knew where the crocodile lurked. He got an ugly 

 bite from one old dog-otter which I shot in shallow 

 water ; and, mortally wounded as he was, the otter put 

 up a rare good fight before Jock finally hauled him out. 



Then there were the cane-rats, considered by some 

 most excellent and delicate of meats, as big and tender 

 as small sucking-pigs. The cane-rat, living and dead, 

 was one of the stock surprises, and the subject of jokes 

 and tricks upon the unsuspecting : there seems to be 

 no sort of ground for associating the extraordinary 

 fat thing, gliding among the reeds or swimming silently 

 under the banks, with either its live capacity of rat or 

 its more attractive dead role of roast sucking-pig. 



The hardened ones enjoyed setting this treat before 

 the hungry and unsuspecting, and, after a hearty 

 meal, announcing " That was roast rat : good, isn't 

 it ? " The memory of one experience gives me water 

 in the gills now ! It was unpleasant, but not equal 

 to the nausea and upheaval which supervened when, 

 after a very savoury stew of delicate white meat, we 

 were shown the fresh skin of a monkey hanging from 

 the end of the buck-rails, with the head drooping 

 forward, eyes closed, arms dangling lifeless, and limp 

 open hands a ghastly caricature of some hanged 

 human, shrivelled and shrunk within its clothes of 

 skin. I felt like a cannibal. 



The water tortoises in the silent pools, grotesque 

 muddy fellows, were full of interest to the quiet 

 watcher, and better that way than as the " turtle 

 soup " which once or twice we ventured on and tried 

 to think was good ! 



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