The Bestiary (35 page)

Rukh

A bird with a wingspan of 300 feet that can lift an elephant and fly for a thousand miles without pause. In the Indian Ocean its half-submerged eggs are often mistaken for islets.

Salamander

The smallest dragon in Creation, part animal, part mineral, according to Marco Polo. The mineral is asbestos. Thus it is said to live in fire. The Great Khan sent the Pope a pouch of salamander skin to protect the napkin of Saint Veronica, imprinted with Jesus’ face. The Emperor of India had a suit tailored from a thousand salamander skins.

Serra

A sea monster that can out-race ships by rising out of the water in flight, beating its enormous fins like wings.

Simurgh

The combination of a huge bird and a lion. The Persian incarnation of the phoenix.

Sphinx

A lion with the head of a man, a woman, a ram (criosphinx), or a bird (avasphinx), it is the guardian of temples, treasure houses, and tombs.

Talos

A living giant composed of bronze, with melted lead running in his veins, created by Hephaistos to serve as the guardian of Crete.

Typhon

A hundred-headed, wingèd monster with a serpent’s tail, his eyes spin like fiery wheels and flames shoot from his mouth. He is the husband of Echidna, father to her monstrous brood [see Echidna], and the son of Tartarus, a god who dwells in the deepest chasm of the underworld.

Uroboros

The serpent that encircles the world and devours its own tail. (From the Greek for “tail-devourer.”) It also appears in Norse mythology, with the name Jormungard.

Zaratan

A sea turtle so enormous that sailors often mistake it for an island—far larger than the rukh’s egg. Sometimes it is so large, and has been afloat for so long, that it is covered with valleys and forests, themselves populated with all manner of animals of normal dimension—including the turtle.

About the Author

N
ICHOLAS
C
HRISTOPHER
is the author of four previous novels,
The Soloist, Veronica, A Trip to the Stars,
and
Franklin Flyer;
eight books of poetry, most recently,
Crossing the Equator: New and Selected Poems, 1972–2004;
and a book about film noir,
Somewhere in the Night
. He lives in New York City.

Books by Nicholas Christopher

FICTION

The Bestiary (2007)

Franklin Flyer (2002)

A Trip to the Stars (2000)

Veronica (1996)

The Soloist (1986)

POETRY

Crossing the Equator: New and Selected Poems, 1972–2004 (2004)

Atomic Field: Two Poems (2000)

The Creation of the Night Sky (1998)

5° (1995)

In the Year of the Comet (1992)

Desperate Characters: A Novella in Verse (1988)

A Short History of the Island of Butterflies (1986)

On Tour with Rita (1982)

NONFICTION

Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir the American City (1997)

EDITOR

Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry Since 1975 (1994)

Under 35: The New Generation of American Poets (1989)

*1
T
HE
H
YENA
An animal that is male one moment, female the next.
A tomb robber.
Like all hybrids, it was banished from Noah’s ark.
After the Flood, it reemerged—the union of a mad dog and a graveyard cat—to feed on the corpses of the drowned.
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*2 T
HE
C
HINESE
D
RAGON
The pearl under its chin is the source of its power.
It exhales burning clouds that rain fire upon the earth. The first emperors were descended from 3,000-year-old dragons. At death, the emperor ascended to heaven on a dragon’s back.
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*3
S
HANG YANG
A one-legged bird that nests along rivers.
Carrying water skyward in its beak, it injects the clouds until they burst.
S
HAN HUI
A mountain dog with a human face and a serrated tail. It feasts on nettles and sleeps in cemeteries.
H
EMICYNE
A dog-headed man who lives in a cave by the sea.
Formerly a fisherman, he will drown any fisherman he sees.
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*4
The nightingale is called Lucina because she heralds the dawn, like a lantern
(lucerna).
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*5
T
HE
G
ARGOYLE
A dragon that rose from the Seine in the 7th century to ravage Rouen. Saint Romain killed it with a green sword.
Where the gargoyle fell, a spring of angels’ tears began to flow. One sip can cleanse a man’s soul.
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*6
E
CHIDNA
Among her offspring: the Chimera, the Hydra, the Nemean Lion the Sphinx; the dogs Cerberus and Orthrus and the dragon Ladon, all multiheaded; and Ethon, the eagle that tormented Prometheus chained to his rock.
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THE BESTIARY
A Dial Press Book / July 2007

Published by
The Dial Press
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved
Copyright © 2007 by Nicholas Christopher

The Dial Press is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christopher, Nicholas.
The bestiary : a novel / Nicholas Christopher.
p. cm.
1. Bestiaries—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.H754 B47 2007
813.'54 22 2007008337

www.dialpress.com

eISBN: 978-0-440-33704-1

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