74 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



sun was setting, and as he paddled back Manap ex- 

 plained that a gorge-bait is necessary and a snap- 

 bait impossible ; even if, as sometimes happens, a 

 crocodile seizes the bait the moment that it is put 

 in the water it must be given time to swallow it, 

 for the hook will find no hold in the bony cartilage 

 of its mouth. What surprised me more than any- 

 thing was the smallness of the bait ; it seemed sur- 

 prising that any animal addicted to carrying off cattle 

 should deign to notice so insignificant a morsel as a 

 chicken. "They will eat anything," Manap said 

 " frogs or rats, if they can get nothing bigger." 



We were back at the lake a little after sunrise the 

 next morning, and as soon as we got near the place 

 where we had set the first line we saw that the bait 

 had disappeared. Manap's eyes glistened. He put 

 everything in order in the canoe, pushed the boat- 

 pole, his enormous knife, and compendious basket 

 into the bows of the canoe, and paddled gently towards 

 the spot. Suddenly his face fell. "Misbegotten 

 child of Satan ! " he muttered. Then he turned to me, 

 " See, it was not a crocodile, but a scoundrelly iguana 

 that has taken the bait. There is the rattan still 

 hanging on the bushes. A crocodile would have 

 swum away to its retreat with line and all before 

 it swallowed the bait." We paddled up and found 

 that the "scoundrelly iguana" had taken the bait 

 out of the water, dragged it a few yards on to the 

 land, and had then stripped the hook clear, leaving 

 nothing but the bare metal. There was nothing to 

 be done but to coil up the rattan and take it away. 

 Most loathsome animals are these iguanas, to call 



