146 THE AET OF TRAININa ANIMALS. 



ti'ies. Several individual cases are on record giving details of 

 the taming process. Mr. Laing saw at the house of the king of 

 the Soulimas — a negro race occupying the country near the 

 river Joliba, on the coast of Sierra Leone — a tamed crocodile as 

 gentle as a dog j but this animal was confined a prisoner in a 

 pond in the palace. The Scheik of Suakem — a seaport in Nu- 

 bia, on the west coast of the Eed Sea — having caught a young 

 crocodile, tamed it, and kept it in a pond near the sea. The 

 animal grew very large, but did not lose his docility. The 

 prince placed himself upon the animal's back, and was carried a 

 distance of more than three hundred steps. In the island of 

 Sumatra, in the year 1823, an immense crocodile established 

 himself at the mouth of the Beanjang ; he had chased away all 

 the other crocodiles and devoured all of them who ventured to 

 return. The inhabitants rendered him divine homage, and re- 

 spectfully supplied him with food. " Pass," said they to the 

 English missionaries who relate the fact, and who were afraid 

 to approach the formidable creature ; " pass on, our god is mer- 

 ciful." In fact he peacefully regarded the Europeans and their 

 boat, without giving any signs either of anger, fear, or a deske 

 to attack them. 



The foilowmg account is given of a tame crocodile, in a 

 private letter, quoted in a review of the Erpetologie Generale, 

 and affords corroborative proof of the foregoing statements. 

 The writer, having ridden a considerable distance to a village 

 about eight niiles from Kurachee, in Scinde, and feeling thirsty, 

 went to a pool to procure some water. " When I got to the 

 edge," says he, " the guide who was with me pointed out some- 

 thing in the water, which I had myself taken to be the stump 

 of a tree ; and although I had my glasses on, I looked at it for 

 some time before I found that I was standing within three feet 

 of an immense alligator. I then perceived that the swamp was 

 crowded with them, although they were all lying in the mud so 

 perfectly motionless that a hundred people might have passed 

 without observing them. The guide l^ghed at the start I 

 gave, and told me that they were quite harmless, having been 

 tamed by a saint, a man of great piety, whose tomb was to be 

 seen on a hill close by ; and that they continued to obey the 

 orders of a number of fakirs, who lived around the tomb. I pro- 

 ceeded to th^ village immediately, and got some of the fakirs to 

 come down to the water with a sheep. One of them then went 

 close to the water with a long stick, with which he struck the 

 ground, and called to the alligators, which immediately came 

 crawling out of the water, great and small together, and lay 

 down on the bank all around him. The sheep was then killed 



