2bO TRAVELS IK UPPER 



the Nile niuks llie foremost, prevent its multiplica- 

 tion by devouring its eggs, and the young ones as 

 soon as they were hatched. Seven young crocodiles, 

 hatched two days before, were brought to me at 

 Kous; they were eleven inches long, and their teeth 

 were already very sharp. The Egyptian who took 

 them informed me that there were about fifty of 

 them together, but that it was impossible for him 

 to seize them all, because the mother had arrived 

 unexpectedly, and was eager to fly upon him. 

 Th( ?e reptiles, already so formidable from their hi- 

 deous form and their voracity, are still more so from 

 their immense length. I saw at the convent of 

 Neguade the skin of a crocodile thiity feet long and 

 four broad. 1 have been assured that some have 

 been found in the Nile even fifty feet la length. 



I have also seen at Neguade the skin, badly pre- 

 served, of another species of lizard, which in that 

 country is called ouaral'^. It was two feet long, 

 but tlicre are some larger. It is entirely a land ani- 

 mal ; it never goes into the water. Many^fabu- 

 lous stories are told about it, in vv^hich, perhaps, 

 may be included the expedient it makes use of, ac- 

 cording to the report of Sicard, to draw the milk 

 from sheep and goats, of which it is excessively 



* The marbled Lacepcdes, Natural History of oviparous 

 Qiiadrupeds. — Lacerta Nilotica. Hasselqnitz, Itin. page 3*1. 

 Forskal, Fauna iEgyptiaco- Arab, page 13. Lin. Syst. of Nature. 



fond ; 



