st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

"
ON NATURAL SCIENCE.
179
sometimes caught up into the air and destroyed by
lightning. The ghouls, or evil fairies, in like manner,
called Strynga or Geludes, were believed by the
ignorant to appear under the form of women, to be
able to pass through closed doors, and to delight in
strangling infants, or even devouring their inside. 1
The line of argument taken in order to refute
these strange notions is a peculiar one. Damascenus
does not deny the existence of dragons, but maintains
that they are nothing but serpents, of greater size
than ordinary. He quotes the story of Dion Cassius,
about the huge serpent killed by Regulus and his
army when crossing the Bagradas, the skin of which
was afterwards sent to Rome, and when measured
proved to be 120 feet long.
2
There are
also other
strange kinds of serpents ;
some with eyes glittering
like gold,
3
others with horns, with beards, and the
like. As to their being a special mark for the ven
geance of the thunderbolt, the idea is ridiculous.
Thunder is caused by the bursting of a watery cloud,
swollen with moisture, when driven along by the
wind. The lightning strikes not dragons only, but
all objects, without discrimination, that come in its
way. Whether it be a tree, or a house, or a man, or
1
From this I took the name of Ghouls, otherwise not very
appropriate, to denote these imaginary beings. They seem to
answer partly to the Empusa or I.amice of the Greeks.
2
Pliny, "Hist. Nat." viii. 12., tells the same story, adding
that the skin was in existence down to the time of the Numantine
war.
3
Perhaps referring to the fabulous Basilisk ; on which see
Sir Thomas Browne s Pseudodoxia Epidemica" (1672),
p. 131.
N 2