196 An Attempt to ascertain the Animal 



having dragged him on shore, first of all fill his eyes with 

 mud, and, having done this, he is easily despatched." The 

 allusion, therefore, to the crocodile by Ezekiel, under the 

 word " than," is completed by this reference to this practice 

 of catching him by a hook in the jaws, and dragging him out 

 of the river. Already enough has been shown, I think, to 

 render it highly probable, if not certain, that the " than" of the 

 Scriptures, usually translated " dragon," should have been 

 translated "crocodile:" an animal which must have been 

 known well to the Hebrews, but which, as before remarked, 

 is nowhere mentioned in Scripture, except it be under this 

 word " than," or under those of the " leviathan" or " behe- 

 moth," which have, each of them, been by some authors sup- 

 posed to be the crocodile. 



It is on these two latter animals that I have chiefly intended 

 ,to address you in this paper, but I found it desirable first to 

 offer a few words on the " than ;" for, if the " than" be the 

 crocodile, then neither i( the behemoth" nor " the leviathan" 

 can be that animal ; and those who wish for further (and, I 

 may say, the most ample) proof that the " than" is the same 

 animal as the crocodile, I must refer to Mr. Hurdis's work, 

 which is so full and satisfactory, that I have not thought it 

 necessary to enter so deeply into this part of my subject as I 

 otherwise should have done, having only so far illustrated it 

 as may be necessary for rendering intelligible what I may 

 have to say on the leviathan and behemoth, to which subjects 

 I now hasten. I would, however, previously mention, as I 

 may have occasion to refer to them hereafter, other ways 

 used by the ancients for taking the crocodile. One is men- 

 tioned by Pliny, in his Natural History, lib. viii. cap. 25., which 

 may be translated thus : — " There is a race of men hostile 

 to the crocodile, called Tentyritae, from an island on the Nile 

 which they inhabit : their stature is small, but their courage 

 in this practice is wonderful. The crocodile is terrible to 

 them that Jlee from him, but runs sway from his pursuers; and 

 these men alone can attack him. They swim after him in 

 the river, and, mounted on his back like horsemen, as he 

 opens his mouth to bite with his head turned up, they thrust 

 a club across 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 with bridles." 



[Pliny's words, and also a translation of them, are given in 

 our II. 13, 14.; where, and in p. 15., notices of modes of 

 taking the crocodile are quoted from other classic authors, in 

 illustration of Mr. Waterton's account of his riding on the 

 back of a crocodile. That essay is illustrated by an en- 



