304 LEAVES FROM THE 



islanders be the only men that dare eneountre him in front. Over 

 and besides, they will take the river, and swim after them ; nay, 

 they will mount upon their backs, and set them like horsemen : 

 and as they turn their heads, with their mouths wide open to bite 

 or devour them, they will thrust a club or great cudgell into it 

 crosse overthwart, and so holding hard with both hands each end 

 thereof, the one with the right, and the other with the left, and 

 ruling them perforce (as it were) with a bit and bridle, bring them 

 to land, like prisoners ; when they have them there, they will so 

 fright them only with their words and speech, that they compel 

 them to cast up and vomit those bodies againe to be enterred, 

 which they had swallowed but newly before. And therefore it is, 

 that this is the only isle which the crocodiles will not swim to : 

 for the very smell and sent of these Tentyrites is able to drive 

 them away, like as the Pselli, with their savour, put serpents to 

 flight. By report this beast seeth but badly in the water : but be 

 they once without, they are most quick-sighted. All the four 

 wdnter months they live in a cave and eat nothing at all. Some 

 are of opinion that this creature alone groweth all his life : and 

 surely a great time he liveth.* 



To say notliing of more ordinary methods of capture, 

 if a crocodile was only touched with the feather of an 

 ibis it instantly became motionless; and there was 

 another mode, if old chroniclers are to be believed, not 

 unworthy of note. It was thought a bitter and bright, 

 as well as a novel idea, when some ill-conditioned scape- 

 grace sent a looking-glass to an importunate Gorgon, who 

 was qualified for admission into the Ugly Club — if any 

 woman ever Avas ugly, which we with all gallantry and 

 humility doubt — in the hope that the first look at herself 

 would be fatal. But here, again, we have the old adage, 

 Pereant qui ante nos, &c. — ' There is nothing new,' &c., 

 forced upon us. The sure way to settle a crocodile, ac- 

 cording to ancient practice, was to confront him with a 

 mirror, when he incontinently died of fright at his own 

 deformity. 



Crocodile tears' have become a proverb somewhat 



* Pliny. 



