there were oxen sitting on specially designed seats ; a couple of serpentine centipedes reading newspapers ; a dire wolf selling magazines in a stall to a boa constrictor who rather ingeniously managed to both pay for a magazine and then hold it open to read ; a dimetrodon hastened by with his umbrella in his mouth ; and a hippogriff was engaged in selling lottery tickets behind a large model of a blobby pink figure with yellow spots .