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Financial Reporting
Comprehension questions
Refer to section 9.2. Paid absence refers to an employee entitlement to be paid during certain
absences. Examples include sick leave and annual leave.
2. What is the difference between accumulating and non-accumulating sick leave? How does
the recognition of accumulating sick leave differ from the recognition of non-accumulating
sick leave?
Refer to section 9.2.4. Accumulating sick leave may be carried forward to a future period if the
employee has not taken the leave in the current period. Non-accumulating sick leave may not be
carried forward to a future period. A liability must be recognised for accumulating sick leave when
the employee renders services that increase the entitlement. The liability is measured as the amount
that the entity expects to pay. If the leave is non-vesting, the amount recognised is affected by the
probability that the leave will be taken.
3. What is the difference between vesting and non-vesting sick leave? How does the
recognition of vesting sick leave differ from the recognition of non-vesting sick leave?
Refer to section 9.2.4. If sick leave is vesting, the employee is entitled to cash settlement for unused
leave. If sick leave is non-vesting, the employee has no entitlement to cash settlement of unused
leave. The employer recognises a liability for accumulating sick leave, measured as the
undiscounted amount expected to be paid. The entity will have good reason to expect that all vested
accumulating sick leave will be paid. However, if sick leave is not vesting, a liability is recognised
for proportion of accumulated sick leave that the entity expects to be taken by its employees.
4. Explain how a defined contribution superannuation plan differs from a defined benefit
superannuation plan.
Refer to sections 9.4 and 9.5. Under a defined contribution superannuation plan the employer pays
fixed contributions into a fund. Employees’ benefits are a function of the level of contributions paid
and the return achieved by the fund on the investment of plan assets. The employer has no
obligation to make further payments if the fund is unable to pay all the benefits accruing to members
for past service.
5. During October 2008 there was a sudden global decline in the price of equity securities
and credit securities. Many superannuation funds made negative returns on investments
during this period. How would this event affect the wealth of employees and employers?
Consider both defined benefit and defined contribution superannuation funds in your
answer to this question.
Refer to sections 9.4 and 9.5. In a defined contribution fund the employees bear the risk of low or
negative returns on the investment of plan assets because the benefits paid on retirement are a
function of the level of contributions and the return achieved on plan assets. Thus, the employer is
not directly affected by the poor performance of the defined contribution fund because it has no
obligation for additional contributions if the fund is unable to pay benefits to members on retirement.
Members of defined benefit plans would not be affected by the negative returns achieved by the
fund. Their benefits are defined in terms of their years of service and level of remuneration, rather
than by the performance of the fund. The employer has an obligation for the excess of the defined
benefit over the plan assets. Thus a decline in the value of investments held by the fund may increase
the employer’s obligation to the fund.
6. Explain how an entity should account for its contribution to a defined contribution
superannuation plan in accordance with AASB 119/IAS 19.
Refer to section 9.4. Contributions payable to defined contribution funds are recognised as expenses
in the period that the employee renders services, unless another standard permits the cost of
employment benefits to be allocated to the carrying amount of an asset, such as inventory. If the
amount paid to the defined contribution fund by the entity during the year is less than the amount
payable in relation to services rendered by employees, a liability for unpaid contributions must be
recognised. The liability is measured at the undiscounted amount payable unless it is due more than
12 months after the end of the period, in which case it is discounted.
7. Compare the off-balance sheet approach to accounting for a defined benefit post-
employment plan with the net capitalisation approach adopted by AASB 119/IAS 19. Can
these approaches be explained by different underlying views as to whether a deficit or
surplus in the fund meets the definition of a liability or asset of the sponsoring employer?
The off-balance sheet approach ignores any surplus or deficit in the defined benefit post-
employment plan. Under this approach, the accounting is similar to accounting for a defined
contribution fund, for which contributions are recognised as expenses in the period in which the
employee renders services. This approach can be justified conceptually if adopting the view that a
surplus in the fund is not an asset of the employer, who cannot direct a surplus to be used as a
resource to pursue its own objectives; and a deficit is not a liability of the employer in the absence of
a legal obligation to pay for any shortfall in the fund. However, this argument is premised on a
narrow view assets and liabilities. Adopting a broader view, the expected cost savings, in the form of
lower contributions, constitute future economic benefits that are expected to be derived from the
surplus. Similarly, the deficit gives rise to a constructive obligation because the employer may find it
difficult to attract and retain staff, or face opposition from unions, if it did not make additional
contributions to enable the fund to pay benefits to members. This broader view is reflected in the net
capitalisation approach because the surplus (deficit) of the plan assets is recognised as an asset
(liability) by the employer.
© John Wiley and Sons Australia Ltd, 2016 9.3
Chapter 9: Employee benefits
The Standard reflects the view that a deficit in the post-employment fund represents a constructive
obligation because the entity (the employer) effectively underwrites the actuarial and investment
risks associated with the plan. Similarly, a surplus represents an asset in the form of future savings in
contributions. The recognition of a liability to the extent that the present value of the accrued
benefits exceed the fair value of plan assets is consistent with this view; it provides a present value
measure of the risk to the entity of having to pay additional contributions in future to enable the fund
to pay accrued benefits to members for services that have already been rendered.
While the question focuses on the requirements for a defined benefit liability, some further
comments are offered in relation to the accounting requirements for a net defined benefit asset.
Conversely, a surplus in the fund represents potential savings in the form of reduced contributions
resulting from past actuarial and investment gains. However, assets are resources controlled by the
entity form which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity. Accordingly, AASB
119/IAS 19 limits the carrying amount of the net superannuation asset to the greater of the surplus
and ‘the present value of any economic benefits available in the form of refunds from the plan or
reductions in future contributions of the plan’.
9. Identify and discuss the assumptions involved in the measurement of a provision for long
service leave. Assess the consistency of these requirements with the fundamental
qualitative characteristics of financial information prescribed by the conceptual
framework.
Refer to section 9.6. Accounting for long service leave requires estimation of when the leave will be
taken, projected salary levels and the proportion of employees who will continue in the entity’s
employment long enough to become entitled to long service leave. It is necessary to make
assumptions about when employees will take long service leave, which may be any time after they
become entitled. The estimation of the timing of when leave will be taken affects estimates of
projected salaries and wages and the discounting of the defined benefit. The estimation of projected
salary levels may be affected by assumptions about the rate of inflation as well as promotion. The
likelihood of promotion may differ among different categories of employees, such as engineers,
graduate trainees and unskilled workers. The proportion of employees who will become entitled to
long service leave may vary from one location to another, and is usually considered to be increasing
with the period of past employment. Employees who are approaching entitlement are assumed to be
less likely to leave before their long service leave vests, because the loss of long service leave
entitlement would be viewed as a cost of changing employment.
of future cash flows introduces measurement uncertainty that can detract from faithful
representation. The use of historical patterns of employee retention and actuarial estimates can
enhance the faithful representation of liabilities for long service leave.
10. Explain the projected unit credit method of measuring and recognising an obligation for
long-term employee benefits? Illustrate your answer with an example.
Refer section 9.6. Under the projected unit credit method the obligation for long-term employee
benefits is measured by calculating the present value of the expected future payments that will result
from employee services provided to date. For example, if employees will be entitled to 13 weeks of
long service leave after 10 years of employment, 30% of the amount expected to be paid in the
future is recognised for employees who have provided three years of service.
Case studies
Termination benefits
The board of directors of Swinburne Ltd met in June 2016 and decided to close down a branch
of the company’s operations when the lease expired in the following February. The chief
financial officer advised that termination benefits of $2 million are likely to be paid. The
company’s accountant has asked whether they should recognise a liability for termination
benefits in its financial statements for the year ended June 2016.
Required
Advise the accountant, with reference to the requirements of AASB 119/IAS 19.
Given the timeframe for the expected payments is within 12 months after the end of the reporting
period, the amount should be recorded as a current liability (para. 8, AASb 119/IAS 9).
Vesting entitlements
Monash Ltd is a newly formed company and is formulating its policies in terms of employee
benefits. The company would like to offer employees payment for any accumulated unused
sick leave if they resign from the company.
Required
Explain to the CEO the effect on the financial statements if sick leave entitlements are vesting
versus non-vesting.
Where payment is made for any accumulated unused sick leave, such leave is referred to as vesting.
In this case, records of accumulated unused leave must be kept and the associated liability recorded
in the company’s financial statements.
If there is no entitlement to payment for unused sick leave on resignation/termination, such leave is
referred to as non-vesting and only amounts due and payable within the next 12 months would be
recorded as a current liability in the company’s financial statements.
The accountant of Curtin Ltd believes that long service leave should not be considered as a
liability in the accounts until employees have commenced their tenth year of service, given this
leave entitlement only applies to Curtain Ltd employees after 10 years of continuous service.
Required
Advise the accountant on whether this approach is acceptable, and what requirements exist
under AASB 119/IAS 19.
Under AASB119/IAS 9, long service leave accrues to employees as they provide services to the
entity, even though there may be no legal entitlement to the leave until after 10 years. Hence, net
present value calculations of the expected future obligation are required. This is normally done
using the projected unit credit method, which involves estimating when the leave will be taken,
projected salary levels at that time, and the proportion of employees who will remain in employment
to qualify for the leave.
Exercise 9.1
Adelaide Ltd pays its employees on a monthly basis. The payroll is processed on the 6th day of
the month and payable on the 7th day of the month. Gross salaries for July were $500 000,
from which $125 000 was deducted in tax. All of Adelaide Ltd’s salaries are accounted for as
expenses. Deductions for health insurance were $10 000. Payments for health insurance and
employee withheld income taxes are due on the 15th day of the following month.
Required
1. Prepare all journal entries to record the July payroll, the payment of July salaries and the
remittance of deductions.
2. Calculate the balance of the Accrued Payroll account at the end of July.
1.
2. $135 000 credit ($500 000 - $365 000), as all June payroll deductions would have been remitted
during July.
Exercise 9.2
Canberra Ltd has a weekly payroll of $125 000. The last payroll processed before the end of
the annual reporting period was for the week ended Friday 24 June. Employees do not work
during weekends.
Required
Prepare a journal entry to accrue the weekly payroll as at 30 June.
Wages and salaries must be accrued for four business days after Friday 24 June. that is, Monday 27
June – Thursday 30 June.
Exercise 9.3
Melbourne Ltd has 100 employees who each earn a gross wage of $150 per day. In an attempt
to reduce absenteeism, Melbourne Ltd introduced a new workplace agreement providing all
employees with entitlement to 5 days of non-vesting, accumulating sick leave per annum,
effective from 1 July 2015. Under the previous workplace agreement, all sick leave was non-
cumulative. During the year ended 30 June 2016, 300 days of paid sick leave were taken by
employees. It is estimated that 60% of unused sick leave will be taken during the year ended 30
June 2017 and that 40% will not be taken at all.
Required
Prepare a journal entry to recognised Melbourne Ltd’s liability, if any, for sick leave at 30
June 2016.
Auckland Ltd has 200 employees who each earn a gross wage of $140 per day. Auckland Ltd
provides 5 days of paid non-accumulating sick leave for each employee per annum. During the
year, 150 days of paid sick leave and 20 days of unpaid sick leave were taken. Staff turnover is
negligible.
Required
Calculate the employee benefits expense for sick leave during the year and the amount that
should be recognised as a liability, if any, for sick leave at the end of the year.
Employee benefits for sick leave during the year: 150 days x $140 per day = $21 000
Auckland Ltd should not recognise a liability for sick leave because it is non-cumulative.
Exercise 9.5
Newcastle Ltd provides employees with 4 weeks (20 days) of annual leave for each year of
service. The annual leave is accumulating and vesting up to a maximum of 6 weeks. Thus, all
employees take their annual leave within 6 months after the end of each reporting period so
that it does not lapse. Newcastle Ltd pays a loading of 17.5% on annual leave; that is,
employees are paid an additional 17.5% of their regular wage while taking annual leave. Refer
to the following extract from Newcastle Ltd’s payroll records for the year ended 30 June 2016.
Required
Calculate the amount of annual leave that should be accrued for each employee.
Exercise 9.6
Wellington Ltd has a profit-sharing arrangement in which 1% of profit for the period is
payable to employees, paid 3 months after the end of the reporting period. Employees’
entitlements under the profit-sharing arrangement are subject to their continued employment
at the time the payment is made. Based on past staff turnover levels, it is expected that 95% of
the share of profit will be paid. Wellington Ltd’s profit for the period was $70 million.
Required
Prepare a journal entry to record Wellington Ltd’s liability for employee benefits arising from
the profit-sharing arrangement at the end of the reporting period.
Exercise 9.7
Victoria Ltd provides long service leave entitlement of 13 weeks of paid leave after 10 years of
continuous employment. The provision for long service leave had a credit balance of $140 000
at 30 June 2016. During the year ended 30 June 2017, long service leave of $25 000 was paid.
At the end of the year, the present value of the defined benefit obligation for long service leave
was $150 000.
Required
Prepare all journal entries in relation to long service leave for the year ended 30 June 2017.
$ $
Defined obligation 30/6/17 150 000
Obligation B/fwd 140 000
Less LSL paid (25 000) 115 000
Required increase/LSL 35 000
expense
Date Account $ $
During Provision for Long Service Leave Dr 25 000
2017 Bank Cr 25 000
(Long service leave paid)
Exercise 9.8
Wollongong Ltd provides a defined contribution superannuation fund for its employees. The
company pays contributions equivalent to 10% of annual wages and salaries. Contributions of
$50 000 per month were paid for the year ended 30 June 2016. Actual wages and salaries were
$7 million. Three months after the reporting period, there is a settlement of the difference
between the amount paid and the annual amount payable determined with reference to
Wollongong Ltd’s audited payroll information. The settlement at 30 September involves either
an additional contribution payment by Wollongong Ltd or a refund of excess contributions
paid.
Required
Prepare all journal entries required during June 2016 for Wollongong Ltd’s payment of, and
liability for, superannuation contributions.
Exercise 9.9
Lavender Ltd pays its employees on a fortnightly basis. All employee benefits are recognised as
expenses. The following information is provided for its July and August payrolls:
July August
$ $ $ $
Fortnightly payroll 580 000 700 000
720 000 600 000
Gross payroll for the month 1 300 000 1 300 000
Deductions payable to:
Taxation authority 250 000 245 000
Health fund 20 000 20 000
Community charity 4 000 4 000
Union fees 6 500 6 500
Total deductions for the month 280 500 275 500
Net wages and salaries paid
14 July, 11 August 458 775 553 230
28 July, 25 August 560 725 1 019 500 471 270 1 024 500
1 300 000 1 300 000
The two fortnightly payrolls in August were for the fortnight ended Friday, 7 August and
Friday, 21 August. The payrolls were processed and paid on the following Monday and
Tuesday respectively. Payroll deductions are remitted as follows:
Required
1. Prepare all journal entries to account for the August payroll and all payments relating to
employee benefits during August.
2. Prepare a journal entry to accrue wages for the remaining days in August not included in
the final August payroll. Use the same level of remuneration as per the final payroll for
August.
2.
Exercise 9.10
Tulip Ltd provides 4 weeks (20 days) of accumulating vested annual leave for each year of
service. The company policy is that annual leave must be taken within 6 months of the end of
the period in which it accrues. Annual leave is paid at the base salary rate (which excludes
commissions, bonuses and overtime). A 17.5% loading is applied to annual leave payments.
The following summary data is derived from Tulip Ltd’s payroll records for the year ended 30
June 2016. Base pay rates have increased during the year. The amounts shown are applicable
at 30 June 2016.
Annual leave
Balance b/d Accumulated Taken
Base pay/day 1 July 2015 during year during year
Employee category $ (days) (days) (days)
Managers 440 100 200 260
Sales staff 220 150 600 630
Office workers 110 120 400 387
Other 100 60 200 240
Additional information
After leave taken during the year had been recorded, Tulip Ltd’s trial balance revealed that
the provision for annual leave had a debit balance of $262 460 at 30 June 2016.
Required
Prepare journal entries to account for the liability for annual leave at 30 June 2016.
Workings
Category Pay/day Op bal Increase AL taken Clos bal. Loading Liability
$ Days Days Days Days $
Managers 440 100 200 260 40 0.175 20 680
Sales staff 220 150 600 630 120 0.175 31 020
Office workers 110 120 400 387 133 0.175 17 190
Other 100 60 200 240 20 0.175 2 350
Liability 30/6 71240 Cr
Bal of provision 262 460 Dr
Accrual 333 700
Accrual = Days accumulated at the end of the period x basic pay rate x (1 + 0.175)
e.g. Managers: 40 days x $440 per day x (1 + 0.175) = $20 680
Exercise 9.11
Daffodil Ltd opened a call centre on 1 July 2015. The company provides 1 week (5 days) of sick
leave entitlement for the employees working at the call centre. The following information has
been obtained from Daffodil Ltd’s payroll records and actuarial assessments for the year
ended 30 June 2016. The column headed ‘Term. in 2016’ indicates the leave entitlement
pertaining to service of employees whose employment was terminated during the year. The
actuary has estimated the percentage of unused leave that would be taken within 12 months if
Daffodil Ltd allowed leave to accumulate. Due to high staff turnover, the remaining leave
would lapse (or be settled in cash, if vesting) within 1 year after the end of the reporting
period.
Required
Calculate the employee benefits expense for sick leave for the year and the amount that should
be recognised as a liability for sick leave at 30 June 2016, assuming that sick leave entitlements
are:
1. non-accumulating
2. accumulating and non-vesting
3. accumulating and vesting.
There is no opening balance of sick leave, even if accumulating, because all employees commenced
in the current year.
Provision for sick leave:
Wage Current Days Clos Accum. Exp. To Provision
Category /day Service taken Term. bal. 30/6/13 be Used
$ Days Days Days Days $ % $
Supervisors 100 30 20 3 7 700 90 630
Consultant 80 500 400 60 40 3200 70 2240
c) 3900 b) 2870
Explanation
There is no obligation for unused sick leave at the end of the period because it is non-accumulating.
Therefore, Daffodil Ltd would not recognise a provision for non-accumulating sick leave.
Accumulating sick leave is recognised when the employee provides a service and the liability is
measured as the nominal amount (if short-term) that is expected to be paid for sick leave arising
from services already provided.
= leave taken during the period + increase in the provision for sick leave
= $34 000 +$2870 = $36 870
Amount of liability = $2870
3. If the accumulating sick leave is vesting, all unused entitlement is expected to be paid.
Employee benefits expense:
= leave taken during the period + increase in the provision for sick leave
= $34 000 +$3900 = $37 900
Amount of liability = $3900
Exercise 9.12
Sydney Ltd provides a defined benefit superannuation plan for its managers. The assistant
accountant has completed some sections of the defined benefit worksheet based on information
provided in an actuary’s report on the Sydney DB Superannuation Fund for the year ended 30
June 2017.
Journal Entry
if < deficit
Balance 30/6/17
Additional information
The asset ceiling was $600 000 at 30 June 2017.
2. The net defined benefit liability at 30 June 2017 is $1,200,000, being the deficit of the fund.
4. $500 000
Net interest $100 000
Service cost 400 000
Superannuation expense $500 000
and the foul monster had carried her off to his cave. The bridegroom
swore, in his despair, that “earth should no longer hold a thing so
vile,” and, marching off with his friends, killed the dragon and
rescued his bride; but the story ends on a classical note of tragedy,
for she died of horror in his house that very day.
Reference: E. Sidney Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, 3 vols.
(London, 1896).
IV
OF DRAGONS IN MODERN EUROPE
It will be well to begin this section with short accounts of the two
most satisfactory Renaissance dragons: the Dragon of Rhodes and
the Dragon of Bologna.
“The history of the ancient Order of the Knights of St. John (not yet
removed to Malta) records that about the year 1330 Dieudonné de
Gozon, afterwards third Grand Master of the Order, joined the
Knights in Rhodes, and was filled with pious zeal to kill a terrible
dragon which ravaged the Island; but the then Grand Master
considered such extravagant gaieties too dangerous for a knight
vowed to the defence of Christendom, and roundly forbade it. On this
de Gozon returned to the castle of his ancestors near Tarascon in
France, and, with the help of an ingenious dummy dragon (so little
does the art of war change), trained his horses and dogs to face the
monster, and, returning, killed it and removed its tongue as evidence.
A lying Greek (so little does the Greek nature change) found the
carcase and claimed the victory; but de Gozon showed him up by
producing the tongue—and was put in prison for disobedience. The
Pfalzgraf Ottheinrich made our first written record of this feat when
passing through on a pilgrimage in 1521, and the corroborative
evidence is indisputable: the feat is said to have been recorded on
the tombstone of the knight (we have the tombstone, and it isn’t);
there are said to be pictures of it in a wall-painting in a house in
Rhodes (which cannot be found); and the family are said to have
preserved the draconite taken by the hero from the monster’s
forehead (the family has disappeared); the head itself was seen by a
seventeenth century traveller still nailed to a gate in Rhodes, though
it disappeared during the last century. For countless years the simple
islanders had displayed it for the glory of God and without thought of
gain, and it would perhaps be uncharitable to connect its
disappearance with the recent development of transatlantic
transport, or with the discoveries of modern science, which have
shown that the skeleton of the dun-cow at Warwick is simply that of a
whale. And, finally, they will show you to this day in Rhodes the cave
where the dragon lived.”
The story of the Dragon of Bologna is tame by comparison. It is
recorded in great detail in The Natural History of Serpents and
Dragons by Professor Ulysses Aldrovandus, published at Bologna by
Mark Antony Bernia in the year 1640, at his own charges, with a
dedication to the Prince-Abbot Franciscus Perettus, and with the
approval of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph, the Rector to the
Cardinal-Archbishop of Bologna, and the legal adviser to the Most
Holy Office of the Inquisition in that city.
The story is as follows (p. 402): “In the early summer of the year
1572, to wit on the 13th of May, the dragon appeared in the outskirts
of Bologna, hissing horribly. It was caught the day after Ascension
Day by a cowherd called Baptista of Camaldulus, about 5 P.M. and
about seven miles out from the City, on the high road. His cows saw
it and stopped dead, and Baptista, who was behind with his cart,
pricked them on with his goad; but they went down on their knees
and wouldn’t budge. Then he heard a great hissing and beheld the
astounding monster: but though frightened out of his wits, he up with
his stick and knocked it on the head so that it died. The brave herd,
fearing it might not be dead, cut off one of its feet and brought it into
Bologna as evidence. After three days the noble Horatius Fontana
gave orders for the carcase to be sent to the great naturalist
Aldrovandus, who declared it to be unique in all Italy and all Europe,
and had it stuffed and put in the museum (whence it has unluckily
disappeared). It was about this same time that the flying dragon
appeared by night in the sky, and no sane man will doubt that these
portents were sent in honour of Pope Gregory XIII, who took office in
that year and who sported a dragon on his coat-of-arms.”
This same Aldrovandus is our chief source of information on the
modern dragon. He sets out, in due scholastico-scientific style, first
the alternative meanings of the word “dragon,” with a note that Virgil
is very haphazard in his use of “dragon” or “serpent” for snakes in
general; then the synonyms, as “syren,” “leviathan,” and the Hebrew
oach (whence perhaps our word “hoax”); then size—5 to 100 cubits
(we may split the difference and safely say about 50); habitation—
Libya, India, Atlas, Æthiopia, Florida, etc. (with a caution that the
species born of a wolf and an eagle is probably fabulous and
nowhere to be found); colour—red, black, ashen, pea-green, indeed
the evidence is hopelessly conflicting; description—head of a virgin
or wild-boar, goose-feet or talons or hoofs (they probably vary); St.
Augustine confirms Herodotus’ opinion that they fly; poison—more
virulent in the hotter climes; jaw—some say very large, some say
very small, some say two rows of teeth, some say three, and the
number is in any case uncertain; manners and customs—very
vigilant and fond of gold (so we see why they are normally set to
guard treasures), not afraid of men, and able to throw elephants with
their tails: four or five, says Pliny, will twine their tails together for a
long flight and so cover the distance at an incredible speed; very
fierce, but Heracleides, the philosopher, had one so tame that it
followed him about like a dog; birth—the evidence is conflicting as to
whether from eggs or immediately. Remedies against their poison—
red mullet applied externally or (better) internally, or (best of all) the
head of a dragon skinned and applied to the bite. Capture—men of
the most magnificent courage drug them with opium-seeds, so as to
obtain the draconite; a scarlet cloak and the appropriate incantation
are effective, and an axe has been tried with success: a useful trick
is to catch them when they are preoccupied with an elephant-fight
(their customary recreation), and another very good plan is to put
down sulphur, which the creature eagerly gulps down and then
moving to the nearest river drinks until it bursts. (This was the device
of the great Cracus, who gave his name to Cracow. It is an
elaboration of the Prophet Daniel’s method of dealing with Bal’s
dragon—that holy man’s mixture, it will be remembered, itself
exploded the dragon; but the march of science and the closer study
of animal-habits no doubt made Cracus’ scheme more convincing.)
The eyes are precious stones and the teeth ivory; the fat is a
sovereign remedy against poison, fever, and blear-eyes; the spine is
a great cure for toothache; the gall-bladder and intestines mixed with
wine effect more than was ever claimed for Colman’s mustard in the
bath, removing warts. It is very lucky to bury a dragon’s head under
the front doorstep, and the eyes make a fine poison and send away
nightmares: and so on and so forth—all this less than three centuries
ago.
A little later, about 1660, the learned Jesuit Kircher visited the
Alps, and, though discounting many devils as due to the credulity of
the peasantry, could not resist the conclusion that so horrid and
inhospitable a country could only have been intended by God to
harbour dragons, especially when a public notice in the Church of St.
Leodegarius (our old friend St. Leger, the patron-saint of
bookmakers?) in Lucerne told how a man “paused some months in a
cave with two dragons, who were either naturally amiable or were
calmed by his energetic appeals to the Virgin, and finally escaped by
holding on to their tails when they flew away after their period of
hybernation” (History does not record whether they adopted Pliny’s
plan, or whether by a merciful dispensation of Providence they flew
so close together that he suffered no strain).
The anonymous author of The Golden Coast, or a Description of
Guinney (London, 1665) has little reliable information on this or any
other subject. The people, he tells us, are Nigritæ “from their colour,
which they are so much in love with that they use to paint the Devil
white”; and of the elephant, “which some call Oliphant,” that “they
have continual war against dragons which desire their blood
because it is very cold.” The book abounds in such old tales out of
Pliny and Bartholomew Anglicus, and has all the appearance of a
literary puff of the Company of Royal Adventures of England trading
to Africa (est. 1662); for what honest man could have waxed so
enthusiastic over that death-trap of a country, where (says he) “a
man may gain an estate by a handfull of beads, and his pocket full of
gold for an old hat; where a cat is a tenement and a few fox tails a
Mannor; where gold is sold for iron, and silver given for brasse and
pewter?” The Company failed shortly afterwards and was replaced
by the Royal African Company (1672), and this may well have been
to over-spending in the Advertising Department.
Doctor Thomas Browne, in his “Enquiries into very many received
tenents, and commonly presumed truths” (London, 1686) (commonly
called Browne’s Vulgar Errors) is more modern, but, he, like a
sensible man takes a middle path between scepticism and faith—
thinks we cannot safely deny that there is such an animal as the
basilisk; but we are not to confuse it with the cockatrice, a mere
hieroglyphical fancy, though even the cockatrice he will not declare
to be impossible (he does not see how such an oddity can be
hatched from “a cock’s egg” (sic: the phenomenon occurs only in a
cock’s eighth year, and causes it acute discomfort put under a toad
or serpent)); but many inventions, he says, are really “the courteous
revelations of spirits,” and we must not be too cocksure of our merely
human faculties.
Scheuchzer, the learned Botanist who toured the Alps in the first
ten years of the eighteenth century, frankly adopted the compromise
implicit in Aldrovandus—always to believe half of what he was told;
but he thought the dragon-stone in the museum at Lucerne entirely
convincing; for (says he) a dishonest man would not have invented
so simple a story as its falling from the sky—but rather some
fabulous tale about its coming from the farthest Indies; and the stone
not only cures simple hæmorrhages, which ordinary jasper or marble
might well do, but dysentery and fevers and all those ills of which, to
judge from the advertisements in the local press, Glastonians may
now rid themselves so much more simply. Item, a respectable citizen
returned home one evening lately “with a swimming in the head and
a marked uncertainty about the motions of his legs, and how can we
doubt his word when he attributes these unprecedented phenomena
to the influence of the dragon who encountered him in the forest?”
Scheuchzer’s scientific journals were published at the expense of
the Royal Society of London. Credible witnesses of to-day maintain
that “not the vestige of a dragon is to be found, even in those wildest
regions of the Alps which ... were especially adapted for their
generation.” Thus do beauty and romance fade before the advance
of Winter Sports and Grand Babylon Hôtels.
References: Aldrovandus, op. cit.
Thomas Browne, op. cit.
Leslie Stephen, The Playground of Europe (London, 1871).
E. Ray Lankester, Science from an Easy Chair (London, 1910).
F. W. Hasluck, The Dragon of Rhodes (British School at Athens,
1914).
V
OF DRAGONS IN ANCIENT EGYPT