If you look at the pictures taken at Yu Yuan, you'll see several of the dragon that sits atop the wall surrounding the garden. This is one of the key features of the garden and it pretty neat to see but didn't really seem all that special. But then we overheard one of the guides telling the dragon's story. I can't remember all of it but will try to hit the main points.
This is no ordinary dragon. This one has the mane of a lion, the horns of goat, the teeth of some other critter, etc, etc. If you look closely at some of the pictures, you can see a ball in the dragon's mouth. This is his pearl and it is the source of his power. The only catch is that the dragon has to hold the pearl in his mouth and if he loses it, he loses all his strength. Now as you can imagine, doing this makes him slobber a lot. Or as the guide said, "He makes lots of saliver." She meant saliva but saliver is a whole lot funnier. Anyway, the slaiver runs down his chin whiskers and tickles him, which makes it even more difficult to hold on to his pearl. This is where the toad comes in.
Looking at the pictures, you can see a toad under the dragon's chin. The toad lives there and spends the day lapping up the dragon's saliver. This relieves the tickling for the dragon, while the toad absorbs some of the dragon's power. I have no idea what the toad does with this power as he never leaves his spot under the dragon's chin.
Another interesting fact the guide pointed out is that this dragon has only three claws. However, the imperial dragon, which represents the emperor, has four claws. The designer of this one wanted to make it clear that this was a lesser dragon so as not to offend the emperor.
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