“Dragons are found in the myths of many cultures and appear in many forms. The name comes from the Greek word drakon, meaning “snake”. Generally, dragons are portrayed as large, scarly, winged serpernts or reptiles with sharp claws.
In European myths , dragons are usually carnivorous reptiles with fiery breath. They are generally considered evil and dangerous. European ( or Western) dragons are said to live in caves or swamps or on mountaintops, where they often guard treasures. Two of the most famous dragons in European literature are the dragon that St. George killed and the dragon that killed Beowulf. There are also many stories about medieval knights fighting dragons.
There are several types of European dragons. The guivre has no legs or wings. It is a large serpent with a wedgeshaped head. The lindworm has one pair of legs but no wings. The Amphiptere is basically a flying snake with wings but no legs. The wyvern – a particular bloodthirsty type of dragon – has two legs and two wings and a barbed tail. Heraldic dragons have four legs and two wings. Many noble European families chose this dragon as their symbol.
The Asian (or Eastern) dragon was also a reptile but often displayed characteristics of other animals, such as camels, deer, lions, eagles, and bulls. Asian dragons have serpentine bodies, do not usually breath fire, and generally have no wings. Many have a “lion’s mane” around their neck and a bear aroud their chin. They have twoo antlers coming from their head and two long whiskers coming from their faces. Asian dragons have 117 scales, 81 infused with yang, the principle of good, and 36 infused with yin, the principle of evil. Their favorite food is roasted swallows. Asian dragons symbolize power and unlike European dragons, are generally pictured as good, kind, and intelligent.
There are three families of Asian dragons: three-toed, four-toed, and five-toed. Three-toed dragons are native to Japan. Four-toed dragons are from Indonesia or Korea. Some Chinese dragons also have four toes, but the “Imperial dragons” of China have five. Asian dragons come in five colors: blue, White, black, red, and yellow. Red and black dragons are powerful, but the yellow dragon is the strongest of all. Asian dragons are often pictured with a pearl in their months, under their chins, or in their claws. The dragon is thought to draw its strength from this pearl.
Many cultures outside of Europe and Asia also have legends of dragons. In fact, it is hard to find a culture that does not have a dragon myth. The Piasa (“storm bird”) was a dragon known to the Illini, a Native American group that lived by the Mississippi River. It had the head of a bear, large teeth, the antlers of an elk, the scaly body of a fish, and a bear’s leg ending in eagle’s claws. The tail was fifty feet (15 meters) long and was tipped with a spearhead. It lived in a cave in the cliffs overlooking the river. For many years, the Piasa only hunted buffalos. Then, it captured an Illini warrior and after that, it developed a taste for humans and began attacking villages. The Illini chief Ouatoga used himself as a “bait” to lure the beast from its cave. When the dragon stormed out to attack him, his warriors killed it with a shower of arrows. In Ethiopia, there are stories about a four-winged dragon, the Ethiopian Dream Snake. These creatures ate poisonous plants to make their bite and scratches poisonous. They were big enough to kill elephants. Once four of them wove together a raft and sailed to Arabia,Where they thought the hunting would be better. Then there is the Trukh of Madagascar, the Anka of Arabia, the Vekher (“wind demon”) of Russia, the Demaj of Persia, and the Kululkan of the Aztecs.
The fact that so many cultures have dragons stories in common has led people to wonder if dragons really existed up the time of the Middle Ages, When they were hunted into extinction. Some people have even wondered if dragons were the last surviving dinosaurs. Scientists, however, have dismissed this theory as highly unlikely since there is no fossil evidence to indicate that any dinosaurs lived past the end of the Mesozoic era, 65 million years ago.”
Text extracted from The Complete Guide to TOELF Test iBT Edition from Bruce Rogers, 2001. Page 168.