satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with which the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, grotto, mountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less beautiful and even hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world.  Chief among these are what in Chinese literature, so slavishly borrowed by the Japanese, are called the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures—­the Kirin or Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.[15]

Mythical Zooelogy.

Of the first species the ki is the male, the lin is the female, hence the name Kilin.  The Japanese having no l, pronounce this Kirin.  Its appearance on the earth is regarded as a happy portent of the advent of good government or the birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers.  It has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn.  As messenger of mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live insect or eats growing grass.  Later philosophy made this imaginary beast the incarnation of those five primordial elements—­earth, air, water, fire and ether of which all things, including man’s body, are made and which are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, pyramid, saucer and tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones.  It is said to attain the age of a thousand years, to be the noblest form of the animal creation and the emblem of perfect good.  In Chinese and Japanese art this creature holds a prominent place, and in literature even more so.  It is not only part of the repertoire of the artist’s symbols in the Chinese world of ideas, but is almost a necessity to the moulds of thought in eastern Asia.  Yet it is older than Confucius or the book-religions, and its conception shows one of the nobler sides of Animism.

The Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese H[=o]-w[=o], the second of the incarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic nature.  The rare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that of the kirin or unicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers and good government.  It has the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a tortoise, and the features of the dragon and fish.  Its colors and streaming feathers are gorgeous with iridian sheen, combining the splendors of the pheasant and the peacock.  Its five colors symbolize the cardinal virtues of uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity and benevolence.  The male bird H[=o], and female w[=o], by their inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with the originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese and its derived literatures.  Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary thus gives description: 

The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow it.

Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in art, the H[=o]-w[=o] is one of the creations of primitive Chinese Animism.