40 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



have been found with ornaments of children and females 

 inside them. 



I remember when I was magistrate of Muttra being 

 told of a rather remarkable instance that had occurred 

 there some few years previously. An alligator had 

 established himself in the river not far from the chief 

 bathing-places. He was an enormous brute of the 

 short-nosed variety. He was believed to have carried 

 off several of the bathers, chiefly women. He estab- 

 lished quite a terror. At length he was captured and 

 dragged ashore, killed, and then cut open. I was told 

 that an immense number of women's ornaments and 

 fragments of dresses were found within him. 



But sometimes when bathers disappear the alligators 

 are unjustly accused, as the following story will show. 

 The incidents occurred also at Muttra, but before my 

 time. They were thus related to me, and I entertain 

 no doubt of their general correctness : — 



Several women had disappeared suddenly when bath- 

 ing. Each gave a shriek and vanished under the surface. 

 It was supposed at first that they had been seized and 

 dragged below by the alligators, but presently sus- 

 picions were excited. It came to be noticed that all 

 the women who disappeared were well-to-do, and at the 

 time of their disappearance they were wearing valuable 

 ornaments. Before long the suspicions became certain- 

 ties. The body of one of the women was found floating 

 in the river. It bore no mark of injury from any 

 alligator, but her ornaments were gone, and there were 

 rents and gashes in the flesh where they had been torn 

 or cut off. 



