AMUSING ANECDOTE 357 



having devoured a woman ; and about thirty years ago, the 

 inhabitants of one of the Feejee Islands were equally astonished 

 and alarmed at seeing a large crocodile emerge from the lagune, 

 and lazily creep on shore. At first they took it for some marine 

 deity ; but it soon proved that its visit was not of a beneficent 

 nature, as it seized and devoured nine of them at various intervals. 

 After many unavailing attempts to destroy the monster, it was 

 at length caught with a sling passed over the bough of a large 

 tree, the other end of the rope being held at a distance by 

 fourteen men who lay concealed, while one of the party offered 

 himself as a bait to entice the reptile to run into the snare. 

 Captain P^itzroy (" Voyage of the Beagle "), who relates the fact, 

 supposes that the animal must have been drifted by the currents 

 all the way from the East Indies — a voyage which, in fact, is 

 not more surprising than to see a turtle land upon the 

 shores of the North Sea, or a sperm whale flounder about in the 

 Thames. 



Like many other of the lower animals, the crocodile, when 

 surprised, endeavom-s to save himself by feigning death. Sir 

 Emerson Tennent relates an amusing anecdote of one that 

 was found sleeping several hundred yards from the w^ater. 

 " The terror of the poor wretch was extreme when he awoke and 

 found himself discovered and completely surrounded. He was a 

 hideous creature, upwards of ten feet long and evidently of prodi- 

 gious strength, had he been in a condition to exert it; but con- 

 sternation completely paralysed him. He started to his feet, 

 and turned round in a circle, hissing and clacking his bony jaws, 

 with his ugly green eye intently fixed upon us. On being struck, 

 he lay perfectly quiet and apparently dead. Presently he looked 

 round cunningly, and made a rush towards the water ; but on a 

 second blow he lay again motionless, and feigning death. We 

 tried to rouse him, but without effect ; pulled his tail, slapped 

 his back, struck his hard scales, and teased him in every way, 

 but all in vain : nothing would induce him to move, till, 

 accidentally, my son, a boy of twelve years old, tickled him 

 gently under the arm, and in an instant he drew it close to his 

 side, and turned to avoid a repetition of the experiment. Again 

 he was touched under the other arm, and the same emotion was 

 exhibited, the great monster twisting about like an infant to 

 avoid being tickled." 



