Note 16 — LETTER XXVII
Reading edition
In the far East the dragon, associated in our myths with fire, is a water spirit. At the miraculous birth of Buddha two heavenly dragons appeared in the air, the one spouting cold, the other warm water, to wash the holy babe. Hence bronze dragons are commonly seen in temples and in other places as water-spouts, where in the West the lion’s head would be used. The lion as a fountain comes from the ancient Egyptians, whose astronomers held that the rising of the Nile was bound to take place when the sun was in Leo.