Chinese mythology merely fantastic types of the bestiary sort. Sometimes the dragon is considered part of this category, related to it, or the ruler of all the swimming and crawling folk. This may include the giant marine turtle or tortoise Ao, the Bashe snake reputed to swallow elephants, a nine-headed snake monster reminiscent of the hydra known as Xiangliu, and the White Serpent from the novel "Legend of the White Snake". Various birds are found in Chinese mythology, some of them obviously based on real birds, other ones obviously not, and some in-between. The Crane is an example of a real type
Nine maidens (mythology) Peredur son of Efrawg, and these are the armed witches of Caer Lyow. Also in Welsh mythology, we have nine maidens who tend the fire below the Cauldron of the "Chief of Annwfn"; this cauldron is the target of Arthur’s raid on the Underworld in Taliesin’s famous poem Preiddeu Annwfn. Groups of Nine Maidens crop up in the Icelandic tales of Thidrandi and in Brand’s saga, in the story of Svipdagr, as Valkyries and as the daughters of the sea goddess Rán. In Norse mythology, the watcher god of Valhalla, Heimdallr is said to be born of nine mothers, and