CROCODILE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 75 



sore. The Crocodile is right nesh and full tender in the 

 womb, and for that cause he is soon overcome of such 

 fishes, which have sharp pricks and crests growing on their 

 backs on high. This grim and most horrible beast followeth 

 and pursueth them that fly, and is dreadful to them ; and 

 he fleeth serpents, and hath dim eyes while he is in the 

 water, and seeth too sharply when he is out of water. 

 And he waxeth more all the time that he is alive. If the 

 Crocodile findeth a man by the brim of the water, or by 

 the cliff, he slayeth him if he may, and then he weepeth upon 

 him, and swalloweth him at the last. And of his dirt is 

 made an ointment, and with that ointment women anoint 

 their own faces. And so old women and rivelled [wrinkled] 

 seem young wenches for a time. And the Crocodile eateth 

 gladly good herbs and grass, among whom lurketh a little 

 serpent, and is enemy to the Crocodile, and hideth him privily 

 in the grass, and wrappeth himself therein, and so while 

 the Crocodile eateth grass, he swalloweth this serpent, and 

 this serpent entereth into his womb, and allto [quite] rendeth 

 his guts, and slayeth him, and cometh out harmless. The same 

 worm lieth in await on the Crocodile when he sleepeth, 

 and then wrappeth himself in fen [i.e. mud], and entereth 

 in between his teeth, and cometh into his body. The 

 Crocodile lieth in await on certain small birds that breed 

 among the grass of the River Nile, the which birds fly 

 into the womb of the Crocodile for heat of the sun, and 

 eateth the worms of his womb ; and so that fierce beast 

 is cleansed and purified of worms. And so dwelleth in 

 land by day, and in water by night ; for the water is 

 hotter by night than by day, for the water holdeth the 

 sunbeams, and be moved, and so the water is hot. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet}, bk. xviii. 33. 



OF late years, there hath been brought into England the 

 cases or skins of such Crocodiles, to be seen, and much 

 money given for the sight thereof, the policy of strangers ; 

 laugh at our folly, either that we are too wealthy, or else 

 that we know not how to bestow our money. 



Batman's addition to Bartholomew, bk. xviii. 33. 



His nature is ever when he would have his prey to cry 

 and sob like a Christian body, to provoke them to come to 

 him, and then he snatcheth at them ; and thereupon came 



