to give a clear idea of
Dragomirov's personality and of the way in which his methods of training
conduced to success.

DRAGON (Fr. _dragon_, through Lat. _draco_, from the Greek; connected
with [Greek: derkomai], "see," and interpreted as "sharp-sighted"; O.H.
Ger. _tracho_, _dracho_, M.H.G. _trache_, Mod. Ger. _Drachen_; A.S.
_draca_, hence the equivalent English form "drake," "fire-drake," cf.
Low Ger. and Swed. _drake_, Dan. _drage_), a fabulous monster, usually
conceived as a huge winged fire-breathing lizard or snake. In Greece the
word [Greek: drakon] was used originally of any large serpent, and the
dragon of mythology, whatever shape it may have assumed, remains
essentially a snake. For the part it has played in the myths and cults
of various peoples and ages see the article SERPENT-WORSHIP. Here it may
be said, in general, that in the East, where snakes are large and deadly
(Chaldea, Assyria, Phoenicia, to a less degree in Egypt), the serpent or
dragon was symbolic of the principle of evil. Thus Apophis, in the
Egyptian religion, was the great serpent of the world of darkness
vanquished by Ra, while in Chaldaea the goddess Ti[=a]mat, the female
principle of primeval Chaos, took the form of a dragon. Thus, too, in
the Hebrew sacred books the serpent or dragon is the source of death and
sin, a conception which was adopted in the New Testament and so passed
into Christian mythology. In Greece and Rome, on the other hand, while
the oriental idea of the serpent as an evil power found an entrance and
gave birth to a plentiful brood of terrors (the serpents of the Gorgons,
Hydra, Chimaera and the like), the _dracontes_ were also at times
conceived as beneficent powers, sharp-eyed dwellers in the inner parts
of the earth, wise to discover its secrets and utter them in oracles, or
powerful to invoke as guardian genii. Such were the sacred snakes in the
temples of Aesculapius and the _sacri dracontes_ in that of the Bona Dea
at Rome; or, as guardians, the Python at Delphi and the dragon of the
Hesperides.

In general, however, the evil reputation of dragons was the stronger,
and in Europe it outlived the other. Christianity, of course, confused
the benevolent and malevolent serpent-deities of the ancient cults in a
common condemnation. The very "wisdom of the serpent" made him suspect;
the devil, said St Augustine, "leo et draco est; leo propter impetum,
draco propter insidias." The dragon myths of the pagan East