84 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



long and limp beside the canoe. The tightly closed 

 mouth and the legs tied awkwardly over its back 

 made it look almost ridiculous. The fight was over. 

 I held the rattan - line, and Manap paddled the 

 canoe ashore. The crocodile did not make another 

 effort. A deep groan burst from its clenched mouth 

 twice or three times, and it allowed itself to be 

 towed alongside the canoe like a dead thing. When 

 we reached the edge of the lake Manap dragged it 

 ashore by the golf-links and killed it with a few 

 blows of a heavy wooden bar. It was between nine 

 and ten feet long, and the clear water of the lake 

 had given it a most beautiful bright yellow colour. 

 The girth of its body and its weight showed that 

 it had been feeding well, and as it had taken to 

 attacking cattle it was time that it was caught. 

 A man seized by it would have had no possible 

 chance of escape. 



Such was the taking of the first crocodile that 

 Manap and I caught together. Though we often 

 set baits for the other two crocodiles that were said 

 to inhabit the lake, we never caught them. But in 

 the old mine-holes round Taiping I caught many 

 afterwards, sometimes with Manap and sometimes 

 without him. The second time that I went out I 

 took the cord myself to tie up the crocodile's mouth. 

 It was one of the most exciting moments I have ever 

 experienced. As in other hazardous enterprises that 

 require some nerve, such as playing with poisonous 

 snakes or making parachute descents, what one most 

 needs in the first essay is the confidence that can 

 only come from practice. 



