276 CROCODILES. 



have yet to learn what is meant by pinching the 

 stomach. 



There was at Pompeii, in the Temple of Isis, a paint- 

 ing showing an analogous scene to this which is every 

 day enacted on the banks of the San Domingo. Chil- 

 dren are there represented playing with crocodiles. 

 Doubtless it was wished to symbolize the confidence 

 felt in these animals, which, being the objects of 

 worship, found a table always ready served for them 

 in the temples. Imperial Rome saw crocodiles led 

 within its walls by inhabitants of Tentyre (modern 

 Denderah), playing innocently with their guardians. 



In some of the primitive countries visited by Cook, 

 tame crocodiles lived in the family with their savage 

 masters. M. de la Borde reported to Lacepede that, at 

 Cayenne, the caymans, fed from the superabundance of 

 a good kitchen, carried their love of peace to such an 

 extent as to leave in safety the turtles placed in the 

 basin where they took their sports. It is said that, at 

 Boutan, in the Moluccas (Spice Islands), they are used 

 as domestic animals and fattened for the table, and 

 that in proportion as they become plump, they become 

 as inoffensive as poodles. At Seba, on the slave coast 

 of Africa, the king of the place keeps in his gardens 

 two tanks filled, not as they are in the basins of the 

 Tuileries, with gold fish, but with crocodiles, which 

 is not so vulgar. 



