or wounded: for his body
became the support of the stupa and the tree became a beam of the
stupa (p. 16). This aspect of the Naga as a tree-demon is rare in
India, but common in China and Japan. It seems to be identical with the
Mediterranean conception of the pillar of wood or stone, which is both a
representative of the Great Mother and the chief support of a
temple.[177]

In the magnificent city that king Yacahketu saw, when he dived into
the sea, "wishing trees that granted every desire" were among the
objects that met his vision. There were also palaces of precious stones
and gardens and tanks, and, of course, beautiful maidens (de Visser, p.
20).

In the Far Eastern stories it is interesting to note the antagonism of
the dragon to the tiger, when we recall that the lioness-form of Hathor
was the prototype of the earliest malevolent dragon.

There are five sorts of dragons: serpent-dragons; lizard-dragons;
fish-dragons; elephant-dragons; and toad-dragons (de Visser, p. 23).

"According to de Groot, the blue colour is chosen in China because this
is the colour of the East, from where the rain must come; this quarter
is represented by the Azure Dragon, the highest in rank among all the
dragons. We have seen, however, that the original sutra already
prescribed to use the blue colour and to face the East.... Indra, the
rain-god, is the patron of the East, and Indra-colour is _nila_, dark
blue or rather blue-black, the regular epithet of the rain clouds. If
the priest had not to face the East but the West, this would agree with
the fact that the Nagas were said to live in the western quarter and
that in India the West corresponds with the blue colour. Facing the
East, however, seems to point to an old rain ceremony in which Indra was
invoked to raise the blue-black clouds" (de Visser, pp. 30 and 31).

[175: Breasted, _op. cit._, p. 11.]

[176: G. W. Eve, "Decorative Heraldry," 1897, p. 35.]

[177: Arthur J. Evans, "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult," pp. 88 _et
seq._]

The Dragon Myth.

The most important and fundamental legend in the whole history of
mythology is the story of the "Destruction of Mankind". "It was
discovered, translated, and commented upon by Naville ("La Destruction
des hommes par les Dieux," in the _Transactions of the Society of
Biblical Archaeology_, vol. iv., pp. 1-19, reproducing Hay's copies made
at the beginning of [the nineteenth] century; and "L'Inscription de la
Destruction des h