearly all gone;
the ground has grown up to forest and soon
there will be nothing to mark the spot where
one of the most important events Of our
Revolutionary history took place. A mon
ument in honor of Morgan's victory has
been erected by Congress and the State of
South Carolina, assisted by other States, at
Spartanburg, sixteen miles distant, but this
cannot identify the place where the battle
occurred. On the Kings Mountain battle
field there is a monument, placed there at
the time Of the centennial celebration in Oc-
tober, 1880, which is untouched by the spoil
ers as yet, and is likely to be, sit is Of rough
granite at the base and of such size as to re-
pei the inclination to chip off keepsake
pieces, but the Ferguson Chronicle monu-
ment, erected where Ferguson, the British
commander, and Chronicle, Boyd and other
Americans killed in the battle were buried,
is so far destroyed as to be worthless as a
The inscriptions on neithersid
can be read, and the face of one side is near
ly all of it hacked off and carried away.
Surely here is little patriotic work for the
South Carolina Historical Society or the
Washington Light Infantry, or both, to do
in preserving for all times these two inter-
esting spots of our Revolutionary history.
No doubt Congress would lend a helping
hand, as it has in so many similar instan-
Day.
ToADs AFTER A RAIN.-Why are all the
tnads SO plentiful after a thunder shower?