294 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



to guard the nest against all possible enemies. Of 

 these the worst is he who ought to give her most 

 assistance : the male crocodile not only does not 

 help her in collecting the grass and making the two 

 wallows, but if not repelled by her will destroy the 

 nest and eat the eggs. A tiger, too, loves crocodiles' 

 eggs as he does turtles' eggs, and against him also 

 the mother crocodile has continually to be on her 

 guard. She sometimes will even face a man, barking 

 and showing her teeth at him like a savage dog. 1 

 She allows the sun to hatch out the eggs, as the 

 Chinese do with ducks' eggs. Ah, she is very 

 clever ! as the Malays say, she has ' a long mind ' ; 

 for should the day be cloudy and the sun's power 

 be weak, she removes the covering of grass from the 

 eggs, and at night-time, or when the rain falls, she 

 replaces it. And if it is a hot day, not only are 

 the eggs covered, but with her tail she sprinkles 

 water from the wallows over the eggs. Yes, truly, 

 she has a very 'long mind.' And the reason that 

 she makes her wallows to eastward and to westward 

 of the nest is in order that she may be able to inter- 

 pose her body, if the day should be too hot, between 

 the nest and the rays of the morning sun and of the 

 afternoon sun. No, I myself have not seen all this, 

 but I have seen many nests with their wallows, and 

 what I have said as to the rest is what men who 

 know about these things have told to me. And they 



1 Is it not possible that the Dragon killed by St George was a 

 crocodile that was thus defending her nest ? Marco Polo gives an 

 excellent account of the crocodiles of Southern China, and calls 

 them dracones. 



