78 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



running away and refusing to believe that he was not a 

 ghost ! 



Terrible as are the jaws of the crocodile, he does not 

 use them to mangle and tear in pieces live prey, but only 

 to hold it fast ; therefore the less the resistance offered 

 the less is the resulting injury from the teeth. I have 

 often found antelopes drowned under the river bank, 

 apparently quite uninjured, until examination brought to 

 light the tell-tale punctures about the nose. The wounds 

 made by a crocodile's teeth are not poisonous, and animals 

 which have been bitten and managed to get free soon 

 recover. 



A little boy, fetching water from a pool on the Sabi, 

 was seized and pulled in. The men of the village turned 

 out, and, wading waist deep in the water along the edge 

 of the bordering reeds, felt with their spears until the 

 body was discovered pushed into a crevice of the bank ; 

 it was very little bitten. In face of several persons 

 together, especially if they are making a noise, a crocodile 

 will usually, though not always, sheer off. 



The number of natives who, throughout Africa, 

 annually fall victims to these sinister brutes must be 

 enormous. Within even the small area which comes 

 within my own personal knowledge two or three cases 

 occurred every summer, before the majority of the big 

 crocodiles had been killed off by the rangers. There is a 

 drift on the Usutu River in Swaziland, which used to be 

 haunted by one or more very dangerous crocodiles. 

 During the late South African War a number of men 

 belonging to an irregular corps stationed in the vicinity 

 were accustomed to bathe at the spot, and one young 

 fellow was given to amuse himself when in the water by 

 alarming his companions with a sudden shout of " Look 

 out croc ! " One day this man was sitting on a rock, 



