[132] Knivet's description of the West Indies, _Harris' Voyages_, vol. i. p. 705. [133] T. Wright, _Marco Polo_, p. 267. Bohn, 1854. [134] _Harris' Voyages_, vol. i. p. 859. [135] Dr. J. le Conte describes a ceremonial of cremation among the Cocopa Indians of California, and it is an ancient practice among the Chinese, dating back beyond the Greek and Roman historical periods. [136] British Association, 1871. [137] Staunton, _China_, vol. ii. p. 455. [138] Humboldt, _Researches in America_, English Translation, vol. i. p. 133. [139] "In turning to the consideration of the primitive works of art of the American continent ... when in the bronze work of the later iron period, imitative forms at length appear, they are chiefly the snake and dragon shapes and patterns, borrowed seemingly by Celtic and Teutonic wanderers, with the wild fancies of their mythology, from the far eastern land of their birth."--D. Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, 1862. "He had remarked that the Indians of the north-west coast frequently repeat in their well-known blackstone carvings the dragon, the lotus flower, and the alligator."--C. G. Leland, _Fusang_, London, 1875. [140] "Dragon, an imaginary animal something like a crocodile."--Rev. Dr. Brewer, _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, p. 243. [141] "In the woods of Java are certain flying snakes, or rather drakes; they have four legs, a long tail, and their skin speckled with many spots, their wings are not unlike those of a bat, which they move in flying, but otherwise keep them almost unperceived close to the body. They fly nimbly, but cannot hold it long, so that they fly from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty paces' distance. On the outside of the throat are two bladders, which, being extended when they fly, serve them instead of a sail. They feed upon flies and other insects."--Mr. John Nieuhoff's Voyage and Travels to the East Indies, contained in a collection of _Voyages and Travels_, in 6 vols., vol. ii. p. 317; Churchill, London, 1732. [142] _Chambers' Encyclopædia_, vol. iii. p. 635.