76 SHAKESPEARE'S [CROCODILE. 



this proverb that is applied to women when they weep, 

 Lachrymte crocodili, the meaning whereof is, that as the 

 Crocodile when he crieth, goeth then about most to deceive, 

 so doth a woman most commonly when she weepeth. 



Master John Hawkins* " Second Voyage " 

 apud Hakluyt, p. 534 (ed. 1598). 



THE Crocodile is a great worm, abiding near the rivers 

 sides. The Crocodile of the earth is afraid of saffron, and 

 therefore the country-people, to defend their hives of bees 

 and honey from them, strew upon the places saffron. It 

 is doubtful whether it hath any place of excrement except 

 the mouth. They do not cast their skins as other serpents 

 do. After the egg is laid by the Crocodile, many times 

 there is a cruel stinging scorpion which cometh out thereof, 

 and woundeth the Crocodile that laid it. The Crocodile is a 

 fearful serpent, abhorring all manner of noise, especially from 

 the strained voice of a man. The Crocodile runneth away 

 from a man if he wink with his left eye, and look steadfastly 

 upon him with his right eye. Because he knoweth that 

 he is not able to overtake a man in his course or chase, 

 he taketh a great deal of water in his mouth, and casteth 

 it in the path-ways, so that when they endeavour to run 

 from the Crocodile, they fall down in the slippery path. 

 There is an amity and natural concord betwixt swine and 

 Crocodiles. If but a feather of the ibis come upon the 

 Crocodile by chance, or by direction of a man's hand, it 

 maketh it immoveable and cannot stir. There is a kind 

 of thorny wild bean growing in Egypt, this is a great 

 terror to the Crocodile, for he is in great dread of his eyes, 

 and therefore all the people bear them in their hands when 

 they travel. When they go to the land to forage and seek 

 after a prey, they cannot return back again, but by the 

 same footsteps of their own which they left imprinted in 

 the sand [and so they may be caught in a trench made in 

 their path]. The Indians have a kind of Crocodile in Ganges, 

 which hath a horn growing out of his nose like a rhinocerot. 

 The blood of a Crocodile is thought to cure the bitings of 

 any serpent. The skin both of the land and water Crocodile 

 dried into powder, and the same powder with vinegar or 

 oil laid upon a part or member of the body to be seared, 

 cut off, or lanced, taketh away all sense and feeling of pai 





