ith _seven or
eight_[415] heads who came to the sea-shore yearly to claim a victim. He
went with her, enticed the dragon to drink _sake_ from pots set out on
the shore, and then he slew the monster. From the end of his tail he
took out a sword, which is supposed to be the Mikado's state sword. He
married the maiden, and with her got a jewel or talisman which is
preserved with the regalia. A third thing of price so preserved is a
mirror."

The seven-headed dragon is found also in the Scottish dragon-myth, and
the legends of Cambodia, India, Persia, Western Asia, East Africa, and
the Mediterranean area.

The seven-headed dragon probably originated from the seven Hathors. In
Southern India the Dravidian people seem to have borrowed the Egyptian
idea of the seven Hathors. "There are seven Mari deities, all sisters,
who are worshipped in Mysore. All the seven sisters are regarded vaguely
as wives or sisters of Siva."[416] At one village in the Trichinopoly
district Bishop Whitehead found that the goddess Kaliamma was
represented by seven brass pots, and adds: "It is possible that the
seven brass pots represent seven sisters or the seven virgins sometimes
found in Tamil shrines" (p. 36). But the goddess who animates seven
pots, who is also the seven Hathors, is probably well on the way to
becoming a dragon with seven heads.

There is a close analogy between the Swahili and the Gaelic stories that
reveals their ultimate derivation from Babylonia. In the Scottish story
the seven-headed dragon comes in a storm of wind and spray. The East
African serpent comes in a storm of wind and dust.[417] In the
Babylonian story seven winds destroy Tiamat.

"The famous legend of the seven devils current in antiquity was of
Babylonian origin, and belief in these evil spirits, who fought against
the gods for the possession of the souls and bodies of men, was
widespread throughout the lands of the Mediterranean basin. Here is one
of the descriptions of the seven demons:--

"Of the seven the first is the south wind....

"The second is a dragon whose open mouth....

"The third is a panther whose mouth spares not.

"The fourth is a frightful python....

"The fifth is a wrathful ... who knows no turning back.

"The sixth is an on-rushing ... who against god and king [attacks].

"The seventh is a hurricane, an evil wind which [has no mercy].

"The Babylonians were inconsistent in their description of the seven
devils, describing them