14 On fidmg on^lie Back of a Crocodile. 



agunt captivos, ac voce etiam sola territos, cogunt evomere 

 rec6ntia corpora ad sepulturam." * — Plifiii Hist. Nat., lib. viii. 

 cap. 25. 



In a rare and very singular book of field sports f , contain- 

 ing one hundred and one coloured plates, to which are ahnexed 

 four lines in Latin descriptive of each subject, tab. 88. repre- 

 sents, most probably from this account of Pliny, some men 

 riding on crocodiles, and bringing them to land by means of 

 a pole across their mouths, whilst others are killing the beasts 

 with large clubs. The foregoing sketch {Jig. 4^.) is a figure 

 taken from that plate, with the following verses : — 



" Tentyra in iEgypto, Nilum juxta, insula gentem , i 



Intrepidara gignit ; crocodili haec scandere dorsum . i' 



Audet : refrenat baculo os : discedere cogit 

 Ex amne in terram : mortem acceleratque nocenti." % 



Dr. Pococke, in his observations on Egypt, mentions a me- 

 thod of taking the crocodile still more like that which our 

 author practised in South America. He says, " they make 

 some animal cry at a distance from the river, and- when 

 the crocodile comes out, they thrust a spear into his body, to 

 which a rope is tied : they then let him go into the water to 

 spend himself, and afterwards drawing him out, run a pole 

 into his mouth, and, jumping on his back, tie his jaws together." 

 (vol. i. p. 203.) 



Now, Mr. Waterton and his Indians having secured a mon- 

 ster of the Essequibo, by a baited hook fastened to a long rope, 

 ''they pulled the cayman," as he describes (p. 231.), "within 

 two yards of me, I saw he was in a state of fear and perturba- 

 tion ; I instantly dropped the mast, sprung up, and jumped on 

 his back, turning half round as I vaulted, so that I gained my 

 seat with my face in a right position. I immediately seized his 



* " There is a race of men hostile to the crocodile, called Tentyritae, 

 from an island in the Nile itself, which they inhabit. Their stature is small, 

 but their courage in this practice is wonderful. This beast is terrible to 

 them that flee from him, but runs away from his pursuers, and these men 

 alone dare attack him. Moreover, they swim after him in the river, and 

 mounting on his back, like horsemen, as he opens his jaws to bite, with his 

 head turned up, they thrust a club into his mouth, and holding the ends of 

 it, one in the right hand, and the other in the left, they bring him to shore 

 captive as if with bridles, and so frightened with their shouts only, that they 

 compel him to disgorge the bodies he had but just swallowed, in order to 

 be buried." 



t It is entitled " Venationes ferarum, avium, piscium, Pugnae Bestiario- 

 rum, et mutuae Bestiarum, depictae a Joanne Stradano, editae per Nico- 

 laum Visscher, cum privilegio ordinum HoUandiae et West-Frisiae." 



X " Tentyra, an island of the Nile, in Egypt, is inhabited by an intrepid 

 people, who climb the crocodile's back, and, bridling his mouth with a staflfj 

 force him out of the river, and slay him." 



