LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



101 



All Europe would crowd to behold the incarna- 

 tion of the Cyclops. 



But my pen is running away with me as usual, 

 and must be brought back to these well-fed and 

 well-appointed crocodiles, which were looked up 

 to with some faith as oracles of divination. If the 

 crocodile spontaneously took the cake, or other 

 food offered, it was a good omen ; but if the 

 offering was unheeded or rejected, the worst 

 might be expected. There was a dark story that 

 the priests concluded, from such a rejection, that 

 Ptolemy's death was near. 



Geoffroy seemed to think that the Suchos was a 

 mild and inoffensive species, whose more gentle 

 nature led the Egyptians to deify and tame it ; but, 

 to say nothing of the fugitive characters relied on 

 by him as constituting specific difference charac- 

 ters which can hardly be viewed as indicating 

 more than variety it seems that the three croco- 

 dile mummies, so far from being specimens of 

 Geoffrey's Suchos, are identical with his Margina- 

 tus lacunnsus and complanatus* Souc or Souchis, 

 according to M. Champollion, indicates the Egyp- 

 tian name of Saturn ; and Suchos was, in all 

 probability, the proper name of the individual that 

 Strabo saw at Arsinoe. Thus Apis was the 

 sacred bull of Memphis ; that of Heliopolis was 

 Mnevis. 



But, however this may be, there can be no 

 doubt that the animal was tamed by the ancients ; 

 and as little that proper treatment meets with the 

 same success now. Plutarch relates how the 

 crocodile can be made obedient to the human voice 

 and hand, opening its mouth and suffering its 

 teeth to be cleaned with a towel. 



Crocodiles, says Herodotus,f are sacred with 

 some of the Egyptians ; but not so with others, 

 who treat them as enemies. Those who dwell 

 about Thebes and the lake Mceris look on them as 

 very sacred ; and they each train up a crocodile, 

 which is rendered quite tame. Into the ears of 

 these crocodiles they put crystal and gold ear- 

 rings, and adorn their fore-paws with bracelets. 

 They give them appointed and sacred food, treat- 

 ing them as well as possible while alive, and 

 when dead they embalm and bury them in the 

 sacred vaults. But the people who dwell about 

 the city Elephantine eat them, not considering 

 them sacred. They are not called crocodiles by 

 the Egyptians, but champse. The name of croco- 

 diles was given to them by the lonians because 

 they thought they resembled lizards,! which are 

 found in the hedges in their country. But as the 

 crocodile, in a state of nature, was not very likely 



* Geoffroy founded his C. complanatus on mummies 

 which MM. Dumeril and Bibron assert are clearly speci- 

 mens of Crocodilus vulgaris. 



t Eut. 69. 



t Koozodetloi. InKircher's Egyptian dictionary, Pi- 

 souchi is made but upon no sound foundation the 

 Coptic name for a crocodile. Emsah, or hamsa, is stated 

 by the safest authorities to be the Coptic word from 

 which, with the feminine article prefixed, has come the 

 Arabic word limsati, now current on the banks of the 

 Nile. Herodotus, who was evidently aware of this name, 

 gives it under the form of xapya, (champsa.) 



to find any careful attendant ready to rub his teeth 

 with a napkin, Nature, it seems, has sent him aa 

 animated feathered tooth-pick. 



The following, says the Halicarnassian, is the 

 nature of the crocodile : During the four coldest 

 months it does not eat ; though it has four feet, it 

 is amphibious. It lays its eggs on land, and 

 hatches them there. The greater part of the day 

 is spent on the dry ground, but the whole night 

 in the river, for in the night time the water is 

 warmer than the air and the dew. Of all living 

 things of which we know, this grows to be the 

 longest from the smallest beginning. It lays 

 eggs little larger than those of a goose, and 

 the young at first is suitable in size to the egg ; 

 but when grown, it reaches to the length of 

 seventeen cubits and more. It has the eyes of a 

 pig, and the teeth and projecting tusks are large 

 in proportion to the body. It is the only animal 

 that has no tongue ; it does not move the lower 

 jaw, but is the only animal that brings down its 

 upper jaw to the under one. It is furnished with 

 strong claws, and a skin covered with scales net 

 to be broken on the back.* 



With the exception of the very pardonable mis- 

 take generally current with the ancients, in conse- 

 quence of their being deceived by appearances, 

 about the absence of the tongue and the want of 

 motion in the lower jaw, the description above 

 given may pass very creditably ; but then comes 

 a statement, for which we have. heard Herodotus 

 branded as a most daring fabulist. 



It is blind in the water, continues the historian, 

 but very quick-sighted on land ; and because it 

 lives for the most part in the water its mouth is 

 filled with leeches. All other birds and beasts 

 avoid him, but he is at peace with the trochilus, 

 because he receives benefit from that bird. For 

 when the crocodile gets out of the water on land 

 and then opens its jaws, which it does most com- 

 monly towards the west, the trochilus enters its 

 mouth and swallows the leeches ; the crocodile is 

 so well pleased with this service that it never 

 hurts the trochilus. f 



Upon this foundation succeeding writers have 

 raised their fantastic structures, and we proceed 

 to give one or two modes of telling the same 

 story : 



All the day time the crocodile keepeth upon the 

 land, but he passeth the night in the water ; and in 

 good regard of the season he doth the one and the 

 other. When he hath filled his belly with fishes, 

 he lieth to sleep upon the sands in the shore ; and 

 for that he is a great and greedie devourer, some- 

 what of the meat sticketh evermore between his 

 teeth. In regard whereof cometh the wren, a lit- 

 tle bird called there trochilos, and the king of birds 

 in Italy ; and shee for her victuals' sake, hoppeth 

 first about his mouth, falleth to pecking or picking 

 it with her little neb or bill, and so forward to the 

 teeth, which he cleanseth, and all to make him 

 gap. Then getteth shee within his mouth, which 

 he openeth the wider, by reason that he taketh so 

 great delight in this her scraping and scouring of 



* Eut. 68. 



t Ibid., Gary. 



