CROCODILE CATCHING. 77 



bait gone. Eattan-line and all had disappeared, and 

 there was no doubt that it was a crocodile this 

 time. We carefully examined a deep pool that lay 

 close by, and then a second pool, and afterwards a 

 third inner pool from which the others led, and here 

 we found the piece of wood on which the bait had 

 floated. There were marks of crocodile's teeth on 

 it. At the farthest end of the pool we saw the 

 end of the rattan -line floating on the water, and 

 knew that the crocodile was at the other end of 

 it. Decks were cleared for action: Manap was of 

 course barefooted, and I took off my shoes and 

 stockings so that my bare feet might have as good 

 a hold as possible on the smooth bottom of the 

 dug-out. Everything was pushed up into the bows 

 except the barbed spear which was to play an im- 

 portant part in the proceedings. This spear was 

 made on the same principle as a harpoon: a rope 

 is attached to an iron spear -head, into a socket of 

 which a shaft loosely fits ; as soon as a blow has 

 been driven home with the spear the shaft detaches 

 from the head, and the stricken animal is held by 

 the rope and the barb. 



I stood up in the middle of the canoe, and the 

 spear with its coil of rope lay at my feet. Manap 

 sat in the stern paddling gently. As we approached 

 the rattan-line glided away mysteriously. The croco- 

 dile had seen us coming, and, unconscious of the fatal 

 rattan that marked its course, had moved into deeper 

 water. I seized the line and pulled in the slack 

 rapidly; in an instant I felt the crocodile on the 

 line, and jerked the line hard so as to snap the 



