ANIMISTIC BELIEFS 69 



the river or while floating quietly at evening time 

 in a small canoe. When this happens, it is believed 

 either that the person taken has in some way 

 offended or injured one or all of the crocodiles, or 

 that he has been taken by a stranger crocodile that 

 has come from a distant part of the river, and there- 

 fore did not share in the friendly understanding 

 usually subsisting between the people and the local 

 crocodiles. But in any case it is considered that the 

 crocodiles have committed an unjustifiable aggression 

 and have set up a blood -feud which can only be 

 abolished by the slaying of one or more of the 

 aggressors. Now it is the habit of the crocodile to 

 hold the body of his victim for several days before 

 devouring it, and to drag it for this purpose into 

 some muddy creek opening into the main river. A 

 party is therefore organised to search all the neigh- 

 bouring creeks, and the first measure taken is to 

 prevent the guilty crocodile escaping to some other 

 part of the river. To achieve this they take long 

 poles, frayed with many cuts, and set them up on 

 the river-bank at some distance above and below 

 the scene of the crime and at the mouths of all the 

 neighbouring creeks and streamlets ; and they kill 

 fowls and pray that the guilty crocodile may be 

 prevented from passing the spots thus marked. 

 They then search the creeks, and if they find the 

 criminal with the body of his victim they kill him, 

 and the feud is at an end. But, if they fail to find 

 him thys, they go out on the part of the river 

 included between their charmed poles, and, with 

 their spears tied to long poles, prod all the bed of 

 this part of the river, and thus generally succeed in 

 killing one or more crocodiles. They then usually 

 search its entrails for the bones and hair of the 

 victim so as to make sure that they have caught 

 the offending beast. But, even if they do not 

 obtain conclusive evidence of this kind, they seem 



