Mythical Monsters

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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (italics).

The original text includes Persian characters. For this text file version these letters have been replaced with [Persian].

MYTHICAL MONSTERS.

[Illustration: THE FUNG WANG. ACCORDING TO FANG HENG.]

MYTHICAL MONSTERS.

by

CHARLES GOULD, B.A.,

Member of the Royal Society of Tasmania; Late Geological Surveyor of Tasmania.

With Ninety-Three Illustrations.

[Illustration]

London: W. H. Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place. S.W. Publishers to the India Office. 1886.

(All rights reserved.)

London: Printed By W H Allen and Co., 13 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall S.W.

PREFACE.

The Author has to express his great obligations to many gentlemen who have assisted him in the preparation of this volume, either by affording access to their libraries, or by furnishing or revising translations from the Chinese, &c.; and he must especially tender them to J. Haas, Esq., the Austro-Hungarian Vice-Consul at Shanghai, to Mr. Thomas Kingsmill and the Rev. W. Holt of Shanghai, to Mr. Falconer of Hong-Kong, and to Dr. N. B. Dennys of Singapore.

For the sake of uniformity, the author has endeavoured to reduce all the romanised representations of Chinese sounds to the system adopted by S. W. Williams, whose invaluable dictionary is the most available one for students. No alteration, however, has been made when quotations from eminent sinologues like Legge have been inserted.

Should the present volume prove sufficiently interesting to attract readers, a second one will be issued at a future date, in continuation of the subject.

June, 1884.

NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS.

The Publishers think it right to state that, owing to the Author's absence in China, the work has not had the advantage of his supervision in its passage through the press. It is also proper to mention that the MS. left the Author's hands eighteen months ago.

13, WATERLOO PLACE. S.W. January, 1886.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 1

LIST OF AUTHORS CITED 27

CHAPTER I.--ON SOME REMARKABLE ANIMAL FORMS 31

CHAPTER II.--EXTINCTION OF SPECIES 42

CHAPTER III.--ANTIQUITY OF MAN 78

CHAPTER IV.--THE DELUGE NOT A MYTH 101

CHAPTER V.--ON THE TRANSLATION OF MYTHS BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD 137

CHAPTER VI.--THE DRAGON 159

CHAPTER VII.--THE CHINESE DRAGON 212

CHAPTER VIII.--THE JAPANESE DRAGON 248

CHAPTER IX.--THE SEA-SERPENT 260

CHAPTER X.--THE UNICORN 338

CHAPTER XI.--THE CHINESE PHŒNIX 366

APPENDICES 375

MYTHICAL MONSTERS.

INTRODUCTION.

It would have been a bold step indeed for anyone, some thirty years ago, to have thought of treating the public to a collection of stories ordinarily reputed fabulous, and of claiming for them the consideration due to genuine realities, or to have advocated tales, time-honoured as fictions, as actual facts; and those of the nursery as being, in many instances, legends, more or less distorted, descriptive of real beings or events.