When they breathe, they make clouds; when they inhale water, they cause
whirlpools. Underground dragons create hills by humping their backs.
Giant dragons are so big and powerful, they control the forces of
nature. When they breathe, they make clouds; when they inhale water, they
cause whirlpools. Underground dragons create hills by humping their backs.
Super sized Oriental dragons are miles long. They are the biggest,
grandest, most
The ancient sage Wang Fu described an Eastern Dragon: "Its head is
like a camel's, its ears like a cow's, its neck like a snake's, its belly
like a frog's, its scales like a carp's, its claws like an eagle's, and
its paws like a tiger's." It has whiskers on the sides of its mouth and
a bright pearl growing under its chin.
That's only one kind. Most Eastern Dragons have horns and whiskers, but
their heads often resemble cows' or horses'. They never look like the horrible
snake dragons of the West. They rarely have wings, and they breathe clouds,
not fire. Their voices sound like jingling coins, ringing bells, or clanging
gongs.
Instead of wings, the dragon has a "poh shan," a growth on top of its head
that pumps air in and out, lifting the creature high in the sky. Winds
enable it to sail through the air. Some scholars claim that the pearl under
its chin makes the dragon airborne, but how this works has never been explained.
Giant dragons are so big and powerful, they control the forces of nature.
When they breathe, they make clouds; when they inhale water, they cause
whirlpools. Underground dragons create hills by humping their backs.
The ancient sage Wang Fu described an Eastern Dragon: "Its head is like
a camel's, its ears like a cow's, its neck like a snake's, its belly like
a frog's, its scales like a carp's, its claws like an eagle's, and its
paws like a tiger's." It has whiskers on the sides of its mouth and a bright
pearl growing under its chin.
That's only one kind. Most Eastern Dragons have horns and whiskers,
but their heads often resemble cows' or horses'. They never look like the
horrible snake dragons of the West. They rarely have wings, and they breathe
clouds, not fire. Their voices sound like jingling coins, ringing bells,
or clanging gongs.
Instead of wings, the dragon has a "poh shan," a growth on top of
its head that pumps air in and out, lifting the creature high in the sky.
Winds enable it to sail through the air. Some scholars claim that the pearl
under its chin makes the dragon airborne, but how this works has never
been explained.
As no fossils are likely to be found, any reconstruction of the dragon's
actual body-system is guesswork. Dragons clearly evolved from lizard-shaped
dinosaurs. One theory proposes cavities which were extreme modifications
of the vertebrae of that long spine, each of the selected vertebrae becoming
a large, thin-walled urn of bone, closed at the top with a muscular membrane.
This membrane, and any other surface needing protection from the acid,
would be coated with a resistant mucus, which is the normal way in which
digestive systems are prevented from digesting the body they feed. For
maximum hydrogen production, the acid gland would open and the acid would
flow down the walls of the cavity, reacting with the calcium deposited
there from the bone structure. The bone itself would be continually self-renewing.
The various cavities would be interconnected by valves, and by adjustment
of the tension of the upper membrane transfer of gas throughout the body,
for balance and other purposes, could take place. The membranes would have
a further vital function. Normally the gas in the cavities would be under
mild pressure, and the dragon's weight in air would be positive. It would
be light, but it would not actually keep floating upward. For flight, the
membranes would relax and the gas volume would expand. The volume of the
dragon would increase but its mass would remain the same, so it would become
buoyant in air. On a smaller scale a fish's swim-bladder operates
in the same way. In fact the dragon when aloft would be swimming' in air,
rather than flying. The volume of the dragon increasing need
not have been apparent to the observer, though records of Chinese dragons
specifically remark on their ability to vary their size. Another possibility
is that the membrane expanded into a space normally filled with air. This
would have the same affect as an external increase in volume. A third idea
is that the great row of "spines" down the dragon's back were not for menace
or defense, but were the protective cover for the expanded membranes. When
the dragon was at minimum buoyancy they would be laid flat, but were raised
for flight. A system like this would solve a problem about dragon
flight which I have not so far mentioned: if the body is long and narrow,
but supported solely by the wings, it needs considerable muscular power
to maintain itself rigid in the air. But if the body is self-supporting
the question does not arise.
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