dragon's heart. According to Philostratus,[1] Apollonius of Tyana was
worthy of being remembered for two things--his bravery in travelling
among fierce robber tribes, not then subject to Rome, and his wisdom
in learning the language of birds and other animals as the Arabs do.
This accomplishment the Arabs acquired, Philostratus explains, by
eating the hearts of dragons. The "animals" who utter magic words are,
of course, the Fates. Siegfried of the _Nibelungenlied_, after slaying
the Regin dragon, makes himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood.
He obtains wisdom by eating the heart: as soon as he tastes it he can
understand the language of birds, and the birds reveal to him that
Mimer is waiting to slay him. Sigurd similarly makes his plans after
eating the heart of the Fafner dragon. In Scottish legend
Finn-mac-Coul obtains the power to divine secrets by partaking of a
small portion of the seventh salmon associated with the "well dragon",
and Michael Scott and other folk heroes become great physicians after
tasting the juices of the middle part of the body of the white snake.
The hero of an Egyptian folk tale slays a "deathless snake" by cutting
it in two parts and putting sand between the parts. He then obtains
from the box, of which it is the guardian, the book of spells; when he
reads a page of the spells he knows what the birds of the sky, the
fish of the deep, and the beasts of the hill say; the book gives him
power to enchant "the heaven and the earth, the abyss, the mountains
and the sea".[2]

Magic and religion were never separated in Babylonia; not only the
priests but also the gods performed magical ceremonies. Ea, Merodach's
father, overcame Apsu, the husband of the dragon Tiamat, by means of
spells: he was "the great magician of the gods". Merodach's division
of the "Ku-pu" was evidently an act of contagious magic; by eating or
otherwise disposing of the vital part of the fierce and wise mother