and
forms borrowed from the conventionalized lions and tigers of the Old
World].

The account of the Great Mother's attributes and associations throws
into clear relief certain aspects of the evolution of the dragon which
were left in a somewhat nebulous state in Chapter II. The earliest form
assumed by the power of evil was the serpent or the lion, because these
death-dealing creatures were adopted as symbols of the Great Mother in
her role as the Destroyer of Mankind. When Horus was differentiated from
the Great Mother and became her _locum tenens_, his falcon (or eagle)
was blended with Hathor's lioness to make the composite monster which is
represented on Elamite and Babylonian monuments (see p. 79). But when
the role of water as the instrument of destruction became prominent,
Ea's antelope and fish were blended to make a monster, usually known as
the "goat-fish," which in India and elsewhere assumed a great variety of
forms. Some of the varieties of _makara_ were sufficiently like a
crocodile to be confused or identified with this representative of the
followers of Set.

The real dragon was created when all three larval types--serpent,
eagle-lion, and antelope-fish--were blended to form a monster with
bird's feet and wings, a lion's forelimbs and head, the fish's scales,
the antelope's horns, and a more or less serpentine form of trunk and
tail, and sometimes also of head. Repeated substitution of parts of
other animals, such as the spiral horn of Amen's ram, a deer's antlers,
and the elephant's head, led to endless variation in the dragon's
traits.

The essential unity of the motives and incidents of the myths of all
peoples and of every age is a token, not of independent origin or the
result of "the similarity of the working of the human mind," but of
their derivation from the same ultimate source.

The question naturally arises: what is a myth? The dragon-myth of the
West is the religion of China. The literature of every religion is
saturated with the influence of the myth. In what respect does religion
differ from myth? In Chapter I, I attempted to explain how originally
science and religion were not differentiated. Both were the outcome of
man's attempt to peer into the meaning of natural phenomena, and to
extract from such knowledge practical measures for circumventing fate.
His ever-insistent aim was to combat danger to life.

Religion was differentiated from science when the measures for
controlling