CHAP. XIV THE CROCODILE 277 



interest are the crocodiles, and the same feeling was roused in 

 me by Bird Thompson's thrilling stories. He had seen a good 

 deal of these reptiles during his journeys on the Tana, which he 

 described as simply paved with them. I had been taught in 

 England to regard crocodiles as harmless bogies. In some 

 places this estimate is no doubt true, but in others, facts are 

 not in accord with it. In the Tana the crocodiles are of great 

 size, and are certainly not to be despised. In some parts of 

 the Ozi, if I leant my arm on the side of the canoe, the 

 Pokomo canoe men left off paddling, declaring that a crocodile 

 would seize me and capsize the canoe. That this was no idle 

 fancy of the natives I learnt afterwards from Thompson. He 

 was once coming down the Tana with a Pokomo boy, whom he 

 had adopted, when a crocodile suddenly caught hold of the 

 boy and dragged him overboard. The whole thing was over 

 in an instant. No one saw the crocodile until its snout 

 suddenly jerked out of the water, and at once the crocodile 

 had disappeared and the boy was gone. There was a ripple 

 on the water, but neither boy nor beast was ever seen again. 

 During the ascent of the Tana by the stern-wheel steamer 

 Kenia in 1891, Thompson had many unpleasant experiences of 

 crocodiles. Several times when porters were going to the 

 river for water, one was seized by the leg and dragged into the 

 river. 



The Tana Wa-pokomo regard the crocodiles as their most 

 deadly foe, and strive to wage a war of extermination against 

 them. To encourage this, no man is allowed to marry until 

 he has killed a crocodile. The animals are surprised when 

 asleep on the bank, and killed with spears ; but the work is 

 rather dangerous, and inexperienced men are frequently knocked 

 over by a blow from the reptile's tail, and dragged into the river. 

 On land crocodiles are generally timid ; they lie close beside the 

 water and slip into it at the slightest suspicion of danger ; but 

 when hungry they are more daring, and a child, asleep in the 

 verandah of the mission station of Jilore, was recently carried 

 away by one. In the water they are very courageous. I was 

 once fishing in the river at Ngatana, from a bank about six feet 

 above it, when the chief came and warned me not to sit so near 

 the water, as a crocodile might knock me into it by a blow with 

 its tail. From politeness I moved a yard away from the edge 



