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The Dragon: Zaledj

While El Edrisi says : "On peut encore citer le serpent de Zaledj dont parlent Ben Khordadébe, l'auteur du Livre des Merveilles, et divers autres écrivains qui s'accordent à dire qu'il existe dans les montagnes de l'ile de Zaledj une espèce de serpent qui attaque l'elephant et le buffle, et qui ne les abandonnent qu'après les avoir vaincu.'† * Natural History, Book xxix., chap. xx. † " 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, Artemidorus, also, according to Strabo,* " mentions serpents of thirty cubits in length, which can master elephants and bulls. In this he does not exaggerate; but the Indian and African serpents are of a more fabulous size, and are said to have grass growing on their backs."

Iphicrates, according to Bryant, "related that in Mauritania there were dragons of such extent that grass grew upon their backs."