f the remains of the gigantic
extinct saurians.

The qualities of dragons being protective and terror-inspiring, and
their effigies highly decorative, it is natural that they should have
been early used as warlike emblems. Thus, in Homer (_Iliad_ xi. 36
seq.), Agamemnon has on his shield, besides the Gorgon's head, a blue
three-headed snake ([Greek: drakon]), just as ages afterwards the Norse
warriors painted dragons on their shields and carved dragons' heads on
the prows of their ships. From the conquered Dacians, too, the Romans in
Trajan's time borrowed the dragon ensign which became the standard of
the cohort as the eagle was that of the legion; whence, by a long
descent, the modern dragoon. Under the later East Roman emperors the
purple dragon ensign became the ceremonial standard of the emperors,
under the name of the [Greek: drakonteion]. The imperial fashion spread;
or similar causes elsewhere produced similar results. In England before
the Conquest the dragon was chief among the royal ensigns in war. Its
origin, according to the legend preserved in the _Flores historiarum_,
was as follows. Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur, had a vision of
a flaming dragon in the sky, which his seers interpreted as meaning that
he should come to the kingdom. When this happened, after the death of
his brother Aurelius, "he ordered two golden dragons to be fashioned,
like to those he had seen in the circle of the star, one of which he
dedicated in the cathedral of Winchester, the other he kept by him to be
carried into battle." From Uther Dragonhead, as the English called him,
the Anglo-Saxon kings borrowed the ensign, their custom being, according
to the _Flores_, to stand in battle _inter draconem et standardum_. The
dragon ensign, which was borne before Richard I. in 1191 when on crusade
"to the terror of the heathen beyond the sea," was that of the dukes of
Normandy; but even after the loss of Normandy the dragon was the battle
standard of English kings (_signum regium quod Draconem vocant_), and
was displayed, e.g. by Henry III. in 1245 when he went to war against
the Welsh. Not till the 20th century, under King Edward VII., was the
dragon officially restored as proper only to the British race of Uther
Pendragon, by its incorporation in the armorial bearings of the prince
of Wales. As a matter of fact, however, the dragon ensign was common to
nearly all nations, the reason for its popularity being naively stated
in the