Transcriber's Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader,and is placed in the public domain.
MYTH-LAND.
BY
F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF
“FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS,” ETC. ETC.
Of every people, in every clime,
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire.
Born of water, or air, or fire,
Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud
And ooze of the old Deucalion flood,
Crawl, and wriggle, and foam with rage,
Through dark tradition and ballad age.”
Whittier.
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1886.
[All rights reserved.]
PREFACE.
THE nucleus of the following pages wasoriginally written in the form of twoshort papers to be read at the meetingsof a Public School Natural HistorySociety. Since then, finding materials rapidlygrowing on our hands, we have been graduallyamplifying our notes on the subject until they havegrown to the present dimensions; for, to quote thequaint words of Thomas Fuller, “when there isno recreation or business for thee abroad, thoumay’st then have a company of honest old fellowsin leathern jackets in thy study, which may findthee excellent divertisement at home.” Our researchesin pursuit of the marvellous, through theworks of divers and sundry old writers, have beenso far entertaining and interesting to us that wewould fain hope that they may not be altogetherreceived without favour by others.
[Pg vi]Our subject naturally divides itself into two veryobvious sections—the one dealing with whollyuntrue and impossible creatures of the fancy,the other with the strange beliefs and fancies thathave clustered round the real creatures we seearound us. It will readily be discovered that wehave confined ourselves in the present volumealmost entirely to the first of these sections.Should our present labours prove acceptable theymay readily be followed by a companion volume,at least as entertaining, dealing with the secondsection of our subject.
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