Mythical Monsters

Charles Gould, geological surveyor of Tasmania, spent 400 pages and 93 engravings arguing that dragons, sea-serpents and unicorns are not inventions but memories — real animals, seen, feared, and distorted by time.

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Appendix I: Chuh-Lung

Pao-pòh-tz says: "There are self-existent dragons and there are worms which are changed into dragons." Again, he says: "Among the hills the Chăn day, called the rain master, is a dragon." Hwai-nantsz said: "The Chuh-Lung is north of the goose gate concealed in the Wei-Ü mountain." The Shan-hai-king says the god of the Chung-shan is called Chuh-Lung. When he opens his eyes it is day, when he shuts his eyes it is night. His body is three thousand li long. The Shui-king-chu says: "The Yulung considers the autumn days as night. But the dragon descends in the autumn and hibernates in the deep pools; how then can he say that autumn is night?" It also says: "There is a divine dragon in the vermilion pools at Kiao-chew. Whenever there was a drought, the village people obstructed the upper tributaries of the pool, and many fish died; the dragon became enraged at such times, and caused much rain."

The Kwah-ti-t'u says: "At the dragon pool there is a hill with four lofty sides, and within them is a pool seven hundred li square; a herd of dragons live there, and feed upon the many different kinds of trees. * See the description of the dragon from the P'au-Tsaou-Kang-mu It is beyond Hwui-ki forty-five thousand li." Again, it says: "If you do not ride on a dragon you cannot reach the weak waters* of the Kwanlun hill." The Poh-Wuh-Chi says: "If you soak the dragon's flesh in an acid (and eat it), you can write essays.". Again, it says: "The Tiao-sheh is in form like a dragon, but smaller. It likes danger; hence it is appointed to guard decayed timber." Again, it says: "The dragon lays three eggs. The first is Ki-tiao. He goes ashore and cohabits with the deer or deposits his semen at the water's edge, where it becomes attached to passing boats or floating wood and branches. It appears like a walnut, it is called Tsz-chao flower, and constitutes what is mentioned in the Tao-ch'u as dragon-salt." Again, it says: "Below the dragon-gate every year in the third month of spring, yellow carps, twot fish, come from the sea, and all the streams, with speed to the contest. But seventy-one can ascend the dragon-gate in a year; when the first one ascends the dragon-gate there is wind and rain. It is followed by fire which burns his tail, and then he is a dragon." The Shih-I-Ki says: "East of the hills of Fang-chang there is a dragon plain where there are dragon skins and bones like a mountain: spread out they would cover one thousand five hundred acres. To meet him when he sloughs his bones is like the birth of a dragon. Or it is said the dragons constantly wrangle at this place. It is enriched with blood like flowing water."

The Shuh-I-Ki says: "In the P'uning district there are the isles where the dragons are buried. Fu-loo says the dragons shed their bones at these isles, the water now contains many dragon-bones, in these mountains, hills, peaks, and gorges. The dragons make the wind and rain. There are dragons' bones everywhere, whether in the deep or shallow places; there are many in the ground. Teeth, horns, vertebral columns, feet, it seems as though they are everywhere. The largest measure one hundred feet or exceed one hundred feet. The smallest are two feet or three or four inches. The bones are everywhere. Constantly when looking for anything they are seen." Again, it says: "It is told of the Kuh mountains in Ki-cheu that when the dragon is a thousand years old, he enters the mountains and casts his bones. Now there is a dragon hill, from the midst of the hill issues the dragon's brains." summer.

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