In some places it was treated with the most marked respect, and kept at a considerable expense; it was fed and attended with the most scrupulous care; geese, fish, and various meats were dressed purposely for it; they ornamented its head with ear-rings, and its feet with bracelets and necklaces of gold or artificial stones*; it was rendered perfectly tame by kind treatment; and after death the body was embalmed in a most sumptuous manner. This was particularly the case in the Theban, Ombite, and Arsinoïte nomes; and at a place now called Maabdeh, opposite the modern town of Manfaloot, are extensive grottoes, cut far into the limestone mountain, where numerous crocodile mummies have been found, perfectly preserved, and evidently embalmed with great care.

The people of Apollinopolis, Tentyris, Heracleopolis, and other places, on the contrary, held this animal in abhorrence, and lost no opportunity of destroying it; and the Tentyrites were so expert, from long habit, in catching, and even in engaging, this powerful animal in its native element, that they were known to follow it into the Nile, and bring it by force to the shore. Pliny and other ancient authors mention the wonderful feats performed by them not only in their own country, but in the presence of the Roman people: and Strabot says that on the occasion of some crocodiles being exhibited at Rome, the Tentyrites who had followed them, fully confirmed the truth of the report of their power over those animals; for, having put

*Herod. ii. 69.

+ Strabo, xvii. p. 560., ed. Cas.

them into a spacious tank of water, with a shelving bank artificially constructed at one side, the men boldly entered the water, and entangling them in a net, dragged them to the bank, and back again into the water, in the presence of numerous spectators.

Pliny observes, "that though the Tentyrites are small men, they have the greatest presence of mind in their encounters with the crocodile, which is an animal most dangerous to those who fear it, but timid when pursued. They even dare to follow it singly, and swimming after it in the river spring upon its back, and thrust a bar into its open mouth, which, being held at the two extremities, serves as a bit, and enables them to force it to the shore." Pliny even goes so far as to state that, frightening them with the voice alone, they compelled them to render the bodies they had devoured to the (disappointed) embalmers * ; but as crocodiles show themselves much greater epicures in their mode of eating, and tear their food to pieces before they swallow it, we may take the liberty of suggesting the probability that, in these cases, the animal abandoned the body on their approach: its usual habit being to bring it to the shore, and there to tear it up, the clothes having been stripped off while in the water.

Senecat accounts for the power possessed by the Tentyrites over the crocodile from their intrepidity, and in accordance with Pliny, and with modern experience, he states it to be "timid before the

*Plin. (viii. 25.) "Voce etiam solâ territos, cogunt evomere recentia corpora ad sepulturam," and xxviii. 3.

bold, and most ready to attack those who fear it : the Tentyrites excelling neither in their nature nor constitution, but in their fearless contempt of it; for they follow, and by means of a snare, stop it in its flight; nor are any killed except those who are wanting in presence of mind."

"The crocodile is in fact," as I have elsewhere remarked, "a timid animal, flying on the approach of man, and generally speaking, only venturing to attack its prey on a sudden; for which reason we seldom or never hear of persons devoured by it, unless incautiously standing at the bank of the river, where its approach is concealed by the water; and where, by the immense power of its tail, it is enabled to throw down and overcome the strongest man, who, being carried instantaneously to the bottom of the river, has neither the time nor the means to resist.

"Pliny, like other authors †, has been led into a common error, that the sight of the crocodile is defective under water, which a moment's consideration, without the necessity of personal experience, should have corrected; for it is at least reasonable to suppose that an animal, living chiefly on fish, should, in order to secure its prey, be gifted with an equal power of sight; and that of fish cannot be considered defective: but Herodotus, the father of history, and of these errors, affirms that it is. totally blind under water.'

*Egypt and Thebes, p. 409.

† Aristot. Hist. An. ii. 10. They see imperfectly in the water." Herod. ii. 68.

Egypt produces two varieties of this animal *, distinguished by the number and position of the scales on the neck. One has the front row composed of six scales, behind which is a cluster of four large central scales in two lines, with two smaller ones on each side of the uppermost of these lines; the other has in the front row four only, and the disposition of the other eight is thus: four central scales in two lines, with one smaller one on each side of the upper line, and two behind the second and lower line. The first row of the body consists of six scales, the former variety having only four. The other scales of the body are nearly alike in both. They do not exceed eighteen or nineteen feet, though travellers have mentioned some of stupendous size."

Herodotus enters into a detail of the habits of the crocodile, and relates the frequently repeated story of the trochilus† entering the animal's mouth, during its sleep on the sand banks of the Nile, and relieving it of the leeches which adhere to its throat. The truth of this assertion is seriously impugned, when we recollect that leeches do not abound in the Nile; and the polite understanding supposed to exist, between the crocodile and the bird, becomes more improbable, when we examine the manner in which the throat of the animal is formed; for having no tongue, nature has given it the means of closing it entirely, except when in the

*Egypt and Thebes, p. 225. note. Conf. Plin. xxviii. 8. + Herod. ii. 68. Plin. viii. 25.

act of swallowing; and during sleep, the throat is constantly shut, though the mouth is open.

The hostile intrusion of the ichneumon, related by other writers*, is equally destitute of probability. That birds living on flies frequently flit about the crocodile, while lying on the sand, we can readily believe; and this circumstance as well as the presence of a small running bird (a species of charadrius t), which is often seen on the same bank, and which, loudly chirping on the approach of man, may be supposed to warn the crocodile of danger, very possibly led to the fable of those visits of the trochilus, and the friendly services it rendered the sleeping crocodile.

Its eggs, as Herodotus and Pliny observe, are small, considering the size which it afterwards attains, and are deposited by the female in the sand, or in the light loose earth of the river side; and its constant desire to enjoy the fresh air, during the summer, is shown by its lying for a length of time asleep on the sand banks, with its open mouth turned to the prevailing wind.

"They had many different modes of catching it," says Herodotus §; "that most worthy of notice is as follows:-They fasten a piece of pork to a hook, and throw it into the middle of the stream, as a bait; then, standing near the water's edge, they beat a young pig, and the crocodile, being enticed to the spot by its cries, finds the bait on its way, and swallowing it is caught by the hook. They *Plin. viii. 25. Called sicsac in Arabic. The name Trochilus signifies running. Herod. ii. 70.