CROCODILE CATCHING. 67 



twenty inches long, and carefully thumbed the blade. 

 " And the Tuan wants to know not only how to catch 

 crocodiles but learn the charms and lore in connection 

 with it ? Well, whatever it be that one intends to 

 learn, one must start from the beginning. The boys 

 at school begin with Alif, the first letter of the 

 alphabet, and to catch crocodiles one must know 

 the beginning of crocodiles. The first crocodile had 

 its origin in the following manner. Siti Fatimah 

 was the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and 

 Petri Padang Gerinsing was the name of her nurse. 

 One day the nurse took the sheath of a betel-nut palm- 

 leaf, and on it moulded some clay into the shape of 

 what is now a crocodile ; and the palm-leaf sheath 

 formed the belly of the animal. Of the joints of some 

 sugar-cane she made its ribs. On its head she placed 

 a pointed stone, and bits of turmeric formed its eyes ; 

 its tail was a leaf of the betel-nut palm. She then 

 tried to give life to it, but at once it fell to pieces. 

 Twice this happened, but the third time she prayed 

 to the Almighty God for life for it, and at once the 

 animal breathed and moved. For many years it was 

 the plaything of the prophet's daughter, but at last, 

 with increasing size, it became disobedient, and, Petri 

 Padang Gerinsing being by this time old and feeble, 

 Siti Fatimah cursed the animal, saying, ' Thou shalt 

 become the crocodile of the sea, nothing that thou 

 shalt eat shall have taste for thee, and pleasure and 

 desire shall not be known to thee.' She forthwith 

 drew out all its teeth and pulled the tonsils from its 

 mouth, and then to close its mouth drove nails through 

 from the upper to the lower jaw and from the lower 



