The connection between the dragon and this festival has been a matter of considerable speculation amongst Western savants and investigators The Chinese themselves do not appear to be able to offer a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the dragon boat races, which seems to be lost in antiquity as far as any actual records go. Bredon and Mitrophanow in their book "The Moon Year." following De Groot suggest that a link with the dragon might be found in an attempt at a very early period io propitiate the restless spirits of people who had fallen into rivers or lakes and had been devoured by alligators, from which animal they suggest that the Chinese lung or Dragon. was derived. This rite taking place at the time of the Sümmer Solstice, which was probably the forerunner of the Fifth Moon Festival. became the custom to propitiate the dragon, the Lord and Controller of the Waters, with offerings of food This theory, however. will mot bear the test of investigation. In the first place the Chinese dragon was not derived from the alligator. but from the snake, as is proved by Shang Dynasty bone carvings, dating back fifteen or so centuries before the Christian era. which show a creature with a serpent's body. no legs or wings but with the head of a tiger. To this motif. which can be traced down through the ages in the art-forms of China, were later added legs and other physical attributes taken from other animals.
In the second place the Chinese alligator, now confined to certain shallow lakes in the lower valley of the Yangtze River, could never have been a man-eater. It is too small, its maximum length being between six and seven feet, while it is extremely docile. Its food consists mainly of malluses, frogs and other aquatic animals as well as of grasshoppers which swarm in the reed-beds of its marshy home. The man-eating estuarine crocodile (Crocodilus porous Schn. could hardly have been known to the very early Chinese, since it occurs in this country only along the coasts of the extreme southwest and, even so. but rarely. In the third place the Chinese consider the dragon a benevolent creature. the friend and protector of man, not one that devours people.
Merging of Ceremonial Functions
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.