Note 28 — Chapter V · Chinese Dragon Lore

The Chinese “dragon well” is usually situated inside a deep mountain cave. It was believed that the well owed its origin to the dragon. De Visser quotes, in this connection, from an ancient sage, who wrote: “When the yellow dragon, born from yellow gold a thousand years old, enters a deep place, a yellow spring dashes forth, and if from this spring some particles (fine dust) arise, these become a yellow cloud”. A famous dragon well is situated at the top of Mount Pien, in Hu-cheu. It flows from a cave, and is called “Golden Well Spring”. The cave is known as the “Golden Well Cave”, and is supposed to be so deep that no one can reach the end of it. There was a dragon well near Jerusalem.28 Other dragon wells are found as far west as Ireland and Scotland. A cave with wells, called the “Dropping Cave”, at Cromarty, has a demon in its inner recesses. The Corycian cave of the Anatolian Typhoon is one of similar character. According to Greek legend, this hundred-headed monster, from whose eyes lightning flashes, will one day send hail, floods, and rivers of fire to lay waste Sicilian farms.29 The floods of the River Rhone were supposed to be caused by the “drac”. In Egypt Set became the “roaring serpent”, who crept into a hole in the ground, “wherein he hid himself and lived”. He had previously taken the shapes of the crocodile and the hippopotamus to escape Horus, the Egyptian “dragon slayer”.