Note 5 — X.—SERPENTS, DRAGONS, FABULOUS ANIMALS AND MONSTERS.

The well-known Linton worm or dragon5 supposed to inhabit the borders of Roxburghshire, gives us another parallel between a British and a Chinese belief. From his cave on Linton hill this monster “could with his sweeping and venomous breath draw the neighbouring flocks and herds within reach of his fangs.” Again we read, “such was the dread inspired by the monster’s poisonous breath” that the villagers were beside themselves with terror. Now we have only to go back to 1867 to find a story extensively believed throughout the Fuhkien seaboard, in which the poisonous character of a serpent’s breath is an important element.6 It was to the effect that a party of tiger-catchers near Foochow discovered in the cage which they had constructed to receive the tiger a monstrous snake with two large horns. Although somewhat frightened at their unexpected prisoner, they decided on taking him on board their junk with a view to eventually selling him. A few days after they had put to sea a thunderstorm came on, and a flash of lightning struck the junk, breaking open the cage. Away slipped the monster into the hold, which, being stored with rice and other edibles, was a decided change for the better in his position. As, however, the captain and crew were bound to deliver their cargo intact, the former offered $1,000 to anybody who would go down and kill the snake. Two men were found to venture, but no sooner did they approach the animal than “raising his head a little, he hissed out a vapour on them and they lay dead.” Of course captain and crew immediately deserted the junk, and she is still reputed to be, like the flying Dutchman’s ship off the Cape, cruizing around the neighbouring coasts; and so great is the fear of the serpent’s breath, that no one who has heard the story dare board a castaway Foochow junk to this day.