Transformations of kiao into human shapes

Transformations of kiao (scaled dragon) into human shapes are the subjects of several tales. The Wu ki'" tells the following: "Under the Emperor Ta Ti of the Wu dynasty (A. D. 228—251), in the seventh month of the third year of the Ch'ih-wu era (A. D. 240), there was a certain Wang Shuh who gathered medicinal herbs on T'ieu Tai mountain. At the hottest time of the day he took a rest under a bridge, when suddenly he saw a little blue boy, over a foot long, in the brook. The boy held a blue rush in his hand and rode on a red carp. The fish straightly entered a cloud and disappeared little by little. After a good while Shuh climbed upon a high mountain top and looked to all four sides. He saw wind and clouds arising above the sea, and in a moment a thunderstorm broke forth. Suddenly it was about to reach Shuh, who terrified hid himself in a hollow tree. When the sky cleared up, he again saw the red carp on which the boy rode and the little boy returning and entering the brook. It was a black Kiao!"

M. W. De Visser. The Dragon in China and Japan. Amsterdam: Johannes Muller, 1913. P. 80-81.

235. Période Khien-Hing, 13e année

235 . Période Khien-hing, 13e année , pendant que les troupes du pays de Chou attaquaient le camp des Weï à Weï-nan (latitude 34° 29', Chen-si ), une grande étoile rouge, avec des pointes rayonnantes, et allant du N. E. au S. O. tomba dans le camp.

Edouard Biot. Catalogue général des etoiles filantes et des autres météores observés en Chine : pendant vingt-quatre siècles depuis le VIIe siècle avant J. C. jusqu'au milieu du XVIIe de notre ère. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1846. P. 15.

Our annals record that a large variety of prodigies

Our annals record that a large variety of prodigies had occurred in Albion a little before Galdus’ battle with the Romans. Flaming brands were seen to fly through the air, a great part of Caledonia appeared to be ablaze at night, but to be untroubled by fire in the daytime. Phantom ships appeared in the sky, in Athol it rained stones, and in Horestia there was a torrential downpour of frogs. At Tulina, a town I have already mentioned, a hermaphrodite was born, a foul monster in every respect, and was put to death lest it offend men’s eyes. These prodigies troubled many men’s minds and divided their opinions: as happens in such situations, some put a good interpretation on them, and others a bad. When these happy Roman success in Albion were reported to Domitian Caesar in dispatches of senior officers with the army, although he feigned a happy expression, they deeply troubled his fretful heart. For the emperor exceedingly disliked having a private man’s reputation, fame, and glory extolled above his own. And so, after many honors had been heaped on Agricola by decree of the senate, he sent a letter recalling him to Rome, as if to replace the dead Attilius Ruffus, a man of consular rank, as legate of Syria. But once in Rome, he died not long thereafter, as rumor had it, thanks to Caesar’s machinations. But while still alive, he had handed over the province to Gnaeus Trebellius, Domitian’s new appointee, prior to his departure. Up to this point, Roman affairs had been prosperous, but a little after Agricola’s departure they went into a decline.

Hector Boece. Historia gentis scotorum, IV, 58.

But further, when Thrasybulus

But further, when Thrasybulus was bringing back the exiles from Phyla, and wished to elude observation, a pillar became his guide as he marched over a trackless region. To Thrasybulus by night, the sky being moonless and stormy, a fire appeared leading the way, which, having conducted them safely, left them near Munychia, where is now the altar of the light-bringer (Phosphorus).

Clemente de Alejandría. Stromata, I, 24.

At the commencement of the ivory trade

At the commencement of the ivory trade great profits were made. The tusks were still lying about in the bush where they had lain for years. In many cases, of course, the annual grass fires had damaged the outer skin, but ivory is tough stuff. The price was then about eight shillings the pound at the base. The natives knew nothing about money and traded freely what they contemptuously called "elephant bones" for a few pennyworth of iron, brass, or copper wire or for a string of kauri shells or a handful of beads. At every camp in the bush all hands would be sent out to search the surrounding country for ivory. Frequently they were rewarded. Of course, all this was "dead" ivory, but it was so abundant that no one turned his thoughts to the living stores of the precious stuff. There was still the small annual crop of tusks from the native traps, but the amount was very small when compared with the pick-up of "dead" tusks.

Walter Bell. Karamojo safari. New York: Harper Brace, 1949. P. 26-27.

Breathes there the man

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,

From wandering on a foreign strand!

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;

For him no Minstrel raptures swell;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung. 

 

Walter Scott. The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto Sixth, I.

From Father Borie

From Father Borie, Cameron learnt that the Jakun (by whom M. Borie probably means the Mantra) have a fixed and singular superstition concerning tigers, ninety-nine men out of every hundred believing it, even in the face of their Christian teaching. They believe that a tiger in their paths is invariably a human being, who having sold himself to the Evil Spirit, assumes by sorcery the shape of the beast to execute his vengeance or malignity. They assert that invariably before a tiger is met, a man has been or might have been seen to disappear in the direction from which the animal springs. 

Walter William Skeat y Charles Otto Blagden. Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula, vol II. London: MacMillan, 1906.