‘The Shwoh Wen says: "The dragon is the chief of scaly reptiles: in the spring he mounts the heavens, in the autumn he frequents the streams. This is favourable."’
[Extract from the Yuen Kien Lei Han, an encyclopædia of 450 volumes, completed in 1710. Quoted by Charles Gould in Mythical Monsters, 1884.]
These young Chinese Water Dragons (Physignathus cocincinus) were photographed on my dining room table in Edinburgh.