CHAPTER I.

Introduction--"A Description of 300 Animals"--Unicorn--The Bible Unicorn--The Heraldic Unicorn--The Horn as a Poison Test--The Unicorn of Mediæval Legend--Wolf Causing Dumbness--The Rompo or Man-Eater--The Manticora--The Lamia--Stag Antipathies--Dragons-- Dragon-Slaying--Legends of the Saints--The "Legenda Aurea"--St. George--Mediæval Recipes--The "Historia Monstrorum" of Aldrovandus-- The Dragon in Heraldry--The Dragon of Wantley--Dragons' Teeth--The Dragonnades--The Dragons of Shakespeare--Guardians of Treasure--The Feud between the Dragon and the Elephant--The "Bestiare Divin" of Guillaume--The Cockatrice--The Basilisk--The Phoenix: Its Literary Existence from Herodotus to Shakespeare--The Dun-Cow of Warwick--Sir Guy, and Percie's "Reliques of Antient Poetry"--Old Ribs and other Bones in Churches--The Salamander--Breydenbach's Travels--The "Bestiary" of De Thaun--The Ylio--The Griffin--The Arimaspians-- Burton's "Miracles of Art and Nature"--The Lomie--The Tartarian Vegetable Lamb--The Sea-Elephant--Pegasus--The Vampyre--The Chameleon 1-80