68 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



to the upper jaw. The crocodile was allowed to 

 escape, but soon found a way to open its jaws, and 

 the nails driven in by Siti Fatimah have become the 

 teeth that it now has." 



Manap knew the folk-story off by heart, and prob- 

 ably repeated it in the identical words in which he 

 had first heard it. 



" Now," he continued, " we must remember this : 

 the eyes of the first crocodile were made of turmeric, 

 and to this day a crocodile cannot struggle success- 

 fully against a man who knows the properties of 

 turmeric. A piece of it rubbed on the line weakens 

 the crocodile's resistance, and if we sprinkle the boat 

 with water in which it has been soaked the crocodile 

 will not attack it. Turmeric, if rubbed on a crocodile's 

 head, when the proper charms are repeated, will 

 quickly kill it." 



"And this is the way to bait the hooks." 



From the coil of rattans he produced one about 

 twenty yards long ; a piece of stout native-made rope 

 about three yards long was attached to one end of it, 

 and at the end of the rope was a hook. The fine 

 strands of which the rope was composed were separate 

 from one another, and when the hook was taken by a 

 crocodile they would slip into the interstices of its teeth 

 and afford nothing on to which the animal could bite. 



The hook was some seven inches long, and three 

 and a half inches across from point to shank. It was 

 of native-wrought iron, and half-way up the shank on 

 the side towards the point of the hook was a loop. 

 The rope was attached to the hook at this loop ; that 

 is to say, it was attached to the hook half-way up the 



