266 CROCODILES. 



" Quite recently a fine tall woman, knowing that the 

 principal victims of the carnivorous monster of the 

 Nile were women and children, thought probably to 

 awe him by her fine and imposing deportment. She 

 walked into the water up to her waist, and there, whilst 

 filling her leathern bottle with, the limpid water, she 

 was suddenly upset by a blow from the tail of a 

 crocodile and carried away immediately. 



" This event brought a great number of the curious 

 to the banks of the river, and some time afterwards 

 there was seen floating on the water a monstrous 

 crocodile, with a stomach so enormous as to prevent 

 it remaining constantly under the water. Then boats 

 were got together, and they attacked it. The* crocodile, 

 in that state, being anything but active, plunged, then 

 soon reappeared on the surface, and as the river was 

 now studded with boats, those who were within reach 

 planted their lances between the openings of his scaly 

 armour. He was soon killed, and they dragged him 

 ashore, and quickly opened 'him. The animal, by 

 means of his great mouth, which opened to the 

 shoulders, had swallowed his prey whole, and, added 

 the narrators, the victim of this monster had only a 

 few bruises her wounds were so trifling, that she 

 must have died of suffocation in the crocodile's belly. 

 They hoped even to see her come to life again. 

 With the exception of some of the details," adds 



