Mythical Monsters

Charles Gould

• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9788892676855
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Charles Gould, the son of the ornithologist John Gould, wrote this book in the 19th century on the subject now called 'cryptozoology, ' the study of (possibly imaginary) animals only known through anecdotal or folklore evidence. The core of the book is about dragons: Western, Chinese, and Japanese, although it also covers the Sea-serpent, the Unicorn, and the Chinese Phoenix. Gould hypothesized that the dragon was based on an unknown, very rare animal, a huge reptile with wings, which became extinct in historical times. He also concluded that persistent sea-serpent sightings were also due to an undiscovered surviving prehistoric marine animal. He drew on the then-emerging body of fossil evidence for prehistoric mega fauna, from flying lizards to whale-sized aquatic dinosaurs. In context the proposal was not all that outrageous. Darwin had 25 years earlier proposed that humans are part of a huge web of biological relationships over vast realms of time and space. So what other paradigms were about to be shattered? Gould leads off with a discussion of some other 'earth mysteries: ' the world-wide flood myth, cultural diffusion, and Atlantis; readers looking for the cryptologist will want to skip forward to Chapter VI. Extensive illustrations, translations from rare documents, and historical accounts from newspaper articles, make this a must-have book for anyone interested in this subject.

Table of contents

• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1. ON SOME REMARKABLE ANIMAL FORMS
• CHAPTER 2. EXTINCTION OF SPECIES
• CHAPTER 3. ANTIQUITY OF MAN
• CHAPTER 4. THE DELUGE NOT A MYTH
• CHAPTER 5. ON THE TRANSLATION OF MYTHS BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD
• CHAPTER 6. THE DRAGON
• CHAPTER 7. THE CHINESE DRAGON
• CHAPTER 8. THE JAPANESE DRAGON
• CHAPTER 9. THE SEA-SERPENT
• CHAPTER 10. THE UNICORN
• CHAPTER 11. THE CHINESE PHOENIX
• APPENDIX 1. THE DELUGE TRADITION ACCORDING TO BEROSUS
• APPENDIX 2. THE DRAGON
• APPENDIX 3. ORIGINAL PREFACE TO "WONDERS BY LAND AND SEA"
• APPENDIX 4. A MEMORIAL PRESENTED BY LIU HSIU, BY ORDER OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE EMPEROR, ON THE "BOOK OF WONDERS BY LAND AND SEA."
• APPENDIX 5. AFTER PREFACE TO THE "BOOK OF WONDERS BY LAND AND SEA."
• APPENDIX 6. EXTRACTS FROM "SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE,"
• APPENDIX 7. EXTRACTS FROM THE "PAN TSAOU KANG MU."
• APPENDIX 8. EXTRACT FROM THE "YUEN KEEN LEI HAN."
• APPENDIX 9. APPENDIX TO THE CHAPTER ON THE SEA-SERPENT