Lucan[195] refers to the winged serpents of Arabia as forming one of the ingredients of an incantation broth brewed by a Thessalian witch, Erictho, with the object of resuscitating a corpse, and procuring replies to the queries of Sextus, son of Pompey. There are other passages in Ovid and other poets, in which the words "winged serpents" are made use of, but which I omit to render here, since from the context it seems doubtful whether they were not intended as poetic appellations of the monster to which, by popular consent, the term dragon has been generally restricted. I feel bound to refer, although of course without attaching any very great weight of evidence to them, to the numerous stories popular in the East, in which flying serpents play a conspicuous part, the serpents always having something magical or supernatural in their nature. Such tales are found in the entrancing pages of the _Arabian Nights_, or in the very entertaining folk-lore of China, as given to us by Dr. N. P. Dennys of Singapore.[196] The latest notice of the flying serpent that we find is in a work by P. Belon du Mans, published in 1557, entitled, _Portraits de quelques animaux, poissons, serpents, herbes et arbres, hommes et femmes d'Arabie, Égypte, et Asie, observés par P. Belon du Mans_. It contains a drawing of a biped winged dragon, with the notice "Portrait du serpent ailé" and the quatrain-- Dangereuse est du serpent la nature Qu'on voit voler près le mont Sinai Qui ne serait, de la voir, esbahy, Si on a peur, voyant sa pourtraiture? This is copied by Gesner, who repeats the story of its flying out of Arabia into Egypt.[197] I attach considerable importance to the short extract which I shall give in a future page from the celebrated Chinese work on geography and natural history, the _Shan Hai King_, or Mountain and Sea Classic. The _Shan Hai King_ claims to be of great antiquity, and, as Mr. Wylie remarks, though long looked on with distrust, has been investigated recently by scholars of great ability, who have come to the conclusion that it is at least as old as the Chow dynasty, and probably older. Now, as the Chow dynasty commenced in 1122 B.C., it is, if this latter supposition be correct, of a prior age to the works of Aristotle, Herodotus, and all the other authors we have been quoting, and therefore is the earliest work on natural history extant, and the description of the flying serpent of the Sien mountains (_vide infrà_) the earliest record of the existence of such creatures. _Classical Dragon and Mediæval Dragon._