Rebecca Paxton, age 12, of Marmet, West Va., for her question:
WERE THERE EVER SUCH THINGS AS DRAGONS?
Although there were great reptiles inhabiting the earth in prehistoric days long before man, terrible monsters called dragons never really did exist.
Many people in ancient times believed that somewhere out in the unexplored parts of the land there lived huge fire breathing serpents called dragons. They believed the monsters had wings like those of great bats and that they could swallow ships and men in one gulp.
Unknown parts of the world were marked on ancient maps as the homes of these mythical creatures. Drawings of the beasts were often included on the maps.
Every country had dragons in its mythology. For the most part, the dragons were regarded as evil and destructive.
In Greece, dragons were said to have been slain by Hercules, Apollo and Perseus. And Sigurd, Siegfried and Beowulf killed them in Norse, German and early English legends.
In early Christian times, the dragon was regarded as a symbol of sin. In the book of Revelation in the Bible, the dragon represents sin.
The Chinese saw the dragon in a different light. The fire breathing monster was thought of as a God. To the Chinese, the dragon was shown as a kingly emblem.
One of the most famous of all dragon hunters was St. George, the patron saint of England. The well known legend of St. George and the dragon may have arisen from attaching to the saint the story of Perseus in Greek mythology.
According to the legend, St. George used his magic sword to kill a dragon to which the king's daughter was being sacrificed. Perseus slew a monster that threatened Andromeda in much the same way.
St. George is also the patron saint of Portugal. In other European countries, he is a protector of many societies.
Another famous dragon destroyer was St. Michael, one of the seven archangels or chief angels named in the Old Testament. He was pictured as a military leader in the war between God and Satan.
Milton made the archangel Michael a prominent character in his epic, "Paradise Lost."
St. Michael is honored in the Roman Catholic and Angelican churches with a festival held on September 29 called Michaelmas Day. People celebrate the day with meals of roast goose, a custom that started hundreds of years ago when people included a goose in their rent payments to landlords.
An English proverb says: "If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never want money all the year round."