Pigafetta, Filippo (1591) Relatione del Reame del Congo

There are [in West Africa] certain other creatures about the size of a ram, which have wings and tails like dragons, and a long snout, with divers rows of teeth, and which eat raw flesh. Their colour is azure blue and green, their skin having the appearance of scales, and they are two-footed creatures. The pagan natives worship them as gods, and to this day some are preserved as wonders by these people. To make them still more valued, the nobles have them in their own keeping, in order to obtain from those who come to worship them gifts and oblations.

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