Note 760 — Chapter VII · THE ATMOSPHERE
Reading edition
On the supernatural production of storms and wind, and on the belief that they are caused by magic and by evil spirits in the air, see White, Warfare, 1920, vol. i, pp. 336–350; Hoffmann, Anschauungen, 1907, PP· 85–91; and, especially, J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, Part I, The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, London, 1911, vol. i, pp. 244–331. See also above, pp. 203–204 and 209.
A characteristic story of this sort is related in the Gesta regis Ricardi, falsely ascribed to Benedict of Peterborough. Here we are told that a huge black dragon raises waterspouts in the Gulf of Satalia on the south coast of Asia Minor. The author adds, however: “Quidem autem dicunt quod hoc non est draco sed sol qui attrahit aquas maris ad se, quod plus verum videtur” (Gesta regis Ricardi, vol. ii, p. 197). The author is also skeptical towards a fantastic story of how storms are produced in the same gulf by the rising to the surface of the head of an abortive child that had been thrown into its waters (ibid., p. 196).